Shirl's Speight Sires First Foal, a Filly Born at Crupper Bloodstock

Darby Dan Farm's Shirl's Speight, a Grade 1 winner by Speightstown out of Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Perfect Shirl, sired his first reported foal when a filly out of the multiple stakes-placed During mare Ultimate Class was born at Crupper Bloodstock in Paris, Kentucky, on Feb. 9.

Megan Morrison of Crupper Bloodstock, who oversaw the birth, did not hold back in her assessment. "I was very pleased with this filly from the moment she stood," Morrison said. "Even in a newborn, it was obvious she had a great angle to her shoulder and a deep heart girth."

The filly's dam amassed earnings of $283,253 during her racing career and has also produced multiple graded stakes-placed Bad Beat Brian, who has banked $865,158. The filly is the 10th foal out of Ultimate Class, whose produce record shows five winners from eight foals to race, a rate that gives Crupper Bloodstock every reason to be optimistic about this latest arrival. The Paulick Report featured the filly as part of its Darby Dan Farm Foal Watch gallery on March 23, alongside first reported foals by fellow newcomers Blazing Sevens and Gufo.

The new filly comes from a female family that Charles Fipke has spent decades building into one of the most accomplished in North American breeding. Fipke purchased Shirl's Speight's second dam, Grade 1 winner Lady Shirl, for $485,000 at the 2005 Keeneland November sale, then bred Lady Shirl to his homebred Sadler's Wells stallion Perfect Soul (IRE) to produce Perfect Shirl, winner of the 2011 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Perfect Shirl earned more than $1.3 million during her accomplished racing career. The family page also features multiple Canadian champion Lady Speightspeare, Grade 1 winners Lady Shirl and Shakespeare, Grade 2 winner Lady Shakespeare, and Grade 3 winners Ready for the Lady and Mona Rose.

The globetrotting Shirl's Speight, a homebred for Fipke, was versatile and accomplished on all three surfaces, registering his biggest victory in the 2022 Maker's Mark Mile (G1) at Keeneland and earning a career-high 104 Beyer Speed Figure. He ranked among the top milers that season when also second by less than a length to champion Modern Games (GB) in the Breeders' Cup Mile. All told in an outstanding racing career that saw him compete in Grade 1 races in Japan, Dubai, Canada, and the U.S., Shirl's Speight hit the board in 10 of 25 appearances and banked $1,497,245.

His stakes wins included the 2022 Maker's Mark Mile (G1), the 2022 Tampa Bay Stakes (G3), and the 2020 Marine Stakes (G3). He also earned graded black-type on dirt when third in the Salvator Mile (G3) at Monmouth Park. That kind of versatility, spread across turf, dirt, and Tapeta, is exactly what breeders paying a $5,000 stud fee are hoping passes to the next generation.

One of only a handful of North American breeders who race homebreds exclusively, Fipke has cultivated a family through the decades that now has its first test case on the ground in Paris, Kentucky. Whether the filly out of Ultimate Class eventually justifies the pedigree page her connections are so proud of will take years to answer, but Morrison's early assessment of her shoulder and heart girth suggests the physical foundation is already there.