Ready For Shirl Gets Up in Time to Win Woodbine’s Canadian

[Wandering Eyes]

Charles Fipke's Ready for Shirl (More Than Ready) hadn't visited the winner's circle since January, however, she found the right time to mark her return, collecting her first taste of black-type in the process, in Sunday's GII Canadian Stakes at Woodbine.

Favored Gimme a Nother (SAf) (Gimmethegreenlight {Aus}) soon went to the front, slowing the pace to a modest :24.60 and :49.37 as Ready for Shirl set up shop about three lengths behind in the early stages of the nine-furlong test.

Continuing to dawdle along through three quarters in 1:14.24, Gimme a Nother cornered for home in front, and it looked like the South African Group 1 winner was going to add her first stateside win as well.

Given some solid encouragement down the long straight, Gimme a Nother remained tough, however, Ready for Shirl drew closer with each stride, catching the front runner in the final jump to eke out the win. Stakes winning and graded placed Venencia (Fr) (Recoletos {Fr}), who was camped out at the back early, also kicked on late to get up and grab third.

“She's been training exceptional,” said winning rider Emma-Jayne Wilson. “Her last breeze last week on the training track turf was quite stellar, both physically and mentally. And so, she kind of telegraphed to us that she was going to showcase a big day today, and she, she showed up exactly as we expected.”

A winner of two of six starts last term, the Fipke homebred kicked off 2025 with a score in an off-turf Gulfstream optional claimer in January before finishing seventh in the one-mile GIII Honey Fox Stakes over that turf course in March. A distant fourth in a main-track allowance at Keeneland in April, the bay was third in the GIII Belle Mahone Stakes over Woodbine's Tapeta surface before coming up just 3/4-of-a-length short of the win in the one-mile GII Nassau Stakes on the turf June 28.

“I remember saying her last work, it was as good as she's ever worked for me,” said dual Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield. “She's carrying more weight than she's ever carried before, and since her last race, she's put weight on. I've always had problems keeping weight on this filly, so she was indicating that she's rounding into a really nice filly now.”

 

Pedigree Note:
With Sunday's Canadian victory, Ready for Shirl gave her late sire his 109th career graded stakes scorer. The 4-year-old is out of GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf heroine Perfect Shirl, herself a daughter of Grade I winner Lady Shirl. Also a homebred for Fipke and trained by Attfield, Perfect Shirl is also responsible for GISW Shirl's Speight (Speightstown) and was most recently bred to Gun Runner. Perfect Shirl is a half-sister to Grade I winner Shakespeare (Theatrical {Ire}) and GSW Lady Shakespeare (Theatrical {Ire}), herself the dam of three-time Canadian champion Lady Speightspeare (Speightstown).

 

Sunday, Woodbine
CANADIAN S. PRESENTED BY THE JAPAN RACING ASSOCIATION-GII, C$200,000, Woodbine, 7-20, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8mT, 1:49.57, gd.
1–READY FOR SHIRL, 121, f, 4, by More Than Ready
1st Dam: Perfect Shirl (GISW-USA, GSP-Can, $1,390,729), by Perfect Soul (Ire)
              2nd Dam: Lady Shirl, by That's a Nice
              3rd Dam: Canonization, by Native Heritage
   1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O/B-Charles
Fipke (KY); T-Roger L. Attfield; J-Emma-Jayne Wilson.
C$120,000. Lifetime Record: 12-4-2-1, $279,987. *1/2 to
Shirl's Speight (Speightstown), GISW-USA, GSW & GISP-Can,
$1,497,245 and Speightstown Shirl (Speightstown), GSP,
$119,038. Werk Nick Rating: D+. Click for the eNicks report &
   5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-
   style pedigree.
2–Gimme a Nother (Saf), 124, m, 5, Gimmethegreenlight
(Aus)–Nother Russia (Saf), by Tiger Ridge. O-Newstead Stables
LLC; B-Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein (SAF); T-H. Graham
Motion. C$40,000.
3–Venencia (Fr), 121, m, 5, Recoletos (Fr)–Sign of Life, by
Lemon Drop Kid. O-Bradley Thoroughbreds, Laura Leigh Stable,
Jim Cone, Belmar Racing and Breeding, LLC, Team Hanley and
Cambron Equine, LLC; B-Patricia Laffon Lomba, Ines Laffon
Lomba & Fernando Laffon Lomba (FR); T-Chad C. Brown.
C$22,000.
Margins: HD, NK, 1. Odds: 6.25, 1.05, 3.85.
Also Ran: Scarlet Poppy (Ire), Crevalle d'Oro, Life's an Audible.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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