Lady Shirl's descendants may be factors in Breeders' Cup turf contests

Shkspeare Shaliyah capturing the Pilgrim-G3
Photo: Adam Coglianese, NYRA

The influence of top turf mare Lady Shirl, a tough competitor who notched 18 races, including the 1991 running of the mile-and-a-quarter Flower Bowl at Belmont, will be felt again this weekend when three of her descendants contest the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and the Filly and Mare Turf over the Churchill Downs’ Matt Winn course.

Lady Shirl is the dam of up-and-coming young sire, Shakespeare, a Grade I winning son of Theatrical (Ire) whose first foals raced this year.  Shakespeare won seven of his eight lifetime starts from three to six, including the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at 12 furlongs, in which he defeated eventual Champion Turf Horse English Channel, and the Woodbine Mile, in which he bested the ill-fated ace turf miler Kip Deville.

Shakespeare’s son, Shkspeare Shaliyah, is by far the most accomplished member of the stallion’s initial crop to-date, having won or placed in two of his three starts—all on turf-- including the mile-and-a-sixteenth Pilgrim-G3 over soft going at Belmont.  In light of the fact that Shakespeare never even raced at two, Shkspeare Shaliyah’s precocity is a promising sign of good things to come, and he could certainly grab a share of the purse in the Juvenile Turf.

And so could outlier Fantastic Song, a son of high-class grass sire Lemon Drop Kid out of Lady Shirl’s daughter Fantastic Shirl (by Fantastic Light), who won the grassy De La Rose at Saratoga.   A morning line longshot at odds of 20-1, Fantastic Song hasn’t been an object of Breeders’ Cup buzz, but perhaps that’s an oversight.  He won his first start in dramatic rallying fashion, capturing a photo finish over future Bourbon-G3 winner Animal Spirits at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf, and was only a length shy of Shkspeare Shaliyah in the Pilgrim.

Fantastic Song is one of three talented Breeders' Cup turf juveniles by Champion Older Male Lemon Drop Kid, who never even raced on the sod.  The others are Juvenile Fillies' Turf runners Somali Lemonade (out of Chic Corine, by Nureyev) and Customer Base (out of Little Cat Feet, by Tale of the Cat), who will be making her first start on the grass.

Perfect Shirl winning the Lake George-G2 at Saratoga
Photo: Adam Coglianese, NYRA

Lady Shirl’s daughter, Perfect Shirl by Champion Turf Horse Perfect Soul (Ire) will go postward in today’s mile-and-three-eighths Filly and Mare Turf over what looks to be a yielding course.  Though winless in 2011, the late-running four-year-old bay filly has placed in four of her six starts this year, but is unproven at this distance and on less-than-firm turf.  Her main claim to fame was as the heroine of last year’s Lake George-G2 at Saratoga at a mile and a sixteenth, in which she “closed in relentlessly during the run through the furlong grounds.”  She seems to have taken on a large task in this race, but could get up to get a piece of it.