GREAT THEATRE

UPDATE - How good was the weekend for Canadian CHARLES FIPKE? The diamond miner had his 2yo TALE OF EKATI win the Grade 2 Futurity on Saturday (homebred by Tale of the Cat, bred in Kentucky) and his mare LADY SHIRL is the dam of SHAKESPEARE.
Fipke bought Lady Shirl for $485,000 - she's 20 years old but in foal to Perfect Soul....

(Photo from horseraces.net, Eclipse Award winner Cindy Pierson Dulay.

SHAKESPEARE motors up rail to win Woodbine Mile.

WOODBINE MILE DAY AT WOODBINE – 107 Beyer for Shakespeare

HIS KINGDOM FOR A HORSE – Fans bet $4 million

Good story yesterday – Frank Justice rarely races horses and when he does, they have not been stars.

Back 5 years ago he couldn’t get $100,000 for his Theatrical colt, bought him back and then sold half to his friend Bill Schettine.

Now SHAKESPEARE, already a Grade 1 winner, is likely going to be favoured for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, 2 years after an injury soon after a disastrous Breeders’ Cup run might have ended his career.

Not only is the 6yo horse is drop-dead gorgeous, he’s only been beaten once and he’s a superstar.

Jockey Garret Gomez on Shakespeare and Lady Shirl:

“He’s a big beautiful thing, when you walk up to him, your mouth drops, he’s solidly built. Then you look at his form and you know how talented he is.

(Lady Shirl) wasn’t very big and it’s amazing to see her throw some good horses. He makes two of her, she was very talented but just a little thing.”

Lady Shirl was a fan favourite too. She raced at Woodbine a few times and won the 1991 E.P. Taylor Stakes with Gomez as her rider.

She was sold in 2005 for $485,000 by Justice to Jack Werk, agent.

Other Mile notes –

GALANTAS ran a monstrous race – he fought Todd Kabel for quite a while, was terribly rank, and still battled on to be 3^rd..star in the making.

CANADIANS were a bust and SKY CONQUEROR is losing some of his lustre..

The fans at the walking ring and paddock were stacked up and most were in awe of the appearance of the field. Every horse was a picture of health and happiness.

JERRY BAILEY was a hit for the 4 days he was at Woodbine and other teletheatres. His DVD is popular and he had a lot of interesting insights in his speeches.

OTHER WEEKEND STUFF….

A Canadian won the CANADIAN (GRADE 2) – ESSENTIAL EDGE put up a 100 Beyer to win the 1 1/8 mile turf stakes. JONO JONES rode a masterful race on the Storm Cat filly who has always been very tricky to ride, rate and handicap for that matter! She was 9 to 1 yesterday.

Bill Mott may not train SHAKESPEARE anymore but maybe he has the next one in his barn…PRUSSIAN ran an 87 Beyer to win the Summer Stakes even though he was very eager in the early part, was locked in a pace duel and then had a tough 2yo to hold off named Briarwood Circle.

TRACK RECORDS tumbled on the very fast Polytrack, which was packed down S

aturday night after the races. EVA’S WORLD, a 2yo filly by Bernstein – Martial World, Gilded Time, is bred to be fast and won her 2^nd career start yesterday with an 83 Beyer, setting a track record for 5 furlongs – 57 1/5.

On Saturday, the allowance/high claiming filly ELKHART,a Penn.-bred, set the track record for 1 1/16 miles – 1:42 4/5 – good for an 88 Beyer.

The MARK CASSE winning parade continues. Saturday, Woodford’s TURF WAR won the Swynford with an 81 Beyer Figure. Undefeated

BEAR HOLIDAY was scratched.

The barn won the last race with 2^nd time starter STEWARD HILL, a Eugene Melnyk runner, 3yo by Mr. Greeley.

Casse has most of the nominees for the MAZARINE STAKES and figures to dominate the GREY STAKES too...

SIWA held off longshot GALIPETTE to win the LA PREVOYANTE STAKE.. ending a nice streak for YOU WILL LOVE ME. The Alydeed filly was ridden by Jones, who has been playing with his fellow riders’ heads with his speed style.

Sad news was reported to THOROUGHBLOG, not confirmed, by FURTHERMORE, an 8yo who won a nice allowance race earlier this year for Julia and Greg Samulak, apparently died following the 3^rd race.

Some readers may be interested to know that the BUFFALO STAKES at Assinib

oia Downs was won by EIGHT BY TEN, a 2yo by Calgary stallion TIGER TRAP (Kris S-Thega).

THE GREEN MONKEY - is wasn't all that bad I guess - 76 Beyer Figure and hard ridden all the way...go Monkey go!

(THE GREEN MONKEY, $16million baby, is 3rd in debut. Thanks to Vanessa Ng for the photo)

FROM DAILY RACING FORM

LADY SHIRL and local horseman Tim Drake

The return of Grade 1 winner Shakespeare to the races, in particular in Sunday’s $1 million Woodbine Mile, brings to mind to those of us who are old enough to remember his dam’s big win at Woodbine in 1991.

Lady Shirl led from start to finish winning the E.P. Taylor Stakes as the favourite for Noel Hickey’s Irish Acres Farm, which was essentially considered a local outfit since Hickey raced a stable of horses at Woodbine.

And Garret Gomez, who rode Lady Shirl that afternoon, will partner Shakespeare, the morning line favourite, in the Woodbine Mile.

Lady Shirl, a 4-year-old when she won the Taylor, also won the Flower Bowl Handicap and seven other stakes races. She won 16 races from 41 starts and over $950,000.

Bred in Illinois by Hickey, Lady Shirl is by the Hickey stallion That’s a Nice out of the Florida-bred mare Canonization.

After a slow start to her foal production career (she was bred to average sires such as Leo Castelli, Chimes Band and Victory Speech), Lady Shirl has started to produce runners more like herself.

Shakespeare, winner of the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in 2005, is just back from a long layoff due to a tendon injury but judging by his win at Saratoga in his return last month, the son of Theatrical seems to be just as good as he was two years ago.

While Shakespeare battles 13 rivals at Woodbine, his young half-sister Fantastic Shirl was expected to be a major player in Saturday’s Noble Damsel Stakes.

A daughter of Fantastic Light, Fantastic Shirl won the De La Rose Stakes last month for her first stakes score.

Lady Shirl has a 2-year-old by Smart Strike named by Mattieandmorgan and a yearling filly and full sister to Shakespeare.

While fans of Shakespeare are excited to see if the horse can come back to his Grade 1 form, Ontario horseman Tim Drake and his wife Suzanne have a bit more of an interest in the horse since they own a niece.

Deliverusfrom Evil, a 3-year-old filly by Apalachian Chief out of Host of Royalty, is getting set to make her debut at Woodbine in the coming weeks and with Shakespeare as a close relative, Drake has high hopes.

The filly’s dam, Host of Royalty, is a half-sister to Lady Shirl (by Native Royalty) who won her maiden at Greenwood in 2001 for trainer Sid Attard.

A Canadian-bred, Host of Royalty retired and joined the broodmare ranks of, coincidentally, Bill Sorokolit, who owns Woodbine Mile starter and champion Sky Conqueror.

When Sorokolit put the mare up for auction, Drake bought her and took her back to his 200-acre Silver Duck Farm in King City, Ontario.

“It was kind of by chance I bought Host of Royalty. She was boarded at my farm by Bill Sorokolit and he put her through the local mixed sale. I very was fond of her, so I bought her.”

The Drakes were in the news last week when their homebred filly Gadget Play won a maiden allowance race on turf at 50 to 1 to become the first winner for their stallion Piccilo Pete, a son of Piccolino.

“Things are going pretty good right now,” said Drake. “And I’ll be watching the Woodbine Mile closely, it’s exciting for us to have a filly related to the favourite.”

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