Lady Speightspeare, Crystal Cliffs Dead-Heat in Nassau
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Photo: Michael Burns
Lady Speightspeare (inside) and Crystal Cliffs finish together at the wire in the Nassau Stakes
Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield won his 2,000th career race July 2 when Lady Speightspeare dead-heated with Crystal Cliffs in the CA$176,550 Nassau Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine.
Bred and owned by Charles Fipke with Emma-Jayne Wilson in the irons, Lady Speightspeare assumed early command in the one-mile race, as Dreaming of Drew forced the issue from the outside.
Taking the 11-horse field through an opening quarter in :23.26, Lady Speightspeare, a 4-year-old daughter of Speightstown , was running comfortably on the front end, as Rafael Hernandez, aboard Crystal Cliffs, settled his charge into fifth spot.
Still calling the shots after a half-mile in :45.85, Lady Speightspeare was under siege around the turn for home while Our Flash Drive and Plum Ali came calling. Hernandez rallied Crystal Cliffs to the outside and began to pick up ground on the lead trio.
It set the stage for a captivating tussle to the wire as Lady Speightspeare, who lost the lead to Our Flash Drive but fought back, and a hard-charging Crystal Cliffs gave the crowd a sensational show, tying for top honors. Our Flash Drive completed the trifecta behind a final time of 1:32.40 on a firm course.
Lady Speightspeare paid $3.80 while Crystal Cliffs returned $4.20. Win payoffs are reduced in races that end in a dead-heat for first.
Lady Shakespeare and Crystal Cliffs Nassau Stakes
"It's great, isn't it?" Attfield said of the accomplishment. "I've never really thought too much about it until just recently when there's been so much written about it. I don't know where it works out on the amount of runners I've had, but you know, lots of people have won 2,000 races, but most of them run a lot of horses too. So, I'm very proud of it. And you know, it's been a good travel.
"She's an interesting filly to train and she was unlucky this winter," Attfield said of Lady Speightspeare. "She had a lot of different things happen that people didn't really know about. And then Churchill was a disaster with that turf course. It's funny really because the jockey that rode her came back and said, you know, she wasn't having it with the turf course, the turf course was too loose, and then it turned out that it wasn't really ready to run, I guess.
"But anyway, all that said, I'm very proud of her and she trained well into this race and I'm delighted. I didn't think I got beaten to be honest with you when I was watching. I didn't know it was going to be a photo."
Wilson, the regular rider of the multiple graded stakes winner, who is now 5-1-2 from 10 career starts, was thrilled to deliver Attfield with his milestone moment.
"Leave it to Mr. Roger Attfield, dual Hall of Famer, to have his 2,000th victory have an epic story behind it," she said. "Roger, he's legendary, and you know this filly is pretty special. She tries her guts out all winter, to come back home, when I started walking to the walking ring underneath the willows at Woodbine, I said to Roger, 'She looks happy to be home.' And he said, 'Yes, she does.' She ran a gangbuster of a race. She fought tooth and nail when Patrick (Husbands, aboard Our Flash Drive) went by us on the outside, fought tooth and nail to get back in front of them, and then fought off a challenger to the best of her ability and still secure a win."
Roger Attfield celebrates his 2,000th career win
Lady Speightspere is out of the graded stakes-winning Theatrical mare Lady Shakespeare , another Fipke homebred and winner of the 2010 New York Stakes (G2T). The mare's four starters have all been winners, with Lady Speightspere her lone graded winner. Lady Shakespeare has a More Than Ready 2-year-old colt named Ready Shakespeare and an unnamed Bee Jersey yearling filly.
Hernandez, aboard Crystal Cliffs, a 5-year-old daughter of Canford Cliffs trained by Graham Motion, gave top marks for his mount's performance.
"When I saw Roger over there I said, 'I cannot let him go too easy, making the 2,000... I had to make it harder," he said with a grin. "So that's why we had to have the dead heat. It was good trip. It was a good pace up in front. Changing gears down the lane, she stuck every step, every step she did it better and better."
Owned by Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, and Wonder Stables, Crystal Cliffs now has a 4-3-2 record from nine starts, with earnings of $235,666. She was bred in France by M. L. Bloodstock Ltd out of the Lord of England mare Preciously , and made two starts in France in 2019 before she was imported to the United States.
Preciously's last reported foal was an Almanzor colt foaled 2020.