Horse race speeches, late unfortunately (12)
I believe the answer is:
steeplechase
'horse race' is the definition.
(steeplechase is a kind of horse race)
'speeches late unfortunately' is the wordplay.
'unfortunately' indicates anagramming the letters (a bad or unfortunate spelling).
'speeches'+'late'='speecheslate'
'speecheslate' is an anagram of 'STEEPLECHASE'.
(Other definitions for steeplechase that I've seen before include "Race over fences" , "Horse race with ditches and hedges" , "Running event over hurdles and water jumps" , "Type of horse race" , "run?" .)