Starship Jubilee Hitting Her Best Stride at Age Seven

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–When it comes to the “what-if” questions, Blue Heaven Farm's 7-year-old champion mare Starship Jubilee (Indy Wind), who is headed to the GI Diana S. Sunday, is in a league of her own.

There are so many possibilities for the Florida-bred, who has won eight graded stakes, including the 2019 GI E.P. Taylor on her home track at Woodbine. For example:

– What if trainer Kevin Attard and his partner Soli Mehta had not won the three-way shake when they claimed the then-undistinguished 4-year-old for $16,000 in February 2017 at Gulfstream Park?

– What if she had not relished running in longer races, promptly blew through her conditions, forcing her new connections to take a shot in the GII Nassau at Woodbine, which she won easily?

– What if she had sold and not been an RNA at the 2018 Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale, which presented the opportunity for Blue Heaven to quickly acquire her in a private sale?

– What if Blue Heaven had followed through with its plan to breed her to Medaglia d'Oro and did not let her stay with Attard and continue racing in 2019 and again this season?

– What if her so-far perfect season in 2020 had not been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing her to miss running at Keeneland in April and in a couple of stakes at Woodbine?

– What if she had not run so well off a 4 1/2-month gap between starts to nip Call Me Love (GB) (Sea of Stars {GB}) and beat champion Sistercharlie (Myboycharlie {Ire}) in the GII Ballston Spa July 25 at Saratoga Race Course?

Should any of those what-ifs had different answers, Starship Jubilee might not be headed to the Diana. In the 1 1/8 miles Diana on the inner turf course she is likely to face the deep field that is expected to feature Sistercharlie and her Chad Brown stablemate Rushing Fall (More Than Ready), who finished 1-2 last year; Mean Mary (Scat Daddy), winner of four-straight, including three graded stakes; and Call Me Love (GB), who won two group races in Italy last year.

Attard had a couple of reasons to skip the 10-furlong GII Dance Smartly last weekend at Woodbine and ship Starship Jubilee back to Saratoga. He preferred four weeks between races and wanted to avoid the 10 furlongs. Though Starship Jubilee won the Dance Smartly in 2017 and was second to Holy Helena (Ghostzapper) last year, Attard said the distance is just a bit too far for his mare.

“I've always thought that a mile and quarter is pushing my filly,” he said. “To me, it's beyond her best. Rightfully so, she is a Grade I winner going a mile and a quarter. Everything has kind of got to go her way for her to do that.”

Attard breezed her again Sunday, Aug. 16–four furlongs on dirt in :47.80–and she will make the day-long trip from Toronto to Saratoga Friday.

Adam Corndorf, the vice-president and general manager of Blue Heaven, owned by his mother, Bonnie Baskin, said the Versailles, Ky. farm's old bay mare may be a candidate for the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

“Running in the Ballston Spa against Sistercharlie and the Clement horse (Call Me Love) gave us the confidence that we can compete at this level,” Corndorf said. “It seems like with some of these races you get four, or five, or six really good turf mares and duke it out and anything can happen.

“If she had gone to that race, ran hard but got beaten 15 lengths we probably would have said 'let's change course' and try to have a successful end of the year, but in a different route.' But she is showing us nothing but competitiveness and heart and ability. The Diana is going to be a brutal race, in terms of competition, but hopefully it gives us a little more confidence to keep going forward.”

As 2016 turned to 2017, Starship Jubilee had not shown the ability that has carried her to three-straight Sovereign Awards as Canada's older female turf champ and the 2019 Horse of the Year Award. She was a turf sprinter, languishing in claiming and optional claiming races at Gulfstream Park. Trainer Jorge Navarro claimed her for $16,000 Jan. 4 out of a 7 1/2-furlong race, a rare try around two turns. When Navarro ran her back, about five weeks later, Attard and Mehta claimed her out of a victory.

“We were in Florida that winter and we were just looking to bring some horses back to Woodbine,” Attard said. “We were just looking for a horse that would be competitive at Woodbine for what we took him for, or maybe a little higher. You're always hoping to improve with one.”

Attard said he thought Starship Jubilee might have been miscast running at shorter distances.

“We liked her form. I thought she could stretch out maybe,” he said. “She had been predominately running at five-eighths. I said, 'this filly seems like she's going to a appreciate a little more distance, so maybe there is a little more room for improvement.'”

It turned out that Attard really nailed that assessment. His father, Tino, put in the claim for the partners and she promptly reeled off three wins before being shipped to Canada. Since the Attards claimed her, she has always run at a mile or more, compiled a 15-4-3 record in 27 starts and earned a total of $1,558,117.

“We were lucky to win the shake that day and ever since that day what she has done is beyond comprehension, right?” Kevin Attard said. “You could never have dreamed it. You could never have imagined it. What can I say? It's just been a real Cinderella story in that sense. I feel very fortunate to be a big part of it.”

Starship Jubilee had a solid 2017 for the Attard and Mehta. With no conditions left, Attard tried her first at Woodbine in the GII Nassau. She won by 2 1/2 lengths, so they ran her back in the GII Dance Smartly and she ended up in a dead heat for the victory, her fifth-straight win for them. The highlight of her 2018 campaign was a win in the GII Canadian. She was caught near the wire and was a close fourth in the E.P. Taylor a few weeks before the Keeneland November Sale.

When bidding stopped at $425,000, short of her reserve price, Attard and Mehta figured they would take her back to Canada and run her again in 2019. But before their flight left Lexington, Ky. the next morning, they had completed a deal with Blue Heaven, a commercial farm that typically has a small racing stable of fillies.

Corndorf said Starship Jubilee was bought to be a member of the broodmare band at the farm. Blue Heaven currently is home to 15 broodmares and it typically sells about a dozen foals in weanling and yearling sales. Next month it will consign two Curlins in the Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase, a colt out of Grade I winner Mistical Plan (Game Plan) and a daughter of Grade III winner Our Khrysty (Newfoundland).

“Knowing how difficult racing is, we never like to get caught up in buying a mare with the expectation of her going and winning more races and building her broodmare resume,” Corndorf said. “The harsh reality is that, in my opinion, at least, a horse has probably already run its best race by the time you are buying them.”

With 11 wins and $566,458 in earnings on her page, the 5-year-old Starship Jubilee appealed to Blue Heaven as an interesting broodmare prospect.

“We also kind of have a soft spot for more lightly bred, but hard-knocking, hard-trying, talented mares,” Corndorf said. “We can't operate in the price point of mares that are good-looking, well-bred and graded-stakes winners. Those are the exceptional mares that don't quite fit our business model. We usually need to give on something and it frequently ends up being pedigree. We like mares that were good race horses and are good looking. We usually have to give a little on pedigree for them to fit into our price range. That was her. She was, I think, a little bit overlooked because she is by a Florida sire who has not done a whole lot as a stallion.

When Attard suggested that Starship Jubilee race a few more times before going to the breeding shed, Corndorf agreed.

“Kevin told me that he thought she was just getting good, which is rare for a horse of that age already,” Corndorf said. “We thought why not at least roll the dice for a couple of races and see what happens? We kept her here and kept here in training and then took her down to Florida. She ran in the Claiming Crown at Gulfstream in December 2018 and she did not run particularly well. It was very tempting at that point to kind of pull the plug on the racing and start her broodmare career, but Kevin and I talked about it a lot and wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. We decided to draw a line through that race and kept her going. She came back in the Sunshine millions about six weeks later and ran great. That gave us all of the data that we needed for me to listen to the trainer, which I always try to do, and she had a magnificent 2019 and an even better 2020 despite our plans being kind of jerked around a little bit with coronavirus.”

At some point, Starship Jubilee will be retired and probably will be bred to Medaglia d'Oro. For the time being, though, she will continue to conduct her business on the track. The Diana will be her 13th start for Blue Heaven, which has already gotten far more than it expected back in November 2018. She has won seven times, five in graded stakes, and earned just over $1 million in purses.

“I don't want to give anyone the impression that we saw something in her as a racehorse,” Corndorf said. “It was really more the hope that she could pass that on as a broodmare to her offspring. Never in our wildest dreams did we think that she could go on and provide (what she has earned). The money is one thing and the trophies, but it's–not to sound cheesy–just the incredible memories and experiences.

“I have a 99-year-old grandfather, who follows things closely. And I have a 5-year-old daughter. We have four generations of us who just love this horse like she is a member of the family. You cannot put a price on what she has given to us this last year and a half.”