Starship Jubilee

Blue Heaven Farm had every intention of selling Pyrenees (Into Mischief). As a boutique, family-run breeding program, selling foals is what pays the bills. They had a number in mind for what they thought the colt was worth, but after he RNA'd for $350,000 as a weanling and again for $380,000 as a 2-year-old, they had to make a decision. Should they keep him to race themselves or cut their losses and sell him? Retaining a filly was one thing, but they had raced a few homebred colts in the...

Eclipse and Sovereign Award winner Channel Maker (English Channel), who now resides at Old Friends Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky, is among the Thoroughbred inductees to the Class of 2024, the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame said in a release late Wednesday. Across six categories--Male and Female Horse, Builder, Jockey, Trainer and Veteran--a 20-person election committee voted on the list of finalists. Channel Maker was a stalwart multiple grade I stakes winner who amassed almost $4 million in earnings over 56 career races--46 of which were graded North American ones....

Starship Jubilee (Indy Wind), a three-time Sovereign Award winner and Canada's Horse of the Year in 2019, was named Florida-bred Horse of the Year by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association. She also took home honors ad the Florida-bred champion older female and champion turf female for the third time in four years. Owned by Adam Corndorf and Bonnie Baskin's Blue Heaven Farm and trained by Kevin Attard, Starship Jubilee won her first four starts as a 7-year-old, taking the GIII Suwannee River S., the GII Hillsborough S. and...

Thoughts I had while perusing the pre-entries for what promises to be a terrific Breeders' Cup? What are the chances that Swiss Skydiver is named Horse of the Year? It now appears almost certain that Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) will go in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff instead of the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. "At this point we are going in the Distaff unless there is a late defection from the Classic," trainer Ken McPeek told reporters Saturday morning. The Classic field is loaded, so running Swiss Skydiver in the Distaff,...

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more successful claim in the past decade than Blue Heaven Farm's Starship Jubilee (Indy Wind). Plucked for $16,000 from Jorge Navarro of all people in February of 2017 at Gulfstream, the now 7-year-old mare has taken trainer Kevin Attard on the ride of a lifetime, and scored her greatest triumph yet with a victory in Saturday's GI Woodbine Mile S., becoming a multimillionaire in the process. Wednesday, Attard joined the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the...

Coming off a win in the Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' GI Woodbine Mile S. with 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year Starship Jubilee, trainer Kevin Attard joins the TDN Writers' Room to discuss the filly claimed three years ago who is now a multi-millionaire.

The next chapter in the scandal that has rocked Thoroughbred racing played out last week when Scott Robinson and Sarah Izhaki both pled guilty to charges relating to the sale and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs used to dope race horses. It was an important development, but the bigger story is this: will it lead to a new and extensive list of indictments against trainers and others who so far have not been charged? That possibility certainly exists. For now, everything is speculation and the Department of Justice has not said...

Starship Jubilee (Indy Wind) bested the boys and earned a spot in the gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile with a victory in the GI Ricoh Woodbine Mile Saturday. Settling in fourth off the rail as Admiralty Pier (English Channel) clocked an opening quarter in :23.66, pilot Justin Stein checked Starship Jubilee for a stride, but they maintained their position with War of Will (War Front) running in tandem with her through a :46.14 half-mile. Shadowing the 2019 GI Preakness S. hero's advance towards the front approaching the far...

The list of horses that have won the GI Diana S. on multiple occasions reads like a veritable horse racing Hall of Fame: Miss Grillo, Tempted, Shuvee, Glowing Honor and Forever Together have all accomplished the feat. Peter Brant's Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) can ascend to the top of that classy heap as she goes for the three-peat Sunday afternoon at Saratoga, but a fait accompli is most certainly is not. The 2018 champion turf female made best use of her superior turn of foot to easily defeat her stablemate...

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...

What Starship Jubilee (Indy Wind) may have 'lacked' in class entering a clash with champion Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) in Saturday's GII Ballston Spa S. at Saratoga was potentially mitigated by the fact that she was always going to hold a tactical advantage--positionally--given the likely shape of the race. When the dust had settled after 8 1/2 furlongs, the blue-collar Florida-bred took full advantage to cause a minor upset, as Sistercharlie could only finish a one-paced third. While Thais (Fr) (Rio de la Plata) parlayed pacemaker duties--bar the GI Breeders'...

Trainer Chad Brown has won the last three runnings of the GII Ballston Spa S. and five of the last eight and he's likely to add to those totals when he sends out champion Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) Saturday afternoon at Saratoga. Never worse than fourth in her 15 career appearances, the Peter Brant colorbearer defeated her favored stablemate Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) in defense of her title in the GI Diana S. about this time last year and became the first in history to win the GI Beverly...