Starship Jubilee upsets Sistercharlie in Ballston Spa

A veteran, award-winning mare hit the wire first Saturday in Saratoga’s Grade 2, $200,000 Ballston Spa. But it wasn’t Sistercharlie.

Starship Jubilee, a 7-year-old and the reigning Sovereign Award winner for Canadian Horse of the Year, scored a mild upset at 3-1 odds. She improved to 4-for-4 this season while Sistercharlie – the Eclipse Award 2018 Champion Turf Female – ran third in her 6-year-old debut.

The Ballston Spa marked Sistercharlie’s first start since finishing third last November at Santa Anita Park in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. The Chad Brown trainee entered Saturday 2-for-2 lifetime at Saratoga and garnered 2-5 favoritism.

Sistercharlie’s stablemate North Broadway broke to the lead in the Ballston Spa, a 1 1/16-mile turf trip that featured five older fillies and mares. The 26-1 longshot set fractions of :24.29 and :48.18 while opening a 10-length lead on the backstretch.

The trio of Call Me Love, Sistercharlie and Starship Jubilee caught up with North Broadway coming through the far turn. Of that group, Call Me Love and Starship Jubilee had the strongest turn of foot in the stretch and dueled for the win.

Jockey Javier Castellano and Starship Jubilee fought gamely to win by a neck over Call Me Love, stopping the clock in 1:41.76. Sistercharlie was a length behind the top two.

"We had to take on a No. 1 horse in the country like Sistercharlie," Castellano said. "I think it was the right time today and the right place to beat her, not to take anything from my horse. I'm very satisfied with the way she did it today."

Starship Jubilee returned $8.20 while improving her lifetime ledger to 36: 18-5-3. The Kevin Attard trainee also scored victories earlier this season in Gulfstream Park’s Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Stakes and Suwanee River Stakes (G3) and Tampa Bay Downs’ Hillsborough Stakes (G2).

Blue Heaven Farm campaigns the Florida-bred Starship Jubilee, who’s now earned over $1.5 million in her career.

"She's just a special horse," Attard said. "She's 7 and a lot of horses as they get older lose a step or two, but arguably, this horse has gotten better as she's gotten older. She has the will and desire to win and I'll probably never come across another horse as good as her."