Starship Jubilee's flying under the radar with a 'will to win'

The stories have been told often enough that the names become familiar. Horses such as Seattle Slew and Maximum Security slipped through the cracks. They became champions.

But has there been a slower rising star in recent memory than Starship Jubilee?

Not so long ago she was claimed for $16,000. Not once but twice – and in just 39 days. But she has since won 10 turf stakes, including all three of her starts this year.

Oh, by the way, she is 7. At an age when so many stakes-winning female thoroughbreds are adding to the foal crop, this millionaire mare is writing what may be racing’s most under-appreciated success story in 2020.

“I couldn’t agree more,” said her trainer, Kevin Attard. “At the moment she’s one of the best fillies or mares in North America.”

Until two months ago Starship Jubilee had done most of her racing and had collected all her stakes victories at Gulfstream Park and at Woodbine, where she got her biggest score in last year’s E.P. Taylor Stakes (G1). But then Attard shipped her to Tampa Bay Downs in early March for the 1 1/8-mile Hillsborough Stakes (G2). Sent off as a 6-5 favorite, she stalked the early pace before taking the lead turning into the stretch on her way to a 1 1/4-length victory.

“This is the type of horse you can do whatever you want,” jockey Javier Castellano said that day. “You can dictate the pace, or you can come from behind. She’s such a classy horse. It looks like she is getting better and better and better.”

So much so that she might just finish her racing career come November in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Keeneland. Attard admitted that the thought has crossed his mind. But he also said that he is trying to balance the dream with a strong dose of reality.

“When they’re 7 years old, you’re never sure about them,” Attard said in a phone conversation from Woodbine, which is tentatively scheduled for a June 6 opening. “How much more have they got left in the tank, and how willing are they to continue to perform? But she just seems to be getting better as she gets older. How can you argue against keeping her going? She’s probably in the best form of her life.”

That is saying something considering Starship Jubilee has a pair of Sovereign Awards, winning division championships in Canada in 2017 and 2018. The first of those came the year that she was claimed twice in as many races, passing from her original trainer Steven Dwoskin through Jorge Navarro to the Attard family, scions in Canadian racing.

At the time she had only nine starts, each a south Florida sprint never worth more than $43,000. She collected three wins and $50,550 in purse money – and was in for progressively smaller tags five times.

That is when Attard arrived at Gulfstream Park with $16,000 and a plan.

“I was just looking for a horse to bring up to Woodbine and kind of have a little fun with,” he said. “She was always closing in her races. So I thought that by stretching her out a little bit she might appreciate that.”

Attard entered Starship Jubilee in a turf mile at Gulfstream Park. And then he did it again. And again. Then he took her to his native Canada and put her in a Grade 2 turf mile at Woodbine. And then he did it again. Out of those five races came five victories. He clearly found the formula for success, and Starship Jubilee found her niche.

“She went on a serious roll,” Attard said. “When we got to Woodbine we were out of options to run, and there was a graded stakes coming up. I told my partner at the time (Soli Mehta) who owned her with me that we should give her a shot. I was wondering what have we got to lose, right? Sure enough she steps up, and she wins.”

Despite finishing the year with three losses in races longer than a mile, Starship Jubilee was still voted Canada’s top turf female of 2017. From eight starts in 2018 she won only three times, but one of those was in the Canadian Stakes (G2), and that led her to repeat as female turf champion.

Flush with two years of success, Attard and Mehta took her to the sales ring at Keeneland, where bidding at the November 2018 sale failed to reach the $425,000 reserve. The following morning, she was sold to Bonnie Baskin and Adam Corndorf, who operate Blue Heaven Farm in Kentucky and who kept Starship Jubilee with Attard.

They have also kept her on the racetrack, in stakes company and, since the start of 2019, in the money. In her last 10 starts she has six wins, three seconds, one third and $932,209 of her nearly $1.5 million in purse earnings.

Not that a breeding career has been ignored.

“Before 2020 turned the corner we discussed that,” Attard said. “We just said we’ll take her to Gulfstream, run her in the Sunshine Millions and see how she does there. That would determine if we should breed her or not. But she won so convincingly, we said let’s give her another try. Sure enough she wins again.

"She hasn’t lost the will to win. As long as she continues to like what she does and she’s still competitive, then we’ll pursue racing her this year.”

The coronavirus pandemic has muddled plans for the rest of Starship Jubilee’s year. As it was, Attard had to sweat the new, red tape to get her and the rest of his horses over the border into Canada.

“She’s actually going to ship up to Woodbine next week,” Attard said. “We were refreshing her after her win in Tampa and gave her a little time off. She’s back into training now. We’ll try to get her back on the track up here and see where we are from there.”

Woodbine is certain to be in her future, and so might a Saratoga summer depending on how it takes shape. And yes, the Breeders’ Cup beckons, with the Filly & Mare Turf to be run over 9 1/2 furlongs at Keeneland.

“It’s in the back of our mind,” Attard said. “We thought maybe if things were going well and that if she would be on the little road that she’s been on, that’s something that we would look at.”

Not bad for a Florida-bred mare that once looked like she would carve out a forgettable sprint career while passing in and out of the claim box.

“The people who bought her bought her for a broodmare,” Attard said. “That was their long-term goal. But she’s paying off for their anteing up.”

Maybe overachievement was Starship Jubilee’s destiny. Being by Indy Wind out of a Forest Wildcat mare does not exactly leave bloodstock agents swooning. But on deeper examination, her great-grandsire was Seattle Slew. The same Seattle Slew that was sold for only $17,500 two years before he won the Triple Crown.

As Attard said, “She has been a real Cinderella of a horse.”

Ron Flatter has covered horse racing around the world for more than 30 years. Currently based in Nevada and working for the Vegas Stats & Information Network, he is host of the weekly Ron Flatter Racing Pod and on Twitter @ronflatter.