She’s Done It Again: Third Straight Stakes for Cdn champ Starship Jubilee

Making her first start at Tampa Bay Downs, Canadian champion STARSHIP JUBILEE barged her way through mares to win the Grade 2 Hillsborough Stakes for a third straight stakes win as a seven-year-old mare in 2020.

It is easy to run out of superlatives for this medium-sized, bright bay gal who was once a $6,500 yearling purchase and later a $16,000 claiming by Tino and Kevin Attard from Toronto.

The Florida-bred with the modest pedigree, but incredible talent and heart, has a growing fan base and once again, social media in the horse racing world was jammed with congratulations for  her continued success.

The Hillsborough was not as easy a ride for Ms. Jubilee, the Champion Turf Mare in Canada in 2017 and 2018 (and probable winner for 2019 when Sovereigns are handed out April 16), who had to come from mid-pack in a crowd and fight off some solid grass mares in the stretch run.

She withstood a strong stretch challenge from Chad Brown-trained Beautiful Lover to post a 1 ¼-length victory in 1:47.83 for the mile-and-an-eighth. Kelsey’s Cross finished third and Magic Star was fourth in the 11-horse field.

The 7-year-old Starship Jubilee, owned by Bonnie Baskin’s  Blue Heaven Farm and trained by Kevin, improved to 17-for-35 lifetime. The $145,000 winner’s share of the purse raised her earnings to $1,498,667.
Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano was aboard for the victory. “She’s such a classy horse,” Castellano said. “This is the type of horse you can do whatever you want – you can dictate the pace or you can come from behind. I enjoyed the ride and I’m very fortunate to be part of it. It looks like she is getting better and better and better.”

Attard, the son of training legend Tino Attard, who was also here, agreed.

“She’s getting better with age, just like a fine wine, a woman coming into herself,” Kevin Attard said. “She’s 7 but she’s been healthy, and I think it’s great for the sport when you see an older horse like her staying around and running at a top level.

“She has a strong following; every time she wins I get messages from everywhere and it’s just nice to see people appreciate what she brings each time she runs. She’s been a real Cinderella story and has exceeded expectations, obviously.”