Winning for the 19th time in 38 career starts and taking her second Grade 1 stakes for trainer Kevin Attard, Blue Heaven Farm’s 7-year-old mare Starship Jubilee proved too good for her seven male rivals, winning Saturday’s CAN$1-million Ricoh Woodbine Mile at Woodbine racetrack in Ontario, Canada.
Perfectly ridden by Justin Stein, the Florida-bred daughter of Indy Wind out of Perfectly Wild, by Forest Wildcat, came from just off the pace to win by one length, covering one mile on firm turf in 1:32.06 and running her final quarter mile in 22.62 seconds.
March to the Arch finished second, with his Mark Casse stablemate, 2-1 favorite War of Will, third. They were followed across the finish by a third Casse entry, Olympic Runner, then by Armistice Day, Admiralty Pier, Shirl’s Speight and Value Proposition in the field of eight.
Starship Jubilee, Canada’s reigning Horse of the Year and Sovereign Award-winning turf female the last three years, paid $13.50 as the fourth choice in the betting.
The Ricoh Woodbine Mile is a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In Challenge Series race for the Fanduel Breeders’ Cup Mile, to be run Nov. 7 at Keeneland. The win gives Starship Jubilee an automatic fees-paid berth in the race, along with $10,000 toward travel expenses.
Riding the mare for the first time, Stein – atop the Woodbine jockey standings in a tight race with Rafael Hernandez – allowed Starship Jubilee to settle just a few lengths off the pace set by Admiralty Pier through an opening quarter mile in :23.66 and a half in :46.14. Chad Brown-trained Value Proposition was lapped on Admiralty Pier, prompting the pace throughout.
With 3-year-old Shirl’s Speight to his inside and 2-1 favorite War of Will to his outside, Stein waited patiently for a seam to open at the top of the long Woodbine stretch after six furlongs in 1:09.12. He allowed Starship Jubilee to drift to the outside and the mare kicked into high gear, overtaking the front runners to win convincingly.
“Sitting inside the three-eighths pole, around the 5/16ths pole I had tons, and I waited for a chance to tip her out and ask her to run,” said Stein, when asked at which point in the race he thought he was going to win. “She’s so honest and wants to win more than anybody else out there. I watched her replays… she’s just gritty. She just waited for her cue and took off like a scalded cat. She was gone.”
Starship Jubilee gets a kiss from trainer Kevin Attard after the 7-year-old mare’s Woodbine Mile victory
Claimed by Kevin Attard’s father, Tino Attard, for just $16,000 from trainer Jorge Navarro at Gulfstream Park in February 2017 in her ninth start, Starship Jubilee won five consecutive races for her new connections, including the G2 Nassau Stakes at G2 Dance Smartly Stakes in 2017. Starship Jubilee added two stakes victories in 2018, including the G2 Canadian Stakes, and won three more in 2019, highlighted by her first G1 in the E.P. Taylor Stakes going 1 1/4 miles at Woodbine.
Starship Jubilee won her first four starts this year, including the G3 Suwannee River Stakes at Gulfstream Park, the G2 Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and the G2 Ballston Spa Stakes at Saratoga before finishing fourth behind Rushing Fall in the G1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 23 in her most recent start.
She won CAN$600,000 for the Woodbine Mile victory and has now surpassed $2 million in career earnings.
“Just an unbelievable feeling,” said an emotional Attard. “This mare doesn’t get the respect she deserves. She’s a winner of 18 or 19 races out of 38 starts, I was really disappointed to see her at 6-1 on the board … just kind of forgotten about. Time after time, she comes up and proves that she’s a top horse in North America.”
Attard was non-committal about Starship Jubilee’s next race.
“I’m just going to enjoy the moment right now, but it’s obviously a special feeling to know that this race has produced so many horses that have gone on to win the Breeders’ Cup,” said Attard. “So, I’m really ecstatic right now and that’s somewhere we’ve been aiming to go all year long. This is just one step closer.”
Jockeys riding in the Mile wore black arms bands in tribute of legendary jockey Pat Smullen. The Irish-born champion rider passed away from pancreatic cancer on September 15 at the age of 43.
The Grade 1 Ricoh Woodbine Mile, which was contested as the ninth race on Saturday’s program, generated a record handle of $3,098,339 for the race.
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