By Jessica Martini
When Canadian trainer Kevin Attard and his father Tino claimed the 4-year-old Starship Jubilee (Indy Wind) in early 2017, they could hardly have foreseen the success that would follow. Three graded stakes wins and a Sovereign Award later, the mare will go through the ring as hip 206 through the Brookdale Sales consignment during Monday's first session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in Lexington.
“I was working with my father at the time at Gulfstream,” Kevin Attard recalled of his introduction to Starship Jubilee. “We were scouting for horses to bring back to Woodbine. Obviously, at that time, you're not thinking anything like she turned out to be. We were just looking for a horse that might do well up at Woodbine.”
Starship Jubilee had won three races in the claiming ranks in south Florida when the Attards claimed her for $16,000 out of a runner-up effort in February.
“She seemed like she wanted to stretch out and she had run some good races,” Attard said. “The times that they had run her a little further than five furlongs, I thought her races were pretty strong. She just looked like a good horse that still had a condition left at the time where you would think there were some opportunities to run back and maybe be competitive.”
The filly got off to a quick start for her new connections, winning three straight races at Gulfstream, but options were limited when the stable returned to Woodbine.
“By the time we got back to Woodbine, basically the only turf option at Woodbine at the time was a graded stakes,” Attard, who owns the mare with Soli Mehta, explained. “She was obviously fit and in racing condition and coming off three consecutive wins, so she was on a high in that sense. We figured, let's throw her in this race and see how she stacks up and we can adjust from there.”
In her first try against graded stakes company, Starship Jubilee scored a 10-1 upset in the GII Nassau S. She followed that win with a dead-heat victory in the GII Dance Smartly S. In 2018, Starship Jubilee added wins in the Sunshine Millions F/M Turf and in the GII Canadian S. She was most recently a close-up fourth after setting the pace in the Oct. 13 GI E.P. Taylor S.
“I think she's gotten better,” Attard said of the 5-year-old. “I think she is at the top of her game right now. She's coming off a hard-fought race where she finished fourth in the E. P. Taylor. She's not a big filly, but she has a ton of heart. She has been a real pleasure, almost a gift from God for us. She lays it down each and every time.”
Starship Jubilee proved she is ready for more racing with a four-furlong work in :47.20 (1/5) at Woodbine Tuesday.
“She breezed really well,” Attard said. “She is going to the sale as a racing or broodmare prospect, so she'll be nominated for a couple races in the near future. I think whoever buys her is going to have some options in terms of running her and possibly running her fairly quickly, as well. By the same token, we don't know what's going to happen at sale time. So, if for whatever reason, she isn't sold, then obviously there are a couple spots still left and it's not like we wanted to back off on her. I think she's getting better, so there was no reason to push forward.”
Starship Jubilee is out of the unraced Perfectly Wild (Forest Wildcat). Her second dam is Grade I winner Perfect Arc (Brown Arc) and her third dam is G1 Argentine 1000 Guineas winner Podeica (Arg) (Petronisi).
Attard admitted it was a tough decision to sell the mare who has given him so much.
“It's one of those bittersweet moments, really,” he said. “She's been so good and, for me especially as a trainer, those quality horses don't really come by me that often. So to see a horse of that caliber leave the barn is tough. But at the same time, I think she is at the top of her game and she can leave the sale and continue to race and perform well against top competition.”
Following the November sale, Attard faces a tough challenge as he heads back to Florida for the winter in search of his next star.
“Everybody wants you to find that next one, but it's not that easy to do,” he said with a laugh. “I wish that was the case. But the plan is to go back to Gulfstream and, if we can, find another one. That would be wonderful.”
The Keeneland November sale begins with a one-session Book 1 which starts at noon. Subsequent sessions begin at 10 a.m. and the auction continues through Nov. 16.
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