Starship Jubilee Draws Away in Canadian

TORONTO, ON – Blue Heaven Farm’s Starship Jubilee set a controlled pace before drawing away as easy as can be in the stretch to defend her title in Saturday’s $250,000 Canadian Stakes Presented by the Japan Racing Association (G2) at Woodbine.

Breaking alertly from post 6 under Luis Contreras as the 2/1 second choice, Starship Jubilee immediately took hold of the lead before the field exited the chute and joined the turf course. Dixie Moon gave closest chase while Starship Jubilee posted opening fractions of :24.64, :49.09, and 1:11.79.

Heading into the far turn still holding a slim lead, Starship Jubilee began slowly separating midway through before hitting the top of the stretch. Suddenly getting away from her foes as she straightened for home, Starship Jubilee continued posting faster splits with each pole before crossing in hand 4 1/4 lengths much the best. The Kevin Attard trainee completed the 1 1/8-mile event over the yielding outer turf course in a final time of 1:45.84.

“Kevin told me just to let her break and if they let me go to the lead easy enough, just go,” Contreras said. “This one, when she’s behind horses, it’s kind of tough to make her relax, but once she relaxes and comes from behind, she’s very aggressive at the end. But today, with the conditions of the race and the filly, Kevin brought her in here really, really sharp. It doesn’t matter where you put them when a horse is this great.”

Her Majesty, The Queen’s 3-year-old filly Magnetic Charm made a good showing in her North American debut, rallying from the rear to get second by a nose over the 6/5 favorite Competitionofideas. Just a neck behind her came Holy Helena, who lugged out in the stretch before finishing fourth. Dixie Moon, Giovanna Blues, and Touriga completed the order of finish.

Starship Jubilee’s win was her second of the year, having repeated in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January. The 6-year-old daughter of Indy Wind improved her record to 30-13-4-3 with $865,670 earned.

“She’s been consistent all year,” Attard said. “Today, there wasn’t any pace, and I figured if they were going to let us have the lead, we would take it. She came off a great race at Saratoga (when third in the Ballston Spa Stakes [G2]), I thought she ran really well. And she came back to work well in the interim. She put it all together.”

Starship Jubilee returned $6.40 to win, $3.70 to place, and $2.60 to show. Magnetic Charm brought back $5.30 to place and $3.50 to show, while Competitionofideas paid $2.30 to show.