Canada's champ, Starship Jubilee, defeats Call Me Love in Ballston Spa; comebacking Sistercharlie third

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The jockey of the winner was upset and the trainer of the beaten heavy favorite was pleased. Yes, the Grade 2, $200,000 Ballston Spa Stakes at Saratoga was strange indeed.

Starship Jubilee held off Call Me Love by a neck to win the Ballston Spa, while 2-5 favorite Sistercharlie had to settle for third in her 6-year-old debut.

After the race, Javier Castellano, the jockey of Starship Jubilee, said he was in pain after banging his right foot on the stall door. He was upset with the assistant starters, feeling things were rushed after his horse was the last one loaded into the gate.

“When they rushed the horse to load, they put [her] right away to the door, I told them I’m not ready and the horse broke sideways,” Castellano said. “My foot hit the door, it was painful every single step of the race.”

Castellano said the pain made him grab Starship Jubilee early in the race and she was tossing her head about. Down the backside, he got her to settle into third position, 13 lengths off the pacesetting North Broadway, in as a rabbit for uncoupled entrymate Sistercharlie.

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Entering the far turn, Castellano asked Starship Jubilee to go and she made a decisive move going around Call Me Love, who was second, and North Broadway, who began to fade. Call Me Love, under Joel Rosario, began to move when Starship Jubilee came up alongside of her and those ran together, though a few paths apart, down the stretch with Starship Jubilee getting her neck on the wire.

“With the pain, I tried to rate the horse and I think I grabbed too much,” Castellano said. “The horse looked keen, she wasn’t. The combination of the pain and trying to rate the horse it was the wrong combination in the first quarter. Finally, I decided to be a little more patient and let the horse relax and the way it developed was phenomenal. I like the way she did it and am very lucky to beat one of the best horses in the country in Sistercharlie. I think it was the right time and right place to beat her.”

Starship Jubilee, a 7-year-old daughter of Indy Wind, is Canada’s reigning Horse of the Year. She won for the fourth time in as many starts this year and now has 18 career victories in 36 starts. Kevin Attard, who trains Starship Jubilee for Blue Heaven Farm, watched the race from Woodbine.

“Midway around the turn when I saw the two of them gearing up and I saw [Velazquez] start to ask Sistercharlie and she didn’t take off and make that explosive turn of foot, I thought if we can stay ahead of her we might be able to win this,” Attard said. “Straightening up for home you could tell the favorite wasn’t running its race. It looked like my mare was going to kick on, [Call Me Love] kept digging in, digging in and it was a good fight to the finish.”

Attard credited trainer Shug McGaughey and his crew for overseeing Starship Jubilee for him when he sent her down from Canada earlier in the week. Attard said “everything’s on the table” for Starship Jubilee, including a return to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Diana on Aug. 23.

Sistercharlie, the winner of the last two runnings of the Diana and the female turf champion of 2018, hadn’t run since finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf last November at Santa Anita. She was 14 1/2 lengths out of it after a half-mile and made a mild rally under John Velazquez but did not threaten the top pair.

“I knew it was going to be a challenge coming in, I’m very pleased with her effort, she ran really good, she galloped out great, Johnny was really happy with her,” said Chad Brown, who trains Sistercharlie. “She lost quite a bit of ground on the final turn; off a layoff, you’re going to feel it.

“But the two horses that finished ahead of her they sprinted home ahead of her and they ran fine races. Third best today but I’m really looking forward to getting her out to a mile and an eighth in the Diana next time. I’m only disappointed in the result, I’m not disappointed in the filly.”