Starship Jubilee heavy favorite to three-peat in Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The most accomplished runner in the Sunshine Millions series Saturday isn’t entered in the marquee race, the Classic, but in one of the supporting events, the Filly and Mare Turf.

And that’s just fine with trainer Kevin Attard, who remains grateful that Starship Jubilee is still with him in Barn 21. As a Grade 1-winning earner of $1.17 million, the 7-year-old mare will help kick off the Gulfstream Park series when she is heavily favored to win the $150,000 Filly and Mare Turf for a third straight year.

“I’m happy she’s still around,” said Attard, who trains Starship Jubilee for the Blue Heaven Farm of Bonnie Baskin. “This race will determine whether she runs the rest of the year, but she’s training like she always has. We’re hoping she’ll win this race again and make it an easy decision.”

The Filly and Mare Turf is carded as the eighth of 12 Saturday races and is the first of four straight Sunshine Millions events ending with the $200,000 Classic (race 11). All four Florida-bred races are part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 7-12), which was expected to have a $3 million pool guarantee.

“She loves her job,” Attard said of Starship Jubilee, the 3-5 program favorite in a field of 11.

It’s easy to tell. She used her natural speed and uncommon grit to score back-to-back wins this fall in the Grade 2 Canadian and Grade 1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine. Starship Jubilee has amassed the bulk of her seven-figure bankroll since being claimed here for $16,000 nearly three years ago in the name of Kevin’s father, trainer Tino Attard.

Starship Jubliee will have Javier Castellano aboard when she breaks from post 7 in this 1 1/16-mile turf race. She will be making her first start since persevering to finish second as the 1-2 favorite in the Grade 3 Cardinal, run Nov. 28 over a very soggy Churchill Downs turf.

“Huge divots were flying everywhere,” Attard recalled. “You could tell from the first few steps how deep and soft the course was.”

Firm going is likely for Saturday, when bettors will pound down Starship Jubilee even lower than her even-money odds when she won this race in 2018 and her 11-10 odds last year.

The top candidate for an upset is Beautiful Lover (post 1, Irad Ortiz Jr.), a Chad Brown trainee facing older horses for the first time after going 3 for 5 last year at 3.

Sunshine Millions Sprint

Lady’s Island comes off a 6 3/4-length in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl and makes a rare foray outside of the filly-mare sprint ranks in an intriguing renewal of the $100,000 Sprint, for 4-year-olds and up going six furlongs.

A winner in 9 of 11 starts since being claimed for $16,000 in June 2018 by Averill Racing and Matties Racing, Lady’s Island will break from post 6 with Emisael Jaramillo aboard. She must beat Extravagant Kid (post 1, Tyler Gaffalione), whose bankroll of $727,214 makes him the leading earner in the field of eight. He won a $100,000 stakes here three Saturdays ago.

Lady’s Island is sure to make the front in the Sunshine Millions Sprint, and Extravagant Kid figures to sit along the rail before launching a stretch bid.

Others in here with solid sprint credentials include Royal Squeeze, He Hate Me, and Jackson. The Sunshine Millions Sprint is race 9.

Sunshine Millions Turf

Galleon Mast has been a stalwart in the statebred ranks for a few years and ranks among the favorites in a field of 11 for the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Turf. But he’ll face formidable opposition in this 1 1/16-mile turf race for older horses from Curlin’s Honor and March to the Arch, both trained by Mark Casse.

Trained by David Fawkes for Anne Scott, Galleon Mast won this race two years ago but was forced to skip it last year with a minor ailment. The steady 7-year-old gelding won the designated prep for this at Gulfstream West in November in his most recent start. He will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr.

Curlin’s Honor earned a career-high 100 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Artie Schiller at Aqueduct in his latest race, while March to the Arch won the Grade 2 Wise Dan at Churchill in June and has been keeping elite company. The Sunshine Millions Turf is race 10.