Starship Jubilee named 2020 Florida-bred horse of the year

Grade 1 winner Starship Jubilee has continued to add to her accolades, as she was honored Friday night as the 2020 Florida-bred horse of the year by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.

Starship Jubilee, the 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year and champion female turf horse for the third straight year, also picked up awards for the third time in four years as the Florida-bred champion older female and champion turf female. Starship Jubilee also generated an award for her dam, the Forest Wildcat mare Perfectly Wild, as the FTBOA broodmare of the year.

Starship Jubilee, who was bred by William P. Sorren and was trained by Kevin Attard for Adam Corndorf and Bonnie Baskin’s Blue Heaven Farm, won four graded stakes in 2020. The Indy Wind mare took the Grade 3 Suwannee River and Grade 2 Hillsborough in her native state, then won the Grade 2 Ballston Spa at Saratoga. Her biggest score came in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile in September at Woodbine, her second career top-level victory after winning the E.P. Taylor the previous year. In her final race of the year, Starship Jubilee completed her stellar career with an unfortunate bobble, as she stumbled at the start of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland and lost rider Florent Geroux.

A Breeders' Cup winner was honored as the champion Florida-bred juvenile male, as Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Golden Pal was awarded that trophy. Grade 1 winners Collusion Illusion and Speech were named champion 3-year-old male and female, respectively, while Grade 1 winner C Z Rocket was honored as both champion sprinter and champion older male. The other equine honorees were March to the Arch as champion turf male, Lady's Island as champion female sprinter, and Princess Secret as champion juvenile filly.

In other awards presented by FTBOA, Gail Rice was presented the Needles Award as the Florida breeder who owns small Thoroughbred operations and has made outstanding contributions to the Florida Thoroughbred industry. The Joe O’Farrell Award was presented to Summer, Jeanne, and April Mayberry’s Mayberry Farm as the original consignor of Collusion Illusion, the year’s best Florida-bred racehorse who was a graduate of an OBS public auction.

Charlotte Weber's Live Oak operation brought home two more trophies as Florida breeder of the year and as the year’s leading owner by Florida-bred earnings. Ralph Nicks was the leading Florida trainer of Florida-breds by earnings and leading Florida trainer by black-type wins, and Kathleen O’Connell was the leading Florida trainer of Florida-breds by wins.