Attard weighs options for ‘Starship’

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard has a difficult decision to make regarding the next start for the 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year, Starship Jubilee, who is unbeaten in four starts this year, all in stakes.

Owned by Blue Heaven Farm, Starship Jubilee shipped to Saratoga for a gutsy victory in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa on July 25. Attard said he must decide whether to run her back there over 1 1/8 miles in the Grade 1 Diana on Aug. 23, or keep her at Woodbine for next Saturday’s Grade 2 Dance Smartly, a 1 1/4-mile event that was part of her coming-out party when she won it in a dead heat in 2017.

“I’m going to work her this weekend, and then I’ll have a better idea,” Attard said. “The Diana gives her another week, and it’s a little shorter distance. I really like her at a mile and an eighth. There’s a lot of positives with the Diana, but it’s always nice to walk them out of your barn and right into the paddock. It’s easier on the horse. If she works really well and I think she’s ready to go the following week, it will make our decision to stay home a little easier.”

Attard said he has leading jockey Rafael Hernandez lined up to ride both Clayton in the $150,000 Plate Trial Stakes and Merveilleux in the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks. Like the Dance Smartly, both races are on the blockbuster Aug. 15 card.

Clayton is coming off a dominating three-length allowance win under Hernandez in his first start around two turns, and got his second Beyer Speed Figure of 88.

“It’s a little piece of mind right now,” Attard said of Hernandez riding. “He knows the horse. We’re just hoping he takes another step forward in the Plate Trial.”

Hernandez has been riding the Steve Asmussen-trained Halo Again, who won the 2019 Coronation Futurity and the Queenston Stakes here July 4.

Attard has the unbeaten grass filly Afleet Katherine and Merveilleux for the Oaks, which will be run over the same nine-furlong distance as the Plate Trial.

Afleet Katherine is a halfsister to Amalfi Coast, who won stakes on turf and the Tapeta last year for Attard.

“I’m anxious to see her on the Tapeta,” Attard said of Afleet Katherine. “I’ve always thought she worked better on the Tapeta than she did on the turf. Obviously, it’s a big step up in class, her first two-turn race, but I always felt a little more comfortable with her on the Tapeta.”

Merveilleux won her June 21 season opener in an allowance route, then finished a flat fourth after a wide trip in the Grade 3 Selene.

“I was disappointed,” Attard said, regarding the Selene. “Maybe she bounced a little off that first race.”