Blind Luck came from last to win the G1 Kentucky Oaks in front of a record 116,046 crowd at Churchill Downs on Friday.  The even money favourite charged home under Rafael Bejarano to defeat Evening Jewel in a photo-finish.  

Blind Luck (3f Pollard’s Vision – Lucky One by Best of Luck) is a late closer and has employed similar tactics in the majority of her 7 wins from 10 starts.  She was a G1 2YO winner of the Oak Leaf Stakes and Hollywood Starlet and returned this year to add the Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita.

She races for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and fellow part-owners Mark Dedomenico, John Carver and Peter Abruzzo.  “She does it over and over,” Dedomenico said.  “She nearly gives me heart failure.  I always ask Rafael not make it that close.”

Hollendorfer already had classics in the trophy cabinet with Lite Light (1991) and Pike Place Dancer (1996).  His latest is from the first crop of Mr Prospector-line sire Pollard’s Vision who stands at Wintergreen Stallion Station in Kentucky.  He won the G2 Illinois Derby and G3 Lone Star Derby.  

Blind Luck was bred in Kentucky by Dr. William Baker’s Fairlawn Farm and was sold for $11,000 at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale.  There’s an Australian connection in the bottom half of her pedigree.  Second dam Twilight Spectre (Imp Society) is a half-sister to Gualdo who was exported to Australia in 1990.  His 8 wins out here included city victories up to 2600m at Moonee Valley and Sandown.