**This is the final in a series of contender profiles for the Grade 1 Betfair TVG Alabama to be run on Saturday, August 21.**
**For video of Blind Luck schooling in the
Friday, August 20, 2010
Contact: Jon Forbes
BETFAIR TVG
“After I won the Coaching Club with Lite Light, LeRoy Jolley shook my hand, and somebody took a picture of it and gave it to me,” said Hollendorfer, who through Thursday has won 5,723 races, which ranks him fourth best in history among all North American trainers. “It meant a lot to me because I have tremendous respect for LeRoy Jolley as a horseman.”
The 1991 Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, in which Lite Light defeated Meadow Star, was the last time Hollendorfer had brought a Kentucky Oaks winner to New York prior to Blind Luck’s arrival at Saratoga Race Course for Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Betfair TVG Alabama.
Owned by Hollendorfer, Mark Dedomenico, John Carver, and Peter Abruzzo, Blind Luck has provided her connections many exhilarating moments during her barnstorming career.
Winner of two Grade 1 races as a juvenile, Blind Luck opened her 3-year-old season by winning the Grade 1 Las Virgenes by a nose, then was an unlucky third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks. The daughter of Pollard’s Vision regained the winning thread with a 2 ½-length score in the Grade 2 Fantasy, then used the length of the Churchill Downs’ stretch to wear down Evening Jewel to take the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks by the narrowest of margins, giving Hollendorfer his third victory in the race. Following a second in the Grade 2 Hollywood Oaks, she broke another heart when she got her nose down right at the wire in the Grade 2 Delaware Oaks, defeating Alabama entrant Havre de Grace in the process.
“The availability of races makes your schedule,” said Hollendorfer of Blind Luck’s 2010 campaign, which has seen her leave her home state four times. “In
While Saturday will be the first time Blind Luck has faced Devil May Care as a 3-year-old, the 1991 Coaching Club was the second time Lite Light, owned by Stanley Burrell (better known as rapper M.C. Hammer), and Meadow Star, trained by Jolley for renowned financier Carl Icahn, had met during their sophomore seasons.
Lite Light was purchased by Burrell’s Oaktown Stables following her triumph in the following year’s Grade 1 Las Virgenes, and was transferred to Hollendorfer’s barn after taking the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks. In her first two starts for her new trainer, Lite Light won the Fantasy Stakes and ran away to a 10-length score in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, a race Meadow Star bypassed.
Confident following Lite Light’s victory in the Oaks, Burrell made a $35,000 side bet for charity before the fillies’ second meeting, which came in the Grade 1 Mother Goose at
Undeterred by the tough loss, Burrell made another side bet with Icahn before the Coaching Club, with Hammer staking $200,000 to Icahn’s $150,000. And this time Lite Light would come out on top, grabbing the lead with a quarter mile to go and running away from her foe to prevail by seven lengths.
Nineteen years later, standing outside Allen Jerkens’ barn where Blind Luck has taken temporary residence before the
“That was a big deal for
Hollendorfer said he was never troubled by the hype generated by Lite Light’s races during the summer of 1991.
“The trainer always has his job to do, no matter what’s going on,” said Hollendorfer. “You have to get your horse trained and schooled. You have to be focused just to get to the race. I don’t think the hoopla bothers the trainers too much.”
While Blind Luck emulated Lite Light by winning the Las Virgenes, Fantasy Stakes and the Kentucky Oaks, Hollendorfer sees few similarities between Saturday’s showdown with Devil May Care and the rivalry between Lite Light and Meadow Star.
“Blind Luck and Devil May Care are coming into the race showing different running styles, unlike Lite Light and Meadow Star,” said Hollendorfer. “Devil May Care may catch some speed up front. She likes to lay just off the pace, but there are others who can lay there right there with her.”
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