NEWS

Blind Luck headlines compact Las Virgenes

Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 6:03 PM

BLIND LUCK WINNING THE 2009 HOLLYWOOD STARLET STAKES (G1)

Benoit & Associates photo

by Steve Bailey

Two-time Grade 1 winner and Eclipse Award finalist Blind Luck probably will be the overwhelming post-time favorite against five challengers in the $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes (G1) on Saturday at Santa Anita Park.

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, the chestnut Pollard’s Vision filly enters the one-mile race for three-year-old fillies off a dominant seven-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile Hollywood Starlet Stakes (G1) on December 20 at Hollywood Park (video).

Michael Talla’s Grade 3 winner Crisp will make her second start of the season off a one-length victory in the Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3) on January 10 at Santa Anita (video). Trained by John Sadler, the El Corredor filly won one of her two starts last year with a third-place finish.

“Racing against Blind Luck is challenging in the sense that she's the second-best three-year-old on the West Coast. The first one is Lookin At Lucky,” Sadler said. “We're up against it, but you've got to get them started."

Shefa Enterprises’ Summer Games enters off a neck victory in a six-furlong maiden special weight race on January 1 at the Arcadia, California, track for trainer Caesar Dominguez.

“When you break your maiden, the non-winners never fill,” Dominguez said. “Your choice is to run in a stakes or go out of town. But even if you go out of town, up north, those races don’t fill, so you’ve got to take a chance and see what you’ve got. Outside of Blind Luck, I think it’s a wide-open race.”

Stakes winner La Nez has finished in the top three in six of seven starts with two victories, including a win in the Robert H. Walter California Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes on October 3 for trainer Eric Kruljac (video).

Evening Jewel also has a stakes victory to her credit, capturing the California Breeders’ Champion Stakes on December 27 at Santa Anita for trainer James Cassidy (video).

Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of Thoroughbred Times

Las Virgenes S.