By Jack Werk
In my last post, I said, IF pressed, that I would give the 2-year-old filly championship to She Be Wild, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Championship defeating G1 winner Blind Luck. The latter, a daughter of the inexpensive first-crop sire Pollard’s Vision ($5,000 stud fee in 2009), came back on Dec. 20 to win the G1 Hollywood Starlet by 7 lengths! This means, Blind Luck is the only 2-year-old filly championship contender with two G1 wins to her resume! Her record: 4 for 6, $709,050 in earnings, and wins in the G1 Starlet and the G1 Oak Leaf, and placed in the G1 BC Juvenile and G1 Darley Debutante. All this from a filly that was purchased for just $11,000 as a yearling! That’s a major accomplishment for her sire, whose fee has been upped to $10,000 at Wintergreen Farm in Midway, Ky., for 2010. And, I think he’s worth every penny of that!
Pollard’s Vision is a son of Carson City out of Etats Unis, by Dixieland Band. He won 6 races from 23 starts, including the G2 Illinois Derby and the G3 Lone Star Derby, and he was G1-placed at 4 in the Pimlico Special and won the G3 National Jockey Club Handicap and earned $1,430,311. What makes him special so far is that he doesn’t only have one big horse – Blind Luck. In fact he’s got 4 SWs to date, including the multiple Italian SW Air Crew, who won a Listed race on 12/13/09. He also has a quality stakes-placed filly named Fuzzy Britches, who was 3rd in the G3 Demoiselle Stakes at Belmont on 11/28/2009. So, in under a month, he’s put together a pretty nice streak, and as of today (12/27/2009), he was 3rd on the Thoroughbred Times Freshman sire list with $1,442,047 in earnings.
His sire, Carson City, also has been enjoying a revival lately as a sire of sires. There’s another successful first-crop son of Carson City on the first-crop list – Hear No Evil, sire of 2 SWs from only 11 foals, including the top colt Jackson Bend! – and Cuvee and City Zip are doing well, too. In South America, there’s a good young Carson City stallion named Islam, the sire of the G1 Peruvian 2000 Guineas winner this year. And, of course, there’s Pollard’s Vision, who’s got a shot to become the best of them all.
Frank Mitchell, in his excellent blog “bloodstock in the bluegrass,” had a column on Pollard’s Vision a few months ago that touched on a point that I’ve heard about the stallion: He doesn’t sire good-looking foals! As a matter of fact, the stallion’s first-crop yearlings averaged only $9,306, so Blind Luck’s price of $11,000 was actually higher than his average! This is what Frank wrote: “Well, as it happened, a good many of the foals by Pollard’s Vision weren’t show horse pretty, and some of them weren’t fantasy sales horse correct, and some of the others weren’t especially big.” (Click here to read the complete story)
That was obviously the kiss of death in the commercial market, but pretty is as pretty runs, and they are a runnin’!
If Pollard’s Vision keeps up the pace, which I think he will, some of the same people who ignored his yearlings last year will be paying big bucks for them in the future!
Jack,
You’re right again! Blind Luck is anything but. She is further testimony that Pollard’s Vision is a really good emerging sire and that he deserves the support of breeders interested in getting good horses.
Just as buyers would not purchase Northern Dancer because he was SMALL, they later became fans of small beautifully formed yearlings by the stallion. The yearlings by Pollard’s Vision are LOOKING better every day. (And I don’t even have a financial interest in him or any of his offspring.)
Frank
http://fmitchell07.wordpress.com
Frank, I’ve often told clients over the years that Mr. Prospector was fairly crooked when he went to stud and it’s amazing how much is front legs had straightened out after his first 100 stakes winners! – Jack