The top 3 year old filly in the nation, Indian Blessing, was handed the first defeat of her career on Saturday as rival Proud Spell finally managed to turn the tables on her in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks. Indian Blessing had entered the day with an unblemished 5 for 5 record for trainer Bob Baffert, including victories in the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile Fillies and Santa Ynez Stakes.
Proud Spell, a Larry Jones trainee from Proud Citizen out of the Langfuhr mare Pacific Spell, had finished 2nd to Indian Blessing in back to back efforts in the Silverbulletday and the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile-Fillies. She had been getting closer to Indian Blessing than other competitors had seemed to be able to and today’s 4 horse field ensured that she’d get another fair chance to defeat her rival.
The Oaks looked like a two horse race on paper and played like one on the track. Indian Blessing had the lead throughout much of the race, with Proud Spell stalking her in 2nd. It appeared that Indian Blessing was fighting jockey Garrett Gomez a bit early on. About midway through the stretch jockey Gabriel Saez asked Proud Spell for all she had as she hooked up for a thrilling duel with Indian Blessing. The pair had gone 1 mile in 1:37.40 when Proud Spell was able to get her nose in front of Indian Blessing. She ended up pulling away by 2 1/4 lengths in a final time of 1:44.01.
Proud Spell returned $5.80 for the win.
Proud Spell turns the tables on Indian Blessing (sorry about the audio being choppy).
Here is the Video of this race
http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=news&id=31284
Video from youtube added to post. The audio is kind of crappy though.