Wheel of Fortune was a small but "beautiful"[2] bay filly standing just over 15 hands high, bred at Mereworth[3] by her owner Evelyn Boscawen, 6th Viscount Falmouth.

Ridden by Archer she led from the start and soon had her eleven opponents struggling as she won "very easily" from Peter Flat and the Woodcote Stakes winner Cadogan.

[9] On her final start of the year at the Newmarket Houghton meeting she carried a seven pound weight penalty in the Dewhurst Stakes.

[11] Wheel of Fortune made good physical progress over the winter and her performance in training was impressive: according to one rumour she had defeated the 1877 Epsom Derby winner Silvio and the 1878 Oaks and St Leger winner Jannette in a private trial,[12] and she was reported to be at least ten pounds superior to her stable companion Charibert, who won the 2000 Guineas.

[15] Wheel of Fortune reappeared at Royal Ascot on 13 June in the Prince of Wales's Stakes in which she conceded weight to a field of top class colts and fillies.

[16] She was held up by Archer until the straight, and then showed impressive acceleration to settle the race in a few strides and won easily by one and a half lengths from Adventure with Rayon d'Or in third.

In this race she tracked the colt Ruperra and the two pulled clear of the other runners in the closing stages, but when Archer attempted to send the filly past her rival she began to struggle and was beaten by a length.

[22] In May 1886 The Sporting Times carried out a poll of one hundred racing experts to create a ranking of the best British racehorses of the 19th century.

Wheel of Fortune was ranked in the top ten by eleven of the contributors, placing her twenty-sixth among all horses and making her the fifth highest-rated filly or mare behind Virago, Plaisanterie, Crucifix and Blink Bonny.

Through her daughter Donna Fortuna, however, she became the direct ancestor of many good German Thoroughbreds including the Deutsches Derby winners Zauberer and Navarino.