Clean start key for W W Fitzy in allowance

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Robertino Diodoro had long admired W W Fitzy from a distance.

Now, she’s in his barn.

Flying P Stable claimed the mare for $62,500 in December and on Sunday the talented W W Fitzy will be seeking her second straight win for her new connections in the featured eighth race at Oaklawn Park.

“She’s a hard-knocking mare,” Diodoro said. “I always kind of liked her. She looks like a big old gelding. She’s a nice, big, solid mare. There’s not much to not like about her, to be honest.”

The eighth race is a conditioned allowance route for fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles. The field of six includes stakes winners The Mary Rose and Wellington Wonder.

W W Fitzy was a stakes winner earlier in her career. She enters Sunday’s race off a 5 1/2-length win over $30,000 starter-allowance foes at a mile Jan. 23 at Oaklawn. W W Fitzy wired the field one race after closing from next to last for third in the $150,000 Pippin on Jan. 8 at Oaklawn.

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David Cohen has the mount Sunday from post 5.

“I hope she gets out of the gate well again,” Diodoro said. “She did have a couple of races where she didn’t break that well, and I think it cost her. Last time, she broke great and ran great. Breaking well is very important for her – when she breaks is when she does her best running.

W W Fitzy is a 6-year-old who has won 10 of 27 starts for earnings of $339,548. She has run first, second, or third in five of her seven appearances at Oaklawn.

The Mary Rose is back in the overnight ranks after running fifth in the Grade 3, $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 30 at Sam Houston Race Park. One start prior, she captured an Oaklawn allowance by 7 3/4 lengths, earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 95. A repeat of that performance might make her tough to handle Sunday. Reylu Gutierrez has the mount from the rail for Shortleaf Stable and trainer John Ortiz.

Wellington Wonder exits the Pippin, finishing fifth. The race has produced three next-out winners, with runner-up Miss Bigly returning to take the Grade 3 Bayakoa at Oaklawn. In addition, fourth-place finisher Breeze Rider came back in her next start to win the $75,000 Jersey Lily at Sam Houston. W W Fitzy was the other next-out winner from the Pippin.

Misty Veil invades from Fair Grounds, where she has won back-to-back allowance route races. The first came Jan. 7 and the second Jan. 29. Ricardo Santana Jr. has the mount from post 4 for Maggi Moss and trainer Tom Amoss.