Folded Wings going from turf to dirt

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Helen Pitts-Blasi has gotten off to a fast start at the Oaklawn meet and will attempt to keep the barn’s momentum rolling Thursday when she saddles Folded Wings in the featured eighth race. Pitts-Blasi has gone 3 for 5 with her local starters, including a victory last Saturday with Athena in the $125,000 American Beauty.

Folded Wings will seek to transfer her good turf form to dirt in an entry-level allowance for fillies and mares at a mile. She is coming off a third-place finish in a turf route Nov. 18 at Churchill and has since been working at Oaklawn.

“She’s trained good over this track, had some great breezes over it,” Pitts-Blasi said. “I can’t fault the way she’s trained here.”

Folded Wings will break from post 2 under apprentice Katie Clawson. The race will end at the sixteenth pole, as do all one-mile races at Oaklawn. The chief threat appears to be Telling Metzie, who was second at this distance and level last out in Hot Springs.

Pitts-Blasi has wintered at Oaklawn for the past five years. She has a 10-horse division for the meet, with the remainder of her stable training in Kentucky in advance of the opening of Churchill Downs. The local division features a handful of promising 3-year-olds, including colts by Bodemeister and Harlan’s Holiday.

“We’ve got a decent group of horses,” said Pitts-Blasi, best known for training multiple Grade 1 winner Einstein. “I’ve got some maidens just kind of coming along. The Harlan’s Holiday colt, he’s so like his daddy. He’s the spitting image of Harlan’s Holiday.”

And then there’s Athena, the star of the barn. She set the tone for the stable’s meet on opening day when she won an allowance. Athena then overcame adversity to capture the American Beauty by three-quarters of a length under Joe Rocco Jr.

“I was so proud of her. She gutted it out,” Pitts-Blasi said. “She was in tight, and Joe said she just stood her ground.”

Athena could pass on the next local stakes for her division, the Spring Fever on March 4, and instead await the $150,000 Carousel on April 8 at Oaklawn.

“There’s a possibility we may skip the next one,” Pitts-Blasi said. “She’s run two big races, and we’ve got a long year ahead of us. Looking down the road, I think it could be her best year. She’s 5 now.”

Athena races for Mary Grum.