Helyna's My Mom taking proven path

Trainer Charlton Baker will follow a familiar pattern on Saturday when he attempts to win the New York Oaks at Finger Lakes for the third time in the last four runnings.

Baker, who wheeled back Gold for the Queen on two weeks' rest to win last year's Oaks at 8-1 odds, brings back Helyna's My Mom just 12 days after she last ran for Saturday's $75,000 race for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles.

Baker, who also won the 2007 Oaks with Talking Treasure, has a good success rate bringing back fillies and mares on short rest in routes. Over the past five years, he is 28 for 66 (42 percent) in that category, according to DRF's Formulator.

Helyna's My Mom gets a key rider switch from an apprentice to John Davila Jr. while making her third consecutive start going two turns. She defeated older horses in open allowance company going a mile and 70 yards two starts ago, then led until deep stretch at the same distance in an allowance restricted to older statebreds on Aug. 18.

Freud's Notebook and Rogue's Jewel were separated by three-quarters of a length as the one-two finishers in the seven-furlong Lake Luzerne at Saratoga on Aug. 13. Of the pair, Freud's Notebook has two-turn experience, winning back-to-back starts over Aqueduct's inner track last winter. Rogue's Jewel's lone win in eight tries came sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs last October. She was beaten 13 1/4 lengths in her lone try beyond seven furlongs.

D'Oratory doesn't look imposing on paper, finishing ahead of just two horses in a five-horse field of maidens in her lone start two months ago at Belmont Park. But her new trainer, H. James Bond, is 5 for 10 shipping into Finger Lakes this season and won back-to-back runnings of the New York Oaks in 2000 and 2001. Bond shows a good 12-for-52 (23 percent) record with runners returning from a layoff of 61 to 180 days in a route.