January, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Smaller, But Still Super: Helen Pitts

The daughter of a racing steward and a steeplechase trainer, Maryland native Helen Pitts was destined for a career on the racetrack. After working for several steeplechase trainers, she made the move to Kentucky to work for Kenny McPeek. When McPeek stepped away from training in 2005, Pitts took over and had her very first winner that same day. Over the years, she has reached the winner's circle with many unforgettable racehorses, including Hall of Fame champion Curlin and her all-time favorite trainee, MGISW Einstein (Brz).

KP: How did you first get involved in horse racing?

HP: My dad was a steward at the racetrack. He worked in Maryland for 20-some years and was there when Kent Desormeaux, Edgar Prado and those guys were there. My mom trained steeplechase horses, so this was kind of in my blood and I didn't have a whole lot of choice. I did fox hunters and pony club growing up and went to the races a lot. Dad always tried to deter me from going to the racetrack, but I rode steeplechase horses and ended up working for several steeplechase trainers. [Hall of Fame steeplechase trainer] Jack Fisher got me started and then I ended up also going to Frannie Campitelli at Pimlico.

After that, I started working for Kenny McPeek. He got me to move to Kentucky. I learned a lot from Kenny and was around really good horses. I galloped Take Charge Lady and Harlan's Holiday. When Kenny retired to do bloodstock, I was fortunate to carry on from there.

On July 1 of 2005, the first horse I raced actually won at Churchill Downs. Her name was Cat Quatorze (Louis Quatorze) and I'll never forget it. Then I won my first Grade I that fall with a filly called Sweet Talker (Stormin Fever) at Keeneland in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S.

KP: How did your steeplechase background help you as a flat trainer?

HP: They intertwine a lot actually. Steeplechase is a lot more fitness-focused because they have to go so much further. In terms of horsemanship, I think I benefitted from it and it did me a world of good.

A lot of steeplechase horses are older flat horses. My mom is a wonderful horsewoman and she would take flat horses that would have a year off from a bowed tendon and she would bring them back to perfect health and they would win countless races for her.

KP: Where is your stable based today?

HP: Kentucky is pretty much home for us. Churchill Downs is our base basically year-round and I'm at Highpointe Training Center just outside of Louisville in the winter. I give a lot of horses time off in the winter to let them down a bit so they are ready to roll in the spring.

KP: How many horses are normally in your stable?

HP: I'd say we normally have around 10, but that number can go up and down especially in the spring when we get babies in. I do think back on the days when I would have 40 horses in the barn, but the game has changed a lot since then. It's hard to find help these days and so to be honest, 10 is a good number for the stage I'm at.

I have good owners and a lot of my owners breed their own, so we can take our time with them and I'm not pressed to be running babies in May. I train for great people, some of whom have been with me since I started.

KP: Who would you say has been your biggest mentor throughout your career?

HP: That's a tough question. Kenny gave me the opportunity to be where I'm at today. He introduced me to a lot of people and put me in a great position. I learned so much from him.

Looking way back, it would also be my mom. She's a wonderful horsewoman and she's 87 now, but she's actually in Kentucky this week selling babies at the sale. She still has the farm in Maryland and breeds babies. She is a very good horsewoman and gave me my work ethic to put me where I'm at today.

This is a hard question because there's also Jack Fisher and Frannie Campitelli. They both had big influences on my career. I think everybody helps you get somewhere.

KP: What horse has been the most influential to your career?

HP: Oh, it would have to be my boy Einstein (Brz) (Spend a Buck). He was my best friend and I had him for his whole career. He took me all over the country. He was the coolest horse and had so much personality. I would pull up in my car in the afternoons and he would start hollering when he saw me.

Then there's also Curlin, who put me on the map. I only got to run him once before they sold him, but I took the time with him and did right by him. He made it all worthwhile for that one start and now I can say I trained Curlin. He helped me get my name out there.

What do they say? Good horses will make you look good.

KP: What do you believe makes your stable unique?

HP: My employees are great. I have one couple who has worked for me since I first started.

We're very small and hands-on. If I'm not getting on them myself then I'm on the pony with them. We give them a lot of TLC and it doesn't matter to me what type of horse they are because they all get treated the right way and they're all special to me. They all think they're big horses in my eyes.

KP: Do you think super trainers are bad for the sport?

HP: I'm not going to sit here and say that they're bad for the sport. I give them all a lot of credit. I think that's what some owners want these days. They want the high-percentage guys. If you list the names of super trainers today, they're very good horsemen and very good trainers. With the way the game is and the way finding help is today, what they do is difficult.

I do think there is a different aspect in being involved with a big outfit as opposed to a smaller one. There are pluses and minuses to it.

KP: What do you enjoy most about your job?

HP: I just love the horses. I love seeing them come along and develop and I love the competitiveness of it all. Right now I have a little filly named Zawish (Mshawish) who is two for two. This filly just thinks she's King Kong. She loves the game and loves to train. I actually trained her mother, who was owned by the same clients and was their first-ever racehorse.

KP: What is the most frustrating aspect of your job?

HP: There are many different approaches you could take with this one. Would I love consistency within our sport and to have everyone on the same page? Absolutely. I just hope our sport continues to get better and better, but it seems like it's going in the right direction.

It's hard between finding help and keeping your system rolling, which I have found is easier now with the size that I'm at. Even when I worked for Kenny, you would walk in some days and find out you're missing a groom so you're rubbing down four and galloping seven. That's part of it and you have to be able to roll with it.

This game is hard. You can be on the absolute biggest high in the world and it will jerk you down in a minute. I'll never forget the morning after I won my first Grade I, I was breezing horses and had a 2-year-old break down. That will jerk the heart right out of you and you have to be able to tough it out. A lot of it is just the ups and downs. It's definitely a game of highs and lows.

KP: What is your bucket list race that you hope to win someday?

HP: Obviously everyone's goal is to get to the Kentucky Derby or the Oaks. I ran in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic with Einstein in 2009. It was the year Zenyatta won it. Einstein actually won the GI Santa Anita H. that year and I was the first woman to win that race, so that was awesome and I felt like that was a great feat.

I would love to win a Breeders' Cup race or of course the Oaks or the Derby–something of that prestige.

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Winter Storm Forces Cancellations At Mahoning Valley, Laurel Monday

Due to winter storm Izzy, which is anticipated to bring over a foot of snow to the region, live racing on Monday, Jan. 17, at Hollywood Gaming Mahoning Valley Race Course has been cancelled. Live racing at the Austintown, Ohio, track is scheduled to resume Tuesday, Jan. 18, with a first race post time of 12:45 p.m. ET. The simulcast theater will remain open.

Hollywood Gaming Mahoning Valley Race Course races Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with a first race post time of 12:45 p.m. and Saturday with a first race post time of 12:15 p.m. The 2022 Winter/Spring race meet dates run Jan. 1, 2022-April 16, 2022, following the same Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday format.

The Maryland Jockey Club canceled also Monday's special 10-race Martin Luther King Jr. holiday program due to lingering effects of a winter storm that brought snow, sleet and freezing rain to the region overnight.

Laurel, Rosecroft Raceway and the MJC OTB Network remain open for simulcasting.

Live racing is scheduled to return to Laurel with a 10-race program Thursday, Jan. 20. Race 3 is a maiden special weight for fillies and mares ages 4 and 5 sprinting 5 ½ furlongs that includes first-time starters from trainers Brittany Russell, Michael Merryman, Jose Corrales and a pair from Dale Bennett.

First race post time is 12:10 p.m.

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Online Poker Betting Structure

The game’s limit is a definition that is dependent on the financial aspect of the game you are involved in. There are two types of online poker games if we look at poker from the money point of view: there are the low-limit games and the high-limit games. The high-limit games are the games where lots of money are being played and bet. Low-limit games are at the other side, they are games with little money involved.

Betting structures are based on limits imposed to each bet that is done in the game. Looking at this aspect we can distinguish four types of games:

1. The fixed-limit games

These games are sometimes named the structured limit games. Wherever there is such a game it means the players will only bet the amount that was set previously. Of course a bet is equal to the small blind and the big blind is double. For more information, when naming such a game, people use terms like $2/$4, $15/$30 games. This way the player that wants to enter the poker room knows from the start what he or she will be betting. Let’s say you are playing in a $2/$4 game. This means you will bet $2 at a time, this being the amount that will be placed as a bet on the flop and pre-flop, with the exception of the big blind of course. On the turn and on the river however the bets will double and every bet’s value will be $4. There is also a limit of bets per round. Every player is only allowed 4 bets per round. That means something like betting once, calling a re-rising, and be raised again.

Sometimes there are structured games that have three amounts in their name, like $2/$4/$8. The bets will be placed the same as described before, with the exception that when getting on the river, the bet gets doubled again, so from the initial $2 on the pre-flop and flop, it doubles on the turn to $4, and then it doubles again on the river to $8. But the players are not obliged to place that re-doubled bet on the river. They have an option here, they can either bet $4 or $8, whatever suites them the most.

2. The spread limit games

These are games that include the betting amount within an interval of values given by the name of the game. These games’ names will contain the numbers that limit the bets. For example in a $4-$8 game, players can place any bet as long as it is at least $4 and at the most $8. You can bet anything between $4 and $8 during any round.

We can find games that have four amounts in the name, like : $4-$8-$10-$12, this means that on the first two betting round, pre-flop and flop the player can bet between $4 and $8, on the third betting round, the turn, the player can bet anything between $4 and $10, and finally on the river the upper limit of the bets is increased to $12, so the bets can be anywhere from $4 to $12.

Although less encountered, there are games that have three amount in their name, like: $4-$8-$10. This only mean that until the river the bets are between $4 and $8, but once reaching the river the upper limit will increase and the bets can be placed using amounts from $4 to $10.

3. The pot limit games

In these types of games the bets are flexible, the only things that are settled are the amounts for the small and big blind. The bet can be anywhere from the big blind up to the size of the pot in that particular moment. Sometimes two money amount are used to express such a game, like $5-$10. This only means that the small blind is $5 and the big blind is $10, and the fact that the minimum bet is equal to the big blind, meaning $10 in our case. There can occur rules like the one that allows the pre-flop bets to be 3 or 4 times the size of the big blind, but this depends from game to game.

4. The no limit games

Basically in these games you can bet almost anything. Anything between the size of the big blind and the money you still have on the table, of course. This games can be referred sometimes as , for example, $5-$10 games, and this means as in the latter situation that the values of the blinds are given and the bets will have to be bigger than the last value, the value of the big blind.

David Powell Passes Away

David Powell, a former American journalist who relocated to France in the 1970s and purchased Haras du Lieu des Champs in Coupesante in 1980, passed away in the early morning hours Sunday after a long illness, according to his son, Richard. He was 73 years old.

In addition to Richard, who bought the 222-acre farm from his father in 2013, Powell was the father of Freddy, the executive director at Arqana; Leo Powell, a trainer in California; and stepfather to trainer Arnaud Delacour.

During his career, Powell was a longtime contributor of articles on racing and breeding for several major publications in France, Britain and the United States, including Pacemaker and the Thoroughbred Daily News. He was a breeder, owner, manager and trainer of racehorses in France, most recently serving as the European-based racing manager for owner Magalen O. “Maggie” Bryant, one of France's most successful steeplechase owners, who passed away herself June 28, 2021. Powell did the pretraining and layup for her horses, and their recent successes included the G1 Grand Steeplechase of Paris, the oldest and most prestigious jump race in Paris, which they won in 2015 with Milord Thomas. They won the race the following year with So French, who came back to win it again in 2017.

Powell was born in Argentina to an American father and a German mother. His father was a diplomat, and during the family's travels, he went to Longchamp and discovered horse racing. He came to New York to study, and wrote for the Daily Racing Form while still a student at Columbia University. He was one of the original 120 fax subscribers to the TDN.

“He was the consummate horseman,” said Johnathan Miller, Bryant's American equine advisor. “He was very knowledgeable and very meticulous. He was passionate about all the horses that he cared for. I knew his health had not been good, but I know that the death of Maggie Bryant was a real gut punch for him. Those two were an amazing partnership. It was awesome to watch him with Maggie and the reason she was so successful in France was due to his genius.”

In a TDN article on Richard Powell in 2021, Chris McGrath asked what he had learned from his father. “Always to give your best,” Powell said. “And always to search for solutions, to find answers. Even today, I still have questions for him-and he gives me, I wouldn't say the pleasure but the 'envie' to seek the right thing for the right horse. Because you have to work on them all individually, to find the right balance for each one.”

Powell, Remi Bellocq and Pierre Bellocq | courtesy Remi Bellocq

Remi Bellocq, who along with his father Pierre “Peb” Bellocq, were old family friends and who had his first job in racing working for David Powell, said, “With the passing of David Powell, the Bellocq family have lost an old and dear friend and, in my case, a wonderful early mentor. And racing has lost one of its imortant pioneers. Few are aware that before one could find an obscure bloodline through the touch of a smart phone button, there was was only David Powell. My sympathies to his family.”

“A very sad day indeed,” Anthony Bromley of Highflyer Bloodstock tweeted. “David Powell was a very special man with immense passion for the sport he loved and the horses he nurtured, produced and often mended. His eye for a champion was unparalleled and he taught me so much. I cannot believe he has gone. Please rest peacefully.”

“It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of our racing manager in France, David Powell,” co-owner Simon Munir of Double Green tweeted. “A pioneer who loved our sport and put heart and soul into #Doublegreen. RIP dear David. Our prayers and thoughts are with David and his family.”

Added Tinnakill House Stud's Dermot Cantillon on Twitter, “Sad to hear of the passing of David Powell. A great friend for many years. Always enjoyed and looked forward to his company. I valued his opinion as it was based on a mixture of research, fact and experience. Sincere condolences to his family.”

He is survived by his three children, and his wife, Elisabeth.

Information on services will be published when it is made available.

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