Born on a farm, Helen Pitts' parents were both involved in steeplechase racing.
She eventually became McPeek's assistant-trainer and when he decided to leave the business for a time, she became head trainer on July 1, 2005.
Notably too, the two-time American Horse of the Year Curlin was conditioned for racing by Helen Pitts for owner, Midnight Cry Stable.
Unraced at age two, Pitts got the colt through physical problems and in February 2007 she saddled the three-year-old for his first win at Gulfstream Park in Florida.
Two hours after Curlin's impressive 12¾ length win, the colt was sold for $3.5 million to a racing partnership who turned him over to trainer, Steve Asmussen.