Divisidero getting ready for new season under new trainer

Multiple Grade 1 winner Divisidero has returned to training at Fair Hill in northern Maryland with Kelly Rubley, who has become the primary trainer for Divisidero’s owner, the Gunpowder Farms LLC of Tom Keithley.

Rubley, who is maintaining sizable strings at Fair Hill and the Classic Mile in Ocala, Fla., has been active this winter in Florida, winning with three of 17 starters at Tampa Bay Downs while going winless from her first nine starts at Gulfstream Park. She said Monday from Fair Hill that Divisidero was sent to her from a Kentucky farm about two weeks ago and that she and Keithley are trying to decide whether to run the 6-year-old horse in an April prep prior to the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on the May 5 Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill Downs.

“He’s back galloping and looks good,” Rubley said. “We’re trying to assess where he’ll make his first start back, whether he’ll have one race before or not.”

Divisidero, by Kitten’s Joy, not only has won the last two runnings of the Woodford, but also three straight Derby Day stakes at Churchill, dating to the 2015 American Turf as a 3-year-old. All 16 of his starts and $1,137,950 in earnings came for trainer Buff Bradley. His final race for Bradley resulted in a fourth-place finish in the Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland in early October.

Rubley said she now has 30 to 40 horses for Keithley, who made a fortune as the co-owner of a tech startup prior to investing heavily in Thoroughbreds.

Besides the Woodford, Keithley has designs on the Breeders’ Cup Mile in early November because it is being run on the Churchill turf, where Divisidero has experienced by far his most success.

◗ A pair of allowances (races 3 and 6) anchor a nine-race Wednesday card that kicks off a five-day race week at Tampa. First post is 12:23 p.m. Eastern.

Racing will be held for the second straight Thursday this week (post, 12:50) before the schedule reverts next week through the end of the meet (May 6) to a four-day week, with Thursdays dark.

◗ A nine-race Friday card (post, 12:44) features one allowance (race 5), a 1 1/8-mile turf race that drew an unusual entry – Serjeant At Arms, a 5-year-old horse who won 12 of 14 starts and $670,325 in his native India and now makes his North American debut in the care of trainer Graham Motion.

◗ Kathleen O’Connell sent out three more winners last week (Feb. 14-18) and maintains a 25-20 edge over Gerald Bennett atop the Tampa trainer standings as action resumes Wednesday. One of those winners, Lawless Lady, paid $44, helping to maintain a robust ROI of $2.51 from 96 starts for O’Connell at the meet.