Divisidero making first start since Breeders' Cup

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – For a fleeting moment one couldn’t have blamed trainer Kelly Rubley for thinking her star Divisidero might actually become a Breeders’ Cup winner after he rallied from near the middle of the soggy turf course to join the leaders at the top of the stretch in the Mile. Unfortunately, the wide trip from post position 13 in the 14-horse field took its toll and Divisidero finished fourth, beaten less than a length by winner Expert Eye.

Divisidero will make his first start since the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday, and will close out his first year under Rubley’s tutelage, as one of the key contenders in the 1 1/8-mile Fort Lauderdale, the only Grade 2 race among the five graded stakes on Saturday’s Gulfstream card.

Divisidero was transferred to Rubley’s stable by his owners, Gunpowder Farms LLC, at the beginning of the 2018 campaign. Divisidero, who will turn 7 on Jan. 1, gave Rubley the first graded stakes win of her training career this past summer in the Grade 3 Arlington Handicap, and finished third the following month at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Fourstardave.

“He certainly made a heck of a run in the Mile, and for a moment or two I really thought he was going to win it,” Rubley said by phone from her Fair Hill base in Maryland on Monday.

“He’s really had a very consistent year. He just shows up every time. He seems to have improved with every start, with the Mile arguably his best effort yet, considering the class of horses he ran against that day.”

Rubley said she waited to see how Divisdero came out of the Breeders’ Cup before deciding to send him back to Gulfstream for the Fort Lauderdale. He shipped from Fair Hill to Ocala, Fla., at the beginning of the month to continue preparations for the race, breezing a bullet half-mile at the Classic Mile training center on Dec. 7.

“He came out of the Breeders’ Cup really well and I think he’ll love the distance there Saturday,” Rubley said. “A mile and one-eighth is perfect for him.”

Rubley said that Jevian Toledo, who has been Divisidero’s regular rider throughout the year, will again have the mount in the Fort Lauderdale.

The field for the Fort Lauderdale figures to be a strong one and could also include Grade 1 winners Hi Happy and Glorious Empire along with Projected, Revved Up, Mr Havercamp, Postulation, and Zulu Alpha.