Divisidero preps for Turf Classic in Sunday allowance

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Daily Racing Form chart will forever record it as a $78,000 allowance race, but insiders know better. Seven of the 10 starters in the seventh race Sunday at Keeneland are graded stakes winners, and it will take an effort commensurate with those past-performance lines to get the money.

Divisidero won the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs last May, and he is using Sunday’s race as a stepping-stone to return to the Kentucky Derby Day fixture, said trainer Buff Bradley.

“Keeneland is the only place in the country that could run a race like this,” said Bradley. “I don’t know that the Maker’s [46 Mile] next week will be any tougher.”

The other graded stakes winners in the 1 1/16-mile turf allowance are Kaigun, Pleuven, Divine Oath, Flatlined, Thatcher Street, and Take the Stand. Even the three non-graded winners – Fire Away, Projected, and Keystoneforvictory – will take their fair share of wagering action in a race written with virtually wide-open conditions.

Divisidero, said Bradley, recently returned from Florida and “has really been doing super in this cooler weather.”

“He’s jumping around and everything and really seems like a fresh horse,” Bradley said. “He’s glad to be back in Kentucky.”

Along with the featured Beaumont Stakes, the turf allowance is part of a terrific Sunday card. The undercard includes a $72,000 allowance (race 1) that drew Dial Me, a 3-year-old filly owned by the 200-member Churchill Downs Racing Club; a 4 1/2-furlong maiden event (race 2) that surely will have the uncoupled Wesley Ward-trained duo of Paris Cruise and Happy Like a Fool as favorites in a full field of 2-year-olds; and a maiden turf event (race 9) in which Brooklyn Bobby – by the hot young sire Frankel and named in honor of the late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel – likely will be favored in another full field.