Harness: Potential 'Sweet 16' on Sunday for O'Brien finalist Divine Art

Whether you are doing it on the Grand Circuit or on the fair circuit, winning races is no easy task. That is unless you are Divine Art, who has put together an amazing 15-race winning streak dating back to July 2022.

To be precise, the last time current Cal Expo regular Divine Art lost a race was on June 25, 2022 at Century Downs when she was under the care of trainer/driver Nathan Sobey. She then reeled off 12 straight wins for the horseman at that track and Century Mile before parting ways.

Sobey's mom Karen is actually one of the listed breeders of Divine Art, but Sobey didn't just get the filly handed to him. She sold at the Alberta Standardbred Horse Association sale for $7,000 in 2020.

"As a yearling before the sale, we thought she definitely had a chance at being a decent racehorse. Her siblings were all decent racehorses, and we thought our stud offered a decent cross and was probably the best-bred of the stallions her mother had been paired with," said Sobey. "At the yearling sale, when a Hall-of-Famer, being Keith Clark, who has been arguably the best horseman in western Canada, made a point to purchase her with his partners, obviously we grew higher hopes. Fast forward to when I took over the training duties, she started to show me flashes of strong talents very early. It only took a few starts for me to realize she was definitely going to be a top notch filly."

Nobody wants to lose their best horse and Sobey was no different. After earning almost $250,000 under his care, Divine Art was sold after a win in the $83,553 Century Casino Filly Pace.

"It's always hard losing horses out of the stable. But it's a business and I've always tried to run it as such. But when you have an animal with so much talent in the barn, it stings a little more watching them leave," said Sobey. "I would say the hardest part is I don't feel like I got to experience her full potential. Even at this point, I don't feel like we have seen her very best. But she has shown that she has heart and a desire to win, and that's what I miss most. She makes driving and training horses look easy."

Now under the ownership and care of veteran conditioner Gerald Longo, Divine Art hasn't missed a beat since moving to Cal Expo. She easily won her first start on December 26 by nearly five lengths and has followed that up with a pair of wins to start 2023, her last against the top older mares at the track.

"I didn't buy her because of the winning streak. She has a bunch of stakes races here in California that go for $130,000. She could make a pretty big part of the investment back right here if she keeps going like she's going," said Longo. "After that I plan to race her in the Opens in Minnesota and see if she can beat them."

Divine Art will carry her 15-race unbeaten streak into Sunday's seventh race at Cal Expo in a $12,500 free-for-all event carded as race seven. Longo has drawn post two and thinks we'll get a good indication on how she stacks up for the stakes after the race.

"Some of the other horses that came from Minnesota are in against her this weekend, so we'll know more about her then. If all goes well and she stays healthy, she should be very competitive," said Longo, who is hoping the rain holds off. "If it rains badly and I don't like the track, I won't race her. I have five of them in and I probably won't race any of mine if the track is anything like it has been when it has rained recently. It is not worth the chance of any of them getting hurt. She is only 4 and has her whole life ahead of her. Rockin With Lou [race three, post six on Sunday] is also pretty good."

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Divine Art won the $7,500 Filly and Mares Open at Cal Expo versus Rockin With Lou in her last start on January 22. Considering her stablemate won 16 of 36 races and $121,781 as a 5-year-old last year, that victory by Divine Art did more to stamp her as the real deal, even if Rockin With Lou was making her first start since early December.

"She was pretty impressive last time. I drove her like an idiot and she still won," said Longo. "The other horse came pretty fast and I figured I'd let them go and hopefully they would carry us to the stretch. He carried me but not far enough. I got lucky to have room on the inside and she paced home impressively.

"I think if anyone can beat her in the Open, Rockin With Lou or [James] Lackey's horse [Nebble Hanover] has a shot. He didn't get a chance to race his horse in the $30,000 race [Alan Horowitz Memorial] because something happened to her and he didn't want to race her. That's what you do, you need to save your horse for the entire year."

One certainty for Divine Art is that with only one special exception Longo will remain in the bike during the winning streak since he doesn't want to put that pressure on anyone else.

"I'd like to keep the winning streak going and if someone happens to beat her it will be my fault," said Longo. "If Sobey shows up I would probably let him drive Divine Art. We'll see how she is at the time. I haven't made up my mind altogether yet. He's done very well with her and he made the horse."

Sobey confirmed that he'll probably make a couple of trips down from Canada and said he'll decide his plans after the O'Brien awards on February 4. So, perhaps a reunion with the 4-year-old daughter of Outrageous Art, out of the Western Hanover mare Keystone Divine, is in his future. Divine Art is one of two finalists, along with Silver Label, as 3-year-old Pacing Filly of the Year in Canada.

While Divine Art's 15 straight victories is impressive, it remains far from a record. In modern times (since 1992), Firm's Phantom appears* to top the leaderboard with 28 wins in 2000 and 2001. He accomplished the feat as a 2- and 3-year-old competing in Canada at tracks like Truro and Charlottetown. A more familiar name to some is St Elmo Hero, who got national attention in 2010 and 2011 for starting his career as a 4-year-old and winning 25 straight races. Interestingly, See You At Peelers also won 22 in-a-row during those two years. The great Muscle Hill won 20 straight races, and while they don't belong in the same sentence in most respects, Cats And Dogs went on a brilliant run in 1994 and 1995 to win 18 straight $6,000 claiming races at Yonkers for trainer Frank Hartline Jr., which is hard to fathom.

Digging deeper, a few Google searches returned a Standardbred Canada article from 2011 which states that the longest winning streak in Standardbred history is 41, accomplished by Carty Nagle in 1937 and 1938.

Whether Divine Art can reach 28 or even 41 straight wins is doubtful, but in the moment she has reached the spotlight, and every time she heads to the track and wins, she is one step closer to history.

* USTA list of leaders since 1992 was updated through 2011 and revised information was not immediately available as of this writing