Grade II Winner Divisidero to Get Freshening
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Originally published in the Aug. 11 edition of Blood-Horse Daily. To download the Blood-Horse Daily smartphone app or to receive the edition in your email inbox each evening, visit BloodHorse.com/Daily.
Gunpowder Farms' Divisidero, one of the leaders in a strong division of 3-year-old turf horses, will not make a planned start in the Aug. 15 Secretariat Stakes (gr. IT) at Arlington International Racecourse.
Instead, the Kitten's Joy colt will be freshened, Gunpowder Farms manager Josh Stevens said Aug. 10.
"He hasn't been training the way we wanted him to," Stevens said. "We're going to take him to the farm, evaluate him, and try to figure out whether something is bugging him or if he's just a little tired. We'll give him 60 or 90 days and go from there."
The freshening means Divisidero won't race until late 2015 or early 2016, when Stevens said the goal will be the Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT).
"You may see him at the end of the year down at Gulfstream, but we want to get him right for his 4-year-old season," Stevens said. "There's a lot of racing ahead for this type of horse—he could run until he's 5 or 6."
Divisidero was purchased by Margaux Farm for $250,000 from the consignment of his Kentucky breeder, Hinkle Farms, to the 2013 Keeneland September yearling sale. Among the colt's three wins from five starts are two stakes, including the American Turf Stakes (gr. IIT) at Churchill Downs.