Rubley Makes Switch from Teaching to Training

When the 2000s began Kelly Rubley seemed destined for a life of academia. But even as she climbed the ladder from middle school science teacher to administrator, the horses kept calling.

Before the decade was over, Rubley answered the call

She left behind a dependable career in education for the unpredictability of thoroughbred racing, and hasn't looked back.

"You can try to get horses out of your life, but you just can't do it," Rubley said. "Once you start, they're always there."

A former assistant to veteran trainers Barclay Tagg and Jimmy Toner, Rubley is in her second full year as a trainer with a string of nearly 30 horses, the majority of them stabled at the Fair Hill Training Center.

She is coming off a career weekend where she won with all three of her runners over two days at Laurel Park, making her four-for-six at the 24-day summer meet.

"It was pretty exciting. Finally. I've been in a bit of a slump, so it was quite nice to have three in a row," Rubley said. "I think the key is to not change everything. What's worked in the past didn't suddenly stop working."

Rubley grew up in the small central New York town of Pulaski, not far from the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, where horses are sparse and the winters can be brutal. After discovering her love for everything equine, she did whatever menial chores were necessary to earn a chance to ride.

"I actually started riding quite young," she said. "There really are no horses in that area except quarter horses. I ended up showing hunter/jumpers on the quarter horse circuit for most of my youth and then I switched to eventing and started traveling down to [the Fair Hill] area every weekend with my own horse."

Heeding her parents' advice to get an education, Rubley enrolled at the nearby State University of New York at Oswego. She graduated in 1997 with bachelor's degrees in biology and chemistry and later earned Master's degrees in secondary education and administration.

"They actually put yellow ropes out when it's snowing really badly so that you can find your way between the buildings," Rubley recalled of the harsh winters at college. "That's when you know you should just go home. I grew up with it, unfortunately. Never again. I only visit in the summer."

Following graduation Rubley found work teaching eighth grade physical science and biology near her hometown for nearly seven years before making the switch to administration. But, just as in her youth, Rubley couldn't resist the urge to be with horses.

"I just decided to sort of leave the education world and move down to this area," said Rubley, who admitted her parents were not thrilled with the idea. "They were a bit disappointed. They felt as though I've wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars of education, but that's not true. Now I'm teaching horses instead of children, and I'll always have the education. No one can take that away."

Rubley took a job fox hunting on a farm in Unionville, Pa. before finding her way to Fair Hill, where she became an exercise rider for Tagg in 2009 when he had a string there. Within a year she was Tagg's assistant, traveling to New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Florida.

She had fallen in love with Fair Hill and was looking for an opportunity to put down roots, and it arrived when Justin Nicholson of Ninety North Racing Stable purchased a barn at the training facility. His primary trainer was the New York-based Toner, who needed someone to look after his Maryland horses.

Enter Rubley. She jumped at the chance to look after Toner's horses at Fair Hill and worked for him for three years before going out on her own full-time in December 2014.

"I was still Barclay's assistant and Jim was looking for an assistant to run the barn at Fair Hill, and it kind of all just worked out beautifully because I'd always wanted to get back to Fair Hill," she said. "My dream was to always get back and eventually train on my own. It was kind of the perfect stepping-stone."

Rubley had four horses in her name the last year she was managing the barn for Toner, winning her first race with St. Albans Boy on April 13, 2014 at historic Pimlico Race Course. She still has the Grade 3-placed gelding, owned by Anne Poulson's Hare Forest Farm, being pointed for a fall campaign that includes defense of his 2015 Laurel Turf Cup title.

Now 6, St. Albans Boy also gave Rubley a coveted win at the prestigious Saratoga Race Course meet in the summer of 2014. Her first career stakes victory came with Modernstone, who upset the Fasig-Tipton Ladies' Marathon at odds of 29-1 on Sept. 19, 2015 at Kentucky Downs.

Rubley earned her first victory of Laurel's summer meet July 17 with The Elkstone Group's 5-year-old Maryland-bred mare Northern Smile, who was promoted to first following the disqualification of winner Freudie Anne.

She won twice on July 22 with 5-year-old ridgling Sea Raven and Oh Happy Day Stable's 3-year-old gelding Kid Jeter, and followed up the next day with 4-year-old gelding To Blave. Sea Raven and To Blave run for Tom Keithley and Ericka DiVinney's Gunpowder Farms, owners of multiple graded stakes winner Divisidero.

"I have probably seven 2-year-olds coming up that aren't quite ready for a race just yet, and I have a group of 3-year-olds that are running currently," she said. "I still have [stakes-placed] Desvelo, who is 7 now. We have a good mixture, for sure. Most of the barn, at this point, has run."

Gunpowder and Rubley have a promising horse in Grey Fox, a 3-year-old U S Ranger colt that is entered in Friday's eighth-race feature at Laurel, a $42,000 allowance for 3-year-olds and up at 5 ½ furlongs on the Bowl Game Turf Course that drew a field of 14.

Previously with Buff Bradley, the trainer of Divisidero, Grey Fox has run twice for Rubley. Unraced at 2, he broke his maiden May 26 and was second by less than a length in an entry-level allowance June 24, both at Pimlico against older horses.

"We're hoping for the next Divisidero," Rubley said. "I'm kind of excited about Grey Fox. He's run twice for me now. He won the first time and then was a close second so we're hopeful to see what happens this weekend. He's in a good spot."