Success Coming in Bunches for Gunpowder Farms

Every so often, Tom Keithley gets confronted with the reality of the meteoric rise his Gunpowder Farms is on. In those moments, the owner and breeder makes it a point to kindly acknowledge expectations and coat it all in a massive dose of perspective.

"Somebody said to me 'When do you think you'll have you're next big horse?' and I said, 'I've stopped even thinking that way,'" Keithley said. "I honestly get up in the morning and say to myself, 'It's okay if you never have another big horse. It's okay.' Because if you're so focused on it, you'll miss an important detail of something that you should have done that day that would have set you up for that success in the future."

A byproduct of relatively quick success is having to adjust to a new reality, while simultaneously balancing the demands to maintain such a position. Three full seasons after forming Gunpowder Farms, Keithley and his wife Ericka DeVinney can say they're doing more than OK at zeroing in on what they've deemed important and letting the results reward accordingly.

Thoroughbred ownership is not exactly synonymous with swift returns. It's not a venture where, from the first couple groups of horses your team picks out, one expects a grade 1 winner and a contender for the world's richest race to ultimately emerge. 

No one bothered telling Divisidero, however, it is rare for even the most realistic of plans to stay the course. From the moment the son of Kitten's Joy   was purchased for $250,000 at the 2013 Keeneland September yearling sale, he has gone about slapping Gunpowder's name on the map, even as the operation was still getting its industry footing, becoming the farm's first graded stakes winner and first grade 1 victor during his first two seasons of racing. 

With his 5-year-old campaign scheduled to get underway in the Jan. 14 Ft. Lauderdale (G2T) at Gulfstream Park, Divisidero is again positioned to set off a wonderful domino effect for his connections. Having ended 2016 ranked in the top 75 among North American owners with $1,318,256 in earnings, Gunpowder is going all in to begin 2017, as it also has grade 3 winner Breaking Lucky slated to start in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) Jan. 28.

BLOODHORSE STAFF: Breaking Lucky Joins Pegasus World Cup Field

"If you had said, what did I think (three years ago)—what would success have been? I'd have said that if we had two or three listed stakes winners, maybe a graded-placed horse or winner, we would have thought that's pretty successful," Keithley said. "I think our original target for earnings per start was $5,500. We thought if we could get to $5,500 that's not bad. So yeah, we're tickled pink.

"A huge amount of this is being fortunate. You try to take as good a care as possible of your horses and never leave one behind—get them all to the next step. If you focus on that and do that, eventually something exciting and unexpected will happen."

It just doesn't usually happen so seamlessly.

The Thoroughbred industry was in the backdrop of Keithley's upbringing, with his grandfather working as farm manager for the well-established Voss family of Maryland and his parents instilling some early respect for the sport during childhood trips to the races.

After enjoying success in the tech world and being involved in a start-up that was acquired by eBay, Keithley "had the opportunity to change careers a bit early" and, after getting some baseline experience through a few racing partnerships, decided to see if he and DeVinney could make a go of ownership on their own.

Forming the right relationships on a team can be as integral as choosing the right bloodstock. And among the initial, astute decisions Keithley and DeVinney made was taking a chance four years ago on a then 26-year-old Josh Stevens, who was working for Margaux Farm and getting his fledgling J. Stevens Bloodstock business off the ground. 

Among the first weanlings they picked out together was an Ontario-bred son of Lookin At Lucky   at the 2012 Keeneland November sale they all agreed was an obvious physical—an intangible the handsome Breaking Lucky maintains to this day. When Stevens and DeVinney were seeking the diamond in the rough Keithley wanted to unearth at the 2013 Keeneland September auction, they took one look an immature son of Kitten's Joy and threw a knowing glance at one another.

"What Tom had always preached in those early books was that we can't afford the obvious horse. We can't afford the ready-made Medaglia d'Oro   or Tapit  ," said Stevens, who previously served as Gunpowder's racing manager, and still works as the team's bloodstock agent and advisor. "He said 'I'd like you to find me a horse that has all those pieces but he hasn't peaked yet. A horse who is going to come along.'

"We went to the Hinkle Farm's consignment and ... I'm looking at Divisidero being a May foal—being by Kitten's Joy who doesn't create an overpowering physical. I just kind of smiled at Ericka and we both said 'This is the horse. This is what we're looking for.' I've still got the catalog page and literally what I wrote was 'This is the target horse.'"

Under the handling of trainer Buff Bradley, who conditioned the brilliant Groupie Doll to back-to-back female sprinter Eclipse Awards in 2012-13, Divisidero indeed became the standard-bearer for other Gunpowder color bearers.

In just his third start, Divisidero captured the 2015 edition of the American Turf (G2T) at Churchill Downs and followed that with a victory in the Pennine Ridge Stakes at Belmont Park. The 4-year-old version of the colt ended up further validating everything Stevens and DeVinney saw on the Keeneland grounds, as he prevailed in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (G1T) at Churchill in May of 2016, besting a field that included champion Big Blue Kitten   and eventual Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) hero Tourist  .

HAMMONDS: Divisidero Edges Clear in Woodford Reserve

"The owners have been very good and been very patient with this horse," Bradley said of Divisidero. "That's my kind of owners I like to train for, those that will give you plenty of time, and when you need to stop on them and give them a break, they're willing to do that. I think that is what has really helped this horse. I think, if we can keep him healthy and happy this year, he's going to have a monster year."

Keithley estimates Gunpowder has about 50-52 horses in its racing pipeline and is aiming to breed between 18-25 foals from mares it has spread out between three or four farms. 

Should Divisidero start his year off on the right foot, he could stamp himself a viable candidate to take over the helm of the turf male division. And should Breaking Lucky pull the upset of upsets a couple weeks from now, Keithley knows he'll have to work that much harder to maintain his poker face in the face of continued success.

"I more try to focus on what I have to do today and if I do every day the things I need to, eventually a horse that no one knows is good—because that's always the way it is—they'll show up and go last to first in a maiden special first out like we recently had a 2-year-old do," Keithley said. "I can't thank enough the trainers and Josh Stevens and the farms, because they do so much of this. That minute and a half or two minutes of success has probably 50 or 60 people behind it. And everyone is so excited to see it happen."