Divisidero Runs Down Rivals in Pennine Ridge
Gunpowder
Farms LLC's Divisidero overcame a troubled start and a wide trip to
chase down his rivals with a neck victory in the $200,000 Pennine Ridge
for 3-year-olds on the grass on Saturday at Belmont Park, which serves
as a local prep for the Grade 1 Belmont Derby on July 4th.
The
sophomore son of Kitten's Joy broke awkwardly, bumping into the starting
gate and jarring jockey Rafael Hernandez out of his left stirrup. After
recovering his footing, the rider hustled his charge back into
contention, tracking an easy pace from the outside of the pack.
Made in Detroit led the field, covering the opening quarter-mile in
25.13 seconds, a half-mile in 49.50 seconds and six furlongs in 1:13.11.
Hernandez guided Divisidero in an early move to close on the leaders
entering the far turn and drove on to out-neck Takeover Target at the
wire.
"Out of the gate, my horse stumbled real bad," Hernandez
said after the race. "I lost my left iron. In the turn he was a little
bit wide. On the backside I had to make a move because he's not used to
being like that, he always comes from behind. But there was no pace at
all so I had to make a move and let him run a little bit and then set
the pace. When turning for home, I just let him run. He knows what to
do."
The winner completed the route, contested at about 1 1/8
miles on the inner turf labeled as firm, in 1:48.03. Divisidero returned
$6.30 for a $2 win bet while the $120,000 winner's share of the purse
boosted his bankroll to $301,000.
Chad Brown's favored coupled
entry of Takeover Target and Startup Nation finished a respective second
and third. World Approval, Made in Detroit, Eh Cumpari and Rock Eagle
completed the order of finish. Chief Kitten was scratched.
Buff
Bradley was pleased with his trainee's performance, who boasts a record
of three wins and a third-place finish in only four career starts,
including a Grade 2 score in the American Turf at Churchill Downs in his
previous start. Bradley cited the Grade 1, $1.25 million Belmont Derby
as his colt's next target.
"[Rafael] did a great job getting
him into position once he realized the pace was pretty slow up front,"
said Bradley. "So he got him up there and then sat on him. Coming down
the lane, we felt pretty good. We know [Divisidero will] run a horse
down. [The Grade 1 Belmont Derby has] been our plan all along. So we
hope we can come back and make some noise on July 4th."
Sour