With 14 career starts, King Ledley has had more experience than any of his opponents in the Thursday feature at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill. He also may have had more tough luck.
Still eligible for first-level allowance conditions, King Ledley will be favored again Thursday when he is part of an overflow crowd of 3-year-olds entered in the sixth of nine races, an “about” one-mile turf race with a $41,480 purse. Trainer Darrin Miller is hoping the Kentucky-bred colt can finally get the right kind of trip from post 2 under jockey Jimmy Graham and clear this hurdle.
“It’s been tough finding a spot where he’ll land, distance-wise,” said Miller. “I’m hoping Jimmy can tuck him in nice and take it from there. He likes to make that one hard run down the stretch.”
King Ledley beat a steady fade when unplaced in his latest start, the Oliver Stakes on the Indiana Downs turf, a race Miller said was “good, overall, although we probably had him too sharp.” In his two preceding races, the colt had unlucky trips when he was narrowly beaten as the favorite for this same condition, running second at Churchill Downs after a somewhat troubled start, then third at Arlington after being fanned very wide.
King Ledley has amassed more than $300,000 in career earnings, with the majority of it having been earned when he ran third as a 2-year-old in a restricted $2.3 million race in Ireland, after which owner Tommy Hamilton of Silverton Hill Farm sent him to Miller.
In all, 14 are entered in the Thursday feature, although only as many as 12 can start. Other contenders in what shapes up as a well-matched field include Daddy Forty Nine, second under similar conditions here July 10; Don’t Tell Kitten, who figures to benefit from a return to turf; and Cherokee Lord, a front-running danger.
A first-level turf allowance for Illinois-breds also is on tap as the eighth race Thursday, when first post is 1 p.m. Central.
◗ Trainer Dan Peitz has confirmed Tajaaweed, most recently third in the Arlington Handicap, as a starter for the Aug. 21 Arlington Million.
◗ Retired Chicago Blackhawk hockey players Tony Esposito and Denis Savard will be at Arlington on Thursday for an autograph session.
