Kildare King one to watch in Charlie Hill Memorial

Foot issues hindered Kildare King (Trixton-Exclusivity) as a young horse, but since turning age 4 last year, the trotter’s harness racing performances have been predominantly majestic.

The winner of two of 22 races at ages 2 and 3, Kildare King has hit the board 25 times in his past 31 starts, with 16 victories and seven second-place finishes. He has a career-best win time of 1:50.1, which he recorded in capturing the Corbin Maturity Series by a half-length over Venerate last October at Lexington’s Red Mile.

He also has been a track-record performer at Eldorado Scioto Downs, where on Saturday he will face nine rivals in the $250,000 Charlie Hill Memorial for older trotters. Kildare King will start from post five with Tim Tetrick listed to drive for trainer Chris Beaver.

Kildare King has hit the board in 13 consecutive races at Scioto since August 2022, with seven wins and five seconds.

“For the last couple years, he’s raced good just about everywhere I’ve raced him,” Beaver said. “He was talented from day one. He won his first qualifier on a half (at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in central Ohio) as a 2-year-old in (1):59(.4) but then got an abscess in a hind foot and it messed up his entire 2-year-old year.

“At 3, he was still having problems with sore feet, and he would make breaks late in the race. But at the end of his 3-year-old year, he did start to come on and put some good miles together. The last couple years as an aged horse, he’s won a lot of races.”

Kildare King, owned by breeder Robert Goodman, has earned nearly $400,000 since the start of his 4-year-old season. This year, the gelding has won five of 13 races while adding five seconds and a third.

“He’s been racing good,” Beaver said. “He didn’t race good at Plainridge (finishing sixth in the Spirit of Massachusetts), but I just think it didn’t work out for him that day.

“He’s very high speed and he doesn’t really get tired. But that’s true of all the good open trotters. There are a lot of them now in Ohio, so he’s racing good horses every week. But you like any horse that doesn’t get tired. That’s one good thing about him.”

The field for the Charlie Hill also includes 2022 Hambletonian champion Cool Papa Bell and 2021 Trotter of the Year Jujubee. Refined is the lone mare in the 10-horse group. Her wins this season include the Armbro Flight Stakes.

Completing the lineup are Smoking Jet, Pretender, It’s A Herbie, Incommunicado, Lovedbythemasses, and Kings County.

“I think it’s a field of horses he should be competitive with,” Beaver said about Kildare King, whose fastest win time at Scioto is 1:51.4 (which he’s done twice).

In addition to the Charlie Hill, Scioto hosts the $260,000 Jim Ewart Memorial for older male pacers and a full slate of Ohio Sire Stakes championships and consolations. The Ewart’s 10-horse field includes Canadian Pacing Derby winner Tattoo Artist as well as Charlie May, the event’s defending champion who is on the verge of $2 million in lifetime purses, and 2022 Meadowlands Pace champ Beach Glass, who is making his seasonal debut.

Racing begins at 5 p.m. (EDT) Saturday at Scioto Downs. The Hill and Ewart are races 13 and 14, respectively, on the 18-race card.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Ken Weingartner, for the USTA