St. Leger Stakes presents challenge

There’s a new race in the lineup for Saturday’s International Festival of Racing.

And 10 horses will line up to challenging the one mile and 11/16ths turf distance of the $400,000 American St. Leger Stakes.

“I think the race is a wild card,” said veteran Arlington Park trainer Chris Block, who entered two horses (Suntracer and Ioya Bigtime) but will only run one. “It should be interesting and a fun race to watch.”

Bettors will watch the field circle the famed Arlington turf course twice.

“In my opinion, there’s some of us (trainers) wondering if our horses can go that far,” Block added. “And it will be interesting to see them run and find out.”

Two horses have run farther than two miles or more in a race: Zuider Zee and Bridge of Gold in England.

Game Ball has been scratched from the race and is entered in Saturday’s Grade I Sword Dancer at Saratoga.

Three Kings in Million:When they were students at St. Viator High School (all different classes), brothers Ron and Al Lepinski and Marty Nixon never could have imagined one day owning a horse running in the Arlington Million.Al and Ron actually met Nixon through hockey. An experienced player, Al coached a novice hockey- league team. His brother Ron and Nixon were on the squad that went on to win a national title.#147;We were in our mid-20s and we#146;d go out after games,#148; Al said. #147;That went on for about five or six years and then we broke it off. Then about 10 years later we ran into Marty again (2000).#147;Our businesses were all going well, and we started talking about horse racing and thought about getting a horse ourselves. That#146;s how it all came to fruition.#148;Because they are hockey fans, they named their stable Three Kings for the Los Angeles Kings#146; line from the 1970s.Today they will be fans of Willcox Inn, who is trying to give trainer Mike Stidham his first win in Grade I stakes at Arlington Park.Al, Marty and their companions traveled by bus to Wednesday#146;s post-position draw at the WGN studios in Chicago.#147;It was great at WGN,#148; Al Lepinski said. #147;Arlington Park was a really great host, and Mr. (Richard) Duchossois (track chairman) put on a great show.#148;Italian Stallion:Irish-bred Crackerjack King put together a perfect record while racing in Italy the last two years.The 4-year-old gray colt scored 5 wins at San Siro in Milan and a pair of victories at Capannelle in Rome.In his last start, Crackerjack King was fifth in a Group I race July 7 at Sandown Park in England.