On Saturday afternoon, the track with nine lives will present the most lucrative and prestigious program in Illinois racing history.
Arlington Park’s card features the Breeders’ Cup, eight races worth an aggregate of more than $13 million. There also will be two preliminary races and one follow-up, all with $100,000 purses.
This is the kind of day that an aging entrepreneur from California named Curley Brown had in mind in the mid-1920s when he acquired options to buy 14 farms adjacent to the Chicago & NorthWestern Railroad right-of-way. He then found six Chicago businessmen to invest in Arlington, hailed by the Tribune as “the greatest race course in America and one of the greatest in the world” when it opened on Oct. 13, 1927.
This is the kind of day that John D. Hertz hoped to make possible when he took over Arlington in 1928, with the infant track on the verge of collapse because of its enormous debt.
This is the kind of day that Ben Lindheimer dreamed of when he assembled to a group of investors to buy the track in 1940, a dream he held until his death in 1960.
Dick Duchossois shared that dream when he provided virtually all of the funds to buy Arlington in 1983, freeing Chicago’s premier track from 14 years as a cash cow for the Gulf & Western conglomerate and its Madison Square Garden subsidiary.
At times, the dream seemed impossible. On July 31, 1985, a raging fire destroyed Arlington. Duchossois rebuilt at an estimated cost of $200 million, only to shut down in 1998 and 1999 as a protest against the influx of riverboat gambling in the state and its effects on parimutuel wagering.
Thanks to the passage of a pro-racing bill in 1999, the racing world’s sleeping beauty came out of her coma and resumed running in 2000.
Later that year Duchossois merged Arlington with Churchill Downs Inc. and became the parent company’s single-largest shareholder. He believed he was preserving Arlington’s future, and he was proved right last year when the Breeders’ Cup Ltd. announced that it was coming to Chicago for the first time in its 19-year history.
“We’ve had a lot of downs and a few ups, but we’ve never had a dull moment,” said Duchossois, who has continued to serve as Arlington’s chairman. “We don’t want to be just competitive; we want to win. If we look backward, we’re not going to get anyplace. . . . History tells us where we made our mistakes. It doesn’t tell us to keep living in the past. You only deserve what you plan for in the future.”
Saturday’s events may play a huge role in the future of the track, helping to raise its national profile.
Duchossois hopes to make Arlington part of the Breeders’ Cup rotation, joining Churchill Downs in Kentucky, Belmont Park in New York, Santa Anita and Hollywood Park in California and Gulfstream Park in Florida. These are the tracks that day in and day out present the highest-quality extended meetings in the U.S.
The quality of Arlington’s annual meets is a couple of notches lower. For example, only one of the 90 horses in the Breeders’ Cup races–Bonapaw in the Sprint–has been based here throughout this year’s meeting.
Yet it is not out of the question that Arlington can rise to the occasion. After all, it is a track that quite literally grew out of the ashes.
On Aug. 25, 1985, just 26 days after the grandstand and clubhouse had been destroyed by fire, the 21,000 tons of rubble were cleared away and, like Brigadoon, Arlington reappeared. The Arlington Million and a supporting card were run that day in what today is known as “the Miracle Million.”
“I have to admit [Duchossois] was the only one who thought it could be done,” remembered Bill Thayer, Arlington’s senior vice president of racing. “Even when I saw those trucks going around the clock hauling out all the debris and those torches cutting those steel girders, I thought to myself, `It’s going to take a month of Sundays to get this done.'”
The smashing success of the Miracle Million notwithstanding, the horsemen and jockeys were apprehensive concerning Arlington’s future.
“Most definitely, we all were worried,” said Wayne Catalano, a former jockey and a current trainer. “Arlington is a special place. Without Arlington, Chicago racing would have been in trouble.”
Duchossois had planned for Arlington to be rebuilt as part of an equestrian center, equine community and country-club complex on 800 acres of his land near Old Mill Creek, about halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee. The real-estate taxes at the rural Old Mill location were going to be much lower than in suburban Arlington Heights.
Prompted by officals of Arlington Heights and surrounding suburbs, former Gov. Jim Thompson asked Duchossois to reconsider.
“I took them at their word that they would not raise taxes,” said Duchossois, 81. “Shame on me. Those were verbal agreements. I had nothing in writing. I reopened and my real-estate tax went from $1.25 million to $5 million. Arlington Heights held the taxes where they were. None of the other communities did.’
Still, Arlington seemed destined to return to its role as a front-runner in American racing after Duchossois rebuilt the track in lavish style and reopened. Many trainers opened stable branches, enhancing an already good nucleus. Pat Day, Mike Smith and Shane Sellers were members of the jockey colony. And the horses who made their homes at Arlington included Unbridled, winner of the 1990 Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic; Hansel, winner of the 1991 Preakness and Belmont; and Black Tie Affair, the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Horse of the Year.
But Duchossois then made perhaps his biggest mistake.
With the advice and consent of his top aides, he prevailed on the Illinois Racing Board to put Balmoral Park out of the thoroughbred business. Balmoral, in south suburban Crete, had been conducting a short summer meeting, racing on Arlington’s off days and weekend evenings. Arlington argued that Balmoral was cutting into its business.
Faced with the vehement opposition of trainers who were based at Balmoral because Arlington’s stable was full, Arlington arranged for stable space for them at Hawthorne and agreed to hold many more races catering to these lower-quality horses.
In response to that, a number of Arlington’s top trainers decided to stay at Churchill Downs after its meeting ended in late June and to ship their horses to other tracks for races rather than moving operations to Arlington.
“It took Chicago racing straight down,” said Unbridled’s trainer, Carl Nafzger, one of those who departed. “I told Bob Bork (one of Duchossois’ assistants), `Now that you’re bringing in these cheap horses, you’ll be in trouble.'”
Nafzger was right. Most of the trainers never returned to Arlington.
“I didn’t build this track to have this kind of racing,” the dejected Duchossois said in 1997 when he announced his plans to close Arlington.
But he also blamed the sudden onslaught of new gambling competition for the decline in Arlington’s attendance and betting.
“When we redesigned, we built for the conditions that existed at that time,” he said. “There was anti-gambling sentiment, and we had reason to believe there would be no dog racing in Wisconsin and no riverboat casinos in Illinois, and we didn’t have full-card simulcasting. That changed overnight. In hindsight, if I had known all this was coming, it still would have been a world-class facility, but I would have built a smaller track.”
The 1999 legislation that gave Duchossois incentives to reopen contained a provision for a new riverboat casino in nearby Rosemont. Legislators earmarked a portion of the casino’s revenue–potentially millions of dollars–for the state’s thoroughbred and harness tracks and horsemen.
But the Rosemont casino has not opened, bogged down by litigation and allegations of possible crime influence. The promised revenue stream is dry.
Duchossois hasn’t given up hope.
“My mother never said it would be easy,” he said. “She also never said it would be this hard.”
The extra revenue would make purses at Arlington competitive with the top tracks in California, New York and Kentucky, significantly lifting the quality of daily racing and luring many nationally prominent trainers and jockeys.
In the meantime, many believe that there will be a ripple effect from bringing the Breeders’ Cup to what has been called “the world’s most beautiful racetrack,” showcasing it for fans from all over America.
When Duchossois rebuilt Arlington, he promised to bring world-class racing to Chicago.
On Saturday afternoon, it will happen.
$4 million Grade I Classic
1 1/4 mile, 3-year-old and up, post time: 4:35 p.m.
PP HORSE & JOCKEY COMMENT ODDS
10 L-Hawk Wing, Kinane Nod 1st Lasix, dirt 9-2
8 L-Evening Attire, Bridgmohan Sharp at right time 8-1
11 L-Came Home, Smith Loves to win, stalks 4-1
7 L-Medaglia d’oro, Bailey Coming in razor-sharp 7-2
2 L-Volponi, Santos Beware the sleeper 50-1
6 L-Macho Uno, Stevens Forget about AP debacle? 20-1
3 L-War Emblem, Espinosa Try and catch me 3-1
12 L-Milwaukee Brew, Prado Beware the rusher 12-1
4 L-Dollar Bill, Day Constantly around $ 30-1
1 L-E Dubai, Chavez Speed to steal it 20-1
9 L-Harlan’s Holiday, Velazquez Has dangerous speed 20-1
5 L-Perfect Drift, Albarado Must move way up 20-1
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