Arlington Park | Horse Racing Free Tips

No Racing At Arlington In 2022; Hawthorne To Offer Six Months Of Thoroughbred Dates

Since Churchill Downs declined to apply for race dates at Arlington Park in 2022, the Illinois Racing Board was not able to assign Arlington dates at it's Thursday meeting, reports the Daily Racing Form. Arlington's final day of racing is scheduled for this Saturday, and though CDI has not made a final decision on the sale of the racetrack, it remains unlikely that live racing will ever return to the Arlington Heights neighborhood.

Hawthorne, the other Chicago area track, will host six months of Thoroughbred dates next year. In total, the number of Thoroughbred race dates in the Chicago area will decline from 124 in 2021 to 76 in 2022.

The schedule is as follows: January through March will offer harness competition, then Thoroughbred racing in April through June. Harness race will resume July through the middle of September, and the Thoroughbred season resumes Sept. 23 through the end of the year.

“That schedule that was put together has a lot of horsemen frustrated,” trainer and Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association board member Chris Block told DRF. “I know all the negatives, but there's no other way around it to allow both breeds to have some sort of schedule. It's the best we can do right now.”

The other dates assigned at Thursday's IRB meeting include a 61-day meet at Fairmount Park in Collinsville, Ill., recently rebranded Fanduel Sportsbook and Horse Racing.

For Arlington, The End Is Here

The ninth race Saturday at Arlington is scheduled to go off at 6:12 p.m. Central Time and that will be it. Barring an 11th-hour miracle, the plug will be pulled by Churchill Downs and the wrecking ball will soon be on its way. Considered one of the most beautiful tracks in the world and an important part of American racing since opening in 1927, Arlington Park will run its last-ever card Saturday.

On the racetrack, it figures to be a quiet afternoon. At the same track that has played host to Secretariat, Citation, Dr. Fager, John Henry and has been the site of the Grade I Arlington Million, the sport's first ever $1-million race, and a Breeders' Cup, the richest races of the day will be a pair of $40,000 allowance races.

“The mood here is one of sheer depression,” said trainer Mike Campbell, who is the president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. “This is as ugly as it gets. Churchill is so tone deaf that they are actually going to have fireworks on Saturday night after the races. More so than anything, that shows how tone deaf they are.”

The beginning of the end began in September 2019 when Churchill Downs declined to apply for a casino license for Arlington. The company committed to only two more years of racing at the suburban Chicago track.

That stunned horsemen, who had been led to believe that Churchill was on board when it came to opening a casino at Arlington, which would have guaranteed the track's future. Conventional wisdom is that Churchill does not want a casino at Arlington because it would compete with a highly successful gaming facility it owns in nearby Des Plaines, Illinois. The next step was Churchill announcing that the track was being put up for sale. The list of potential buyers includes a partnership led by former Arlington president Roy Arnold that wants to preserve racing, but it appears highly unlikely Churchill will sell to that group.

“It's corporate greed. That's all it is,” said trainer Michele Boyce, who has two entered for Saturday. “Churchill is obviously worried about making money for their shareholders, which they have done a very good job of. Somewhere along the line, though, you've got to have a little bit of compassion too, for history and for people and for the traditions a place like Arlington has. To see racing in Chicago reduced to basically nothing is downright cruel.”

“Churchill Downs wants to own casinos,” said leading trainer Larry Rivelli. “It's a lot more lucrative to own a casino than a racetrack. It's just unfortunate because they had the opportunity to open a casino here and they passed on it. That's why everyone is so angry. They lobbied for it for 20 years and in the end they said no.”

Thoroughbred racing moves to Hawthorne Oct. 8, the first day of a meet that will run through Dec. 27. Hawthorne has been given the green light to build a casino and is in no danger of closing. The problem is that it is the only racing facility left in the Chicago area and is required to divide its dates between Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing. There will be two Thoroughbred meets at Hawthorne next year, one that covers April, May and June and another that will be held in October, November and December. The Standardbreds will have the July, August and September dates, leaving a huge hole in the thoroughbred racing schedule.

For Rivelli, that's not a huge problem. He has a large stable and plenty of quality horses. He plans on having a division next year in Kentucky. But there are plenty of Illinois-based trainers who don't have the quality or quantity to pull something like that off.

“There are trainers here who are just sick about what is happening,” Campbell said. “There has been a gamut of emotions. I've got people who don't know how they are going to make a living. They don't know where they are going to go. The majority of the horsemen here are local guys who don't really have the quality to go somewhere else. They don't have that many options. We have trainers and owners here who are just ready to give up. This is going to take a terrible toll on the ranks of horse ownership.”

Boyce has already decided to move her operation to Indiana Grand. She will ship to Hawthorne on occasion, but says the truncated racing season next year in Illinois does not work for her. She doesn't see how a circuit can possibly make it when there is no racing during three keys months of the summer.

“It's not going to work until they can open up a new harness track,” she said. “I'm ready to sell my home and go elsewhere. The only thing that will save Illinois racing is if they can create a situation where both breeds can have their own track and have what they need. It's not shaping up that way right now. With the way things are, it's very hard to see a future in Illinois racing.”

Campbell and the horsemen have worked tirelessly to find a solution for Illinois's racing's problems. He said he is holding out some hope, only because the Arnold bid has yet to be formally rejected. But he's practical enough to know that there is very little hope and that 94 years after it opened Arlington is done.

When Arlington opened on Oct. 13, 1927, the Daily Herald called it “America's Greatest Race Course.” The weather was cold and the wind was biting but 20,000 fans showed up that day to welcome in Chicago's newest racetrack. The crowd was there to celebrate. That won't be the case Saturday. You don't celebrate at a funeral.

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Chicago Mayor Bears Down On Keeping NFL Team From Moving To Arlington Park

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she is willing to work with Chicago Bears management to seek improvements to Soldier Field, home to the NFL team since 1971, in order to avert a move to a new stadium at Arlington Park racetrack in the city's northwest suburbs.

The Bears are among several entities bidding to purchase Arlington Park from publicly traded Churchill Downs Inc., which is majority owner of the Rivers Casino about 11 miles away. One of the other bidders, a group led by former Arlington Park president Roy Arnold, hopes to keep racing alive at Arlington while developing some of the property. No other bidders have expressed an interest in continuing racing at the historic track.

The 2021 Arlington Park meet closes this Saturday, Sept. 25. The track did not seek racing dates in 2022.

When the Bears confirmed in June they made an offer to buy Arlington to pursue a new stadium, Lightfoot downplayed the possibility of the Bears leaving Soldier Field, where they have a lease that runs through 2033. The 62,000-seat lakefront stadium, the smallest in the NFL, is owned by the Chicago Park District. It was renovated nearly 20 years ago at a cost of over $600 million to the city but is no match for some of the NFL's new stadiums, including So-Fi – home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers – built at a cost of $5.5 billion on the old Hollywood Park racetrack property in Inglewood, Calif.

When the Bears said they were looking to move to Arlington Park, Lightfoot chided them to focus more on “putting a winning team on the field, beating the Packers finally and being relevant past October. Everything else is noise.”

In comments to the editorial board of the Chicago Sun-Times on Monday, Lightfoot said she is willing to work with the team on expansion and improvements to Soldier Field in a “fiscally-prudent way.”

Lightfoot wants the stadium to generate year-round revenue for Chicago outside of Bears games and would like to improve the experience for fans.

“I am a Bears fan. I want the Bears to stay in the city of Chicago,” she said. “”And we are willing to work with them to try to address their concerns. … We are evaluating ways in which we can enhance the fan experience at Soldier Field. … I know that it can be better.”

Letter To The Editor: Closing Arlington Will Rob Sport Of Future Fans

I was there on June 29, 1973. Arlington Park was chosen for the return race for Secretariat, his first since capturing the Belmont Stakes, and the Triple Crown, by 31 lengths. I was a month away from turning two, but at least I can say I was there when arguably the greatest thoroughbred ever ran.

I was there on May 25, 1979. I was in the grandstand at Arlington with mom, dad, and my two brothers when someone noticed a large black plume of smoke in the distance from the southeast. A man next to us commented, “you know, that's where O'Hare is.” Apart from the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the American Airlines Flight 191 crash has the worst death toll in American aviation history.

I was there on July 31, 1985. Mom and dad decided we were going to Arlington, like many other times, that day. We'd heard about the restaurant fire but figured it was small and the horses would still be running. It wasn't a short trip either, we were coming from Milwaukee, so we had to be pretty sure, or naive. Needless to say, they weren't running and the entire grandstand was engulfed in flames when we arrived.

I was there on August 25, 1985. The Miracle Million was a sea of humanity and tents. We were all just so glad to see racing at Arlington again, if only for the day. My brother and I had win tickets on Teleprompter and my dad hit the exacta with Greinton.

I was there on July 13, 1996. The Citation Challenge was put together swiftly by management to attract Cigar, who was attempting to tie Citation's mark of 16 consecutive victories.

After the win and his press obligations, Jerry Bailey autographed a Cigar T-shirt for me, and many others, in the paddock near the jocks room, showing unbelievable patience and generosity with us, even telling a security guard who offered him a way out, that it was OK, he'd keep signing until he got everyone.

I was there on August 16, 2003. Storming Home was clearly the best horse in that Arlington Million, but unfortunately he spooked right before the wire and interfered with two of his rivals. It was unbearably hot that day and I almost suffered a heat stroke arguing with a guy about the inevitable DQ, asking him if nothing happened, “Why is Gary Stevens out there lying on the turf course?”

I was there on May 23, 2009. There were a lot of horses with a chance to win the Arlington Matron that day as they turned for home, in a frantic attempt to give his mount the room it needed to possibly win the race, Jamie Theriot slammed into a horse to his right causing a chain reaction of horses and jockeys flying everywhere. One of the jockeys, Rene Douglas, went down and would never walk again.

I was there at Arlington Park not just on these more notable days, but hundreds and hundreds of other days. It didn't matter if it was Million Day or just an afternoon for basic claimers and allowance runners , I wanted to be there.

First, it wasn't my choice, if mom and dad were going, the kids were going. Luckily, dad caught the “bug” from grandpa, and mom caught it from dad, and so the story goes. Later on, I learned it wasn't my choice again, it had chosen me and I had caught the “bug,” and I was helpless to resist.

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I was thoroughly enthralled with going to Arlington Park; it completely captured my imagination and I loved everything about it. From looking through my dad's old Daily Racing Forms to pretending I was a jockey riding a horse on the arms of the couch to finding wooden planks in the garage and placing them on the lawn so I could park my little wagon, just the way I'd seen the crew at Arlington do when putting the starting gate on the turf course.

One of my greatest teenage moments was not my driving license or going to prom, it was going up to a betting window at the age of 14 or 15, calling out a bet to the teller, and him giving me the ticket, not even questioning whether I was old enough to bet. I thought I ruled the world. I was eventually caught, taken to the security office, and waited for my parents to be called to the office so they could be notified of my offense, like they didn't know. I pretended to listen to the security guard as he scolded me but it was during a race, I was listening to the track announcer, not him.

So, fast forward to 2021, it looks like those days at Arlington Park could be a thing of the past. It's been heartbreaking to witness. That beautiful, breathtaking building on a wonderful piece of land has been decided to be unwanted as a racing property anymore. None of us should be surprised, we've seen this movie play out before at Hollywood Park and Calder.

And, yes, there's plenty of blame to go around, from the foot dragging politicians in Illinois to the management of CDI, but I am not interested in getting into that argument. I have just been hoping and praying Arlington would get a different fate. It deserves better.

People still actually go to Arlington. On the weekends, they have good crowds with people who are interested and are fans of horse racing. It is the most spectacular way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the summer. Not like these racinos where the horse racing is an almost afterthought, or a necessary evil that's part of a bigger deal to get slots and table games into the venue. I've been to these racinos too; very few are betting or watching the horses run. No new fans are being created.

And that's the hardest part for me, if Arlington goes away, no kid in the future will see the things I've seen, experienced what I've experienced, or have the memories that I've had over the last 50 years. Nobody else will be able to be touched by a place so profoundly as Arlington has touched me and my family.

And I know all the cliches and proclamations: change is inevitable, time moves on, CDI is just doing right by their shareholders, and that there are still plenty of other racetracks running. I understand that and do accept that change is inevitable but this one is personal to me. It's where I learned the game that has been with me my entire life.

I've witnessed some of the highest highs and lowest lows at Arlington Park, I've seen human stars like Pat Day, Earlie Fires, Jorge Velasquez, Jerry Bailey, Junior Alvarado, Rene Douglas, Sandy Hawley and countless others, and marveled at their courage. I've watched equine stars like Lost Code, Meafara, Taylor's Special, Buck's Boy, Black Tie Affair, Dreaming of Anna, Manila, Gio Ponti and countless others, and been in awe of their speed and determination. And in another week, that might be all that's left, memories.

The statue above the paddock at Arlington is that of the photo between John Henry and The Bart from the first Arlington Million, it's called “Against All Odds,” and the Million run 27 days after the fire that took down the entire building is referred to as the”Miracle Million,” Is it too much to ask that Arlington still has more Millions left in it, or is it going to take another miracle? Or is the hope that CDI sells the property to one of the bidders that still plans to use the land for horse racing against all odds? Maybe so.

The sport needs as many places like Arlington Park as possible. We can't keep losing treasures like this and say, “it'll be fine.” We need the fan base to grow, not just the wagering dollars to increase. You do that at the track. And if this truly is the end, goodbye Arlington, thanks for the memories, it was a hell of a ride. You will be truly missed, it's too bad your current sellers don't feel the same way.

– Rob Kaegi is a lifelong fan of Thoroughbred racing

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