‘It’s A Reality Now’: Arlington Issues Layoff Notices To Employees

Arlington Park employees received formal notice over the weekend that they will be laid off at the end of the race meet, reports the Chicago Daily Herald. The Arlington Heights, Ill. track was listed for sale by parent company Churchill Downs earlier this year, which the layoff notice indicates “will result in the closure of Arlington International Racecourse.”

Layoffs are expected to begin on Sept. 25, the final day of racing.

Churchill has been evaluating offers for Arlington Park's 326-acre property since June 16, but Nick Micaletti, business agent for Teamsters Local 727, doesn't expect CDI will sell to horse racing interests.

“It's a reality now, whereas before it was, well, hopefully somebody comes in and buys it and does the right things and helps Illinois horse racing,” Micaletti told the Daily Herald.

Read more at the Chicago Daily Herald.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Keep Showing Up’ Motto Pays Off For Davis

It only took four and a half years for trainer Chris Davis to progress from saddling his first winner to his 100th, and shortly thereafter to his first graded stakes win. Statistically speaking, he's ahead of the curve. Watching the filly Naval Laughter crossing the wire first in the Grade 3 Modesty Stakes last Saturday at Arlington, Davis' 105th winner overall, the 32-year-old trainer let the emotion show. 

He celebrated, of course, but like all lifelong horsemen he was right back in the barn before sunrise on Sunday morning.

“It's funny, when you go back and listen to some of these top-tier trainers, and they say the first 100 wins were the hardest to get,” Davis said. “You just keep doing your job, keep showing up and it'll happen. It's a marathon, not a sprint.”

The same could be said for Naval Laughter's career. The 4-year-old daughter of Midshipman was making just her fourth start in the Modesty, having missed the entirety of her sophomore season.

Breeder Anthony Braddock sold the filly as a yearling for $90,000 at Fasig-Tipton's July sale, then watched her run a game third in her first start in November of her 2-year-old season for trainer Ken McPeek. Naval Laughter developed an issue after that race, and the owners decided to run her back through another sale.

Braddock bought her back for $17,000 at the February Mixed sale in 2020, and gave her plenty of time to recover at his Two Hearts Farm. Meanwhile, the owner had been introduced to Davis through jockey Sophie Doyle.

Doyle got her first graded stakes win in the United States for Braddock in 2015 aboard Fioretti, and was aboard Naval Laughter for last Saturday's win to complete the full circle. 

Trainer Chris Davis and jockey Sophie Doyle celebrate Naval Laughter's graded stakes win in the Modesty

“Tony has been extremely patient with this filly, basically allowing us to have free rein with determining what her schedule is going to be,” Davis said. “She'd had plenty of time off, so there was no sense of rushing her back to the races only to get her hurt again. We really just let her take us to her first race.”

That collective “we” refers to Davis' assistant trainer Mynor Ortiz. The man has been with Davis since the beginning of his training career, and works hard to keep both the horses and the stable staff happy. He was instrumental in bringing Naval Laughter back to the races. 

In her first start off the layoff, the filly “just blew us away,” Davis said. 

That first start in nearly 18 months came on June 3 in a maiden special weight on the synthetic at Arlington, which Naval Laughter won by an impressive 19 ¾ lengths. 

In her second start, Davis had tried to get the filly on the turf course but the race was rained off and held on the synthetic once again. Naval Laughter went a bit too quickly early and had a 3 ½-length lead at the head of the lane, but was run down in the stretch and had to settle for second.

Davis finally got Naval Laughter on the turf for the Modesty, and the filly relaxed off the pace to run down the leaders in the stretch and win by a half-length. She completed 1 1/16 miles on the firm Arlington course in 1:54.58.

“It was a pretty awesome feeling,” Davis said.

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Davis has had horse racing ingrained in his soul since his earliest memories of toddling around his mother Liane Davis' shed rows throughout Chicago. She never trained more than 10 to 20 horses at a time, so their care was a family affair; Davis' father was her assistant, an exercise rider, and also served as an assistant starter on the gate in the afternoons.

There was, however, a brief period when Davis considered working outside the racetrack, he admits.

“I was really into movies and acting and theater when I was younger,” Davis said. “I worked at Medieval Times in Chicago, jousting, and I got into film school but I decided not to go. It was more about who you know than where you go to school, so I decided to go to community college and get a business degree instead while I worked at the track.

“I may have done a lot of acting stuff, but I've also always loved the racetrack; once it gets into your blood it's hard to get it out.”

Though he'd already passed the test to take out a trainer's license by the time he graduated, Davis knew he wanted to learn more before setting out on his own. He exercised horses for trainers like Richard Hazelton, Rusty Hellman, Wayne Catalano, and Pat Byrne, then took his first assistant's job for Mike Stidham.

Davis spent 5 ½ years with Stidham, then another two out on the west coast for Phil D'Amato.

“I was fortunate enough to see a lot,” Davis said. “People train so differently from coast to coast. I'd spent a lot of time in the Midwest, gone to New Orleans, New York, Gulfstream, shipping in to other trainers' barns and watching how they do things, but I hadn't spent a lot of time in California. Obviously there are trainers out there that are really strong in the game, so you figure there's got to be some reason for that. I wanted to be able to see what they were doing, how they trained. 

“Out West, they train a little bit harder, just the way they breeze their horses and the work schedules are a little bit different.”

Today, Davis puts all his varied experience to good use when developing individualized schedules for his 35-horse string in Chicago. 

“I never worked for a straight 'program guy,'” he explained. “Whether there were 50 or 150 in the barn, every horse got individual attention every day. So I'm always adapting different things to individualize it for each horse.”

A big part of his success has been Davis' ability to read both horses and people.

“I really try to individualize every client to their needs, just like the horses,” he said. “I think honesty is the most important thing; you're less likely to have a poor effort that's unexplained.”

Trainer Chris Davis

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Report: Two Additional Non-Racing Entities Reveal Bids For Arlington Park

A report in the Chicago Daily Herald this weekend revealed that a total of at least four bids have been submitted to Churchill Downs Inc. to purchase Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., only one of which intends to keep horse racing alive. That bid is headed by former track president Roy Arnold.

The Chicago Bears have also put in bid to purchase the site, but the two new bids revealed over the weekend would develop the 326-acre property for mixed-use purposes.

One is from Chicago-based Glenstar Properties, which has a unique proposition which would allow Churchill Downs to partner in the development in a shared-risk, higher reward scenario.

The fourth bid is from Schaumburg-based UrbanStreet Group LLC, and while details were scant, it appears likely the group would also redevelop the site.

Read more at the Chicago Daily Herald.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Achard Restarts His Career, Claims His First Graded Win

Jockey Alex Achard may have caught some flack from his fellow riders over his celebration in the winning photograph from last Saturday's Grade 3 Chicago Stakes at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., but he hasn't let that bother him. After all, it's not every day you get your first graded stakes victory.

“A lot of people made fun of that, but I don't really mind,” the 30-year-old Achard said. “I was so happy. I was confident before the race, but obviously it wasn't easy. 

“When I handicapped the race, Brad Cox's horse was really the horse to beat and after that the race was quite open; I guess I got such a good trip so that's probably where I won the race.

“At that moment (at the finish line) I wasn't really thinking about anything, I was just happy.”

Achard began his riding career in his native France, but made the decision to move to the United States in 2018. He knew the opportunities were more plentiful, but he didn't know which part of the country to try first. 

“I had no clue where to go, absolutely no clue,” Achard said, laughing. “I'd been to the U.S. once before, galloping in California one winter, and when things weren't working out in France after I lost the claim, I knew I wanted to come back to the U.S.

“I called Flo[rent Geroux], even though I didn't know him very well, because when he left there was when I was starting to ride, so we kind of crossed paths with each other. I just knew who he was, and that he was successful.”

Geroux suggested Indiana because the grouping of racetracks in the region are all within driving or short flight distance, Achard said.

It's taken several years to build up his business. When he first arrived, the jockey couldn't find an agent and wound up making his living as an exercise rider.

“Obviously in France I did well years ago, but you restart from the bottom here,” Achard said. “Nobody knows you or what you've done in your own country. It was harder than I thought, I just thought I'd find an agent and it would be all right. When I couldn't find anyone, I just started galloping for Tom Amoss in Indiana, breezing most of his workers. He sent me to Saratoga for the summer with a string of 10 to 12 horses. Obviously I didn't race, but it was a great experience.”

After Achard returned to Indiana, he found an agent and picked up a few mounts at the end of the 2018 meet. He followed the local circuit to Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. for the winter, and earned a pair of seconds that December, but it wasn't until March of 2019 that Achard finally got his first win in the U.S.

He wound up winning 17 races in 2019, and last year, despite the struggles and restrictions implemented by the pandemic, Achard improved his statistics to win 33 races and top $1 million in earnings. 

Achard's first stakes win came in late summer of 2020 at Indiana Grand, winning the $100,000 Indiana First Lady Stakes on Aug. 26 aboard Wellington Wonder for trainer Michelle Lovell.

“I'm so happy for Alex,” Lovell told Indiana Grand's publicity department after that win. “When he first got here, I saw him win for someone else and thought he could really ride. He has always liked this filly and he knows her really well. She only has one big stride and he knows how to time his move. He works so hard, so I'm glad to see him get his first stakes win.”

In 2021, Achard has already racked up 23 wins. He has able to travel around the Midwest much more due to the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions, and made a specific request to his agent to try to find mounts at Arlington Park.

“I just told my agent at the beginning of the year, this is the last year of Arlington, and I've never been and I want to see it,” Achard said. “I told her, 'I want to ride there before it's gone, even if the horse has three legs!' I had just heard so many good things about it, and it's really beautiful. It's so sad to think that this might be the last year.”

The possibility of shutting down Arlington reminded Achard of a similar situation in France.

“They just did that to a big track in Paris last year, a beautiful racetrack where you could run 1 ¼ miles straight,” he explained. “There were only two racetracks in Europe where you can do that, Newmarket being the other, but they just shut down the track last year. That was pretty sad.”

Still, it was that drive to see Arlington Park, plus his willingness and desire to ride races at every available opportunity, that earned him the mount aboard the Anna Meah-trained Abby Hatcher in the Chicago Stakes.

The G3 was Meah's first graded stakes win as well, and she credited a clever ride from Achard in her celebratory social media post.

Though he wasn't raised in the sport of horse racing, Achard comes by his love of horses and competition naturally. Both his parents are involved in show jumping in France, and for a time during his youth they also exercised racehorses in the mornings.

“Actually, I grew up with horses, but I never wanted to learn how to ride because I was around horses every day and I wasn't interested in riding,” Achard revealed. “It came up way later, when I started riding at 13 or 14, but I could have been on the horses at probably three years old.

“I just fell in love with the horses, and that's the main thing you need. I also love racing, the competition of it, so it's a good match for me.”

Looking forward, Achard says he can't compare himself to the success of his fellow countrymen Julien Leparoux, Geroux, or even Flavien Prat, with whom he did ride a bit in France. 

“What I want is to ride the most winners I can, obviously if they are good races it's even better,” Achard said. “I still have some work to do, but I don't put a lot of pressure on myself, I just try to do my thing. I don't compare myself to them, but if I can do some of what they've accomplished, that would be amazing.”

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