Trying to capture the essence of a bygone era champion can be a daunting task. The subtleties can be as elusive as the principal cast of characters–many of whom might no longer with us–who made up the stalwart's inner circle. However, author Mary Perdue has managed to capture not only the nuance of a great champion, Landaluce, but also the framework of an era long since past.
A tremendous talent whose rising stardom was snuffed out much too early, Landaluce was surrounded by a team of individuals who would leave their own indelible stamps on racing history. In Landaluce: The Story of Seattle Slew's First Champion, Perdue offers a closer look at Triple Crown champion Seattle Slew, who was still but a young, developing sire at the time in question, in addition to D. Wayne Lukas, who would make his way into the record books, and ultimately the Hall of Fame, but who had much left to accomplish when Landaluce graced his shedrow.
Much of the behind-the-scenes information that Perdue unearths for this rendering is as eye-opening to the most seasoned industry veteran as it is riveting to the racing novice. The hours of research and legwork put in by Perdue is clearly evident in the pages of this work, and the snapshot in history passed along to the reader is enlightening.
NBC analyst Donna Brothers echoes the sentiment in her back-jacket assessment: “I always thought I knew the Landaluce story, but after reading Mary Perdue's captivating account of how Landaluce came to be–and then became a champion–I realized that I knew almost nothing about her and the people who surrounded her.”
Characters long since departed come alive courtesy of the abundance of detail, supported by a long list of credible resources. And while I, personally, have been fortunate to have known many of the principal characters in this book, there are also a good number of those whom I had not had the opportunity to meet. However, Perdue gives the reader real insight into the primary players around the filly, as well as those who proved instrumental in the success of her sire as well as some of the other shining stars of time.
The story of Landaluce is one that is all too familiar: an ascending starlet akin to Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse or Selena whose lives were cut short in the zenith of their careers.
As Lukas is quoted as saying, “There's nothing easy about [racing]…I know the elevator goes down, too.”
While the sun set on Landaluce long ago and far too soon, the power of her presence was enough to catapult many of those around her into the stratosphere. And Perdue's work offers the reader the opportunity to catch a glimmer of that radiance that blazed through racing in 1982.
The author will be present for a book signing at Santa Anita Park Oct. 16, marking the 40th anniversary of the Anoakia S., a race won by the filly in 1982.
As one of few institutions of American sport to rival its fastest two minutes, the Super Bowl will reopen some painful old wounds among our community. For while many in the Bluegrass presumably feel some allegiance to their nearest NFL team, they owe a deeper loyalty to the very acres on which the game will be contested–to the memories interred below.
Nostalgia for Hollywood Park will be especially piquant now that Arlington Park is in the sickening throes of a similar demise. It's no longer just John Henry, winner of two Arlington Millions and three Hollywood Invitational Handicaps, that unites these two storied venues. In both cases, it's hard to refute the narrative that football has long superseded horseracing in popular culture; that our own sport is like a faded, black-and-white movie, with a script that embarrassingly preserves outdated attitudes, treasured only by an obstinate minority of aficionados soon to be finally inundated by the inexorable tides of the digital age.
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Well, I don't know about that. It wasn't so long ago that everyone was prophesying the demolition of cinemas, outflanked by the domestic miracles of VHS, DVD and streaming. Same with bookshops, which have salvaged a viable market among people who actually feel relieved to drag their eyes from the tyranny of a small screen. But both cinema and publishing first had to be goaded from their complacency. Books were being churned out contemptuously, already halfway to garbage, so cheap was the paper and binding; they had to be made into beautiful objects that you would enjoy handling and possessing. Cinema, similarly, realized that it had to feel like an event, a spectacle, a proper indulgence.
None of us who know the timeless enchantment of the Thoroughbred will ever despair of its ability to captivate new generations of fans; to maintain a glamor once so easily conflated with that of the silver screen, as when founding shareholders of Hollywood Park included the Warner brothers, Walt Disney, Sam Goldwyn, Bing Crosby and Ronald Colman.
But everything depends on our proving equal to the stewardship of these noble animals. And it would be a blithe kind of fellow who congratulated us that we have no need, unlike cinema and publishing when they were in a corner, to raise our game.
As it is, we see a lot of cynics shoehorning high-sounding principles of equity and freedom into the service of their own interests, even when those appear quite blatantly opposed to those of the racehorse and the industry it sustains. Such grubby opportunism is hardly unique to our own walk of life, of course, but you would like to think that even the most self-absorbed and short-sighted members of our community can see how dangerously the stakes have been raised.
Sarah Andrew
Not that these alone need to see the bigger picture. Every time we lose a Hollywood Park, an Arlington, we can't blame only those whose conduct is disfiguring our standing in Main Street. The rest of us need to meet a crisis on this scale with commensurate flair and enterprise. God knows there's no shortage of people in this game with exceptional financial resources and, you know what, maybe some might even owe their wealth to more than hard work and a little luck. Maybe some of them are actually pretty smart, too. In which case, it seems inexcusable if enough of them can't get together and head off the next storied track closure. Just imagine the virtuous circle within their not-for-profit compass: low takeouts stimulating handle, handle stimulating prizemoney and facilities, in turn stimulating field sizes, further stimulating handle.
Coming from a little country like England, I am unqualified to say (though I might guess) why some American horsemen should prefer an existential crisis to fester under the sacrosanct purview of states, rather than tolerate the kind of national solution it plainly requires. As it is, however, that mosaic of fractured interests might well create an opportunity for exactly the kind of dynamism we might sooner hope to see applied to the repair of a dysfunctional system.
Say the current impasse between Bob Baffert and Churchill stays just as it is. Say his attorneys can't prise open the door to the Derby; and Baffert isn't big-hearted enough to absolve his patrons of an invidious sense that their fidelity is being tested in public; and those patrons, for their part, overlook that they are themselves only custodians of a dream for many others, from the breeder to the farrier, who will only ever get one shot at the Derby.
Well, if that remains the case, then what would you expect to be going through the head of any bold racetrack impresario out there right now? He or she will be musing over a first Saturday in May bereft of Messier (Empire Maker), Newgrange (Violence), potentially Corniche (Quality Road), and a whole bunch of other talents being developed by the most powerful barn in the country, maybe Blackadder (Quality Road) if he wins the El Camino Real Derby on Saturday; and not forgetting the fillies, like Adare Manor (Uncle Mo) and Eda (Munnings). How about lining up that lot for a million bucks over 10 furlongs, sometime at the beginning of May? You'd get eyeballs, and you might very well find yourself with a horse that outvotes the Derby winner at the Eclipse Awards this time next year.
Now there's a notion that might concentrate a few minds. And it would certainly conform with the spirit of the age–which is to say, it would bring together two different entities by offering the same answer to the question: “Screw everyone else, how do I gain most?”
Classic Causeway on debut last summer | Sarah Andrew
If that were to happen, then the GIII Sam F. Davis S. will doubtless come to seem so much shadowboxing. I hope not, because it would be wonderful to see Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) emulate White Abarrio (Race Day) in boosting the form of the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S.
This is one of only three colts eked from the final coverings of the great Giant's Causeway before his death in the spring of 2018, and I'm glad to see Brian Lynch laying down such business-like works over six and seven furlongs at Palm Meadows. I'm not sure what the masters of the past might say about modern trainers getting horses fit 48 seconds at a time, but I do know that Lynch will be playing to the genetic strengths of this particular colt.
After Giant Game bombed out in the GIII Holy Bull S., the onus is on Classic Causeway to carve a fitting memorial to their sire, who recently brought up a posthumous landmark with his 100th graded stakes winner. Classic Causeway did have the raw class to dash clear on debut at Saratoga last summer, but as a son of a Thunder Gulch mare he's entitled to the improvement he needs, with maturity and distance, to claw back the McPeek pair who had too much “foot” for him last fall.
Certainly a breakout performance from Classic Causeway would feel like a wholesome development in this whole Derby nightmare, as an evocation of old school principles among horses and horsemen alike. Because it's not just the rebels who have a cause. Don't forget that Mariah's Storm (Rahy), the dam of Giant's Causeway, won four graded stakes round Arlington; and his sire's mother Terlingua (Secretariat) won her first three starts all at Hollywood Park. Everything we do, every single thing we do, is built on the work of those who went before us; and everything we do, accordingly, should be undertaken with a view to handing on their legacy in the best possible shape.
The new millennium was not kind to horse racing in Chicagoland.
In 2000, the Bidwill family's Sportsman's Park, the bullring in the gritty south side suburb of Cicero that for years hosted both Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing, had just been transformed to an auto track that planned to continue offering Thoroughbred races on dirt spread over a concrete oval. That absurd experiment lasted a couple years. The auto track was a dud and a financial disaster. The dirt track was unsafe. Sportsman's ran its last horse race in 2002 and is now the site of several big box stores.
And 2000 was also the year Richard Duchossois merged his family-owned Arlington Park in the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights into the portfolio of the publicly traded Churchill Downs Inc. Then under the leadership of Thomas Meeker, Churchill Downs had been on something of an acquisition spree, having just purchased Calder Race Course near Miami, Fla., and Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif.
We know how those acquisitions have worked out for the Thoroughbred industry. Meeker left Churchill Downs in 2006, one year after Hollywood Park was sold to a land development company that would close the track in 2013 and construct an NFL football stadium in its place.
Calder's grandstand was torn down in 2015 and the racing surface and a portion of the stables were leased to The Stronach Group, owner of Gulfstream Park, to run a spectator-less meet re-branded as Gulfstream Park West. That lease expired last year and Calder/GP West is now history. So, too, are the purse supplements that came from the Calder Casino, for which horsemen helped Churchill Downs Inc. fight for approval in a 2008 referendum.
It's difficult to imagine how there is a future for Arlington Park as a racetrack after the current meet ends next month. Churchill Downs Inc. is majority owner of Rivers Casino 10 miles away and turned down the opportunity created in 2019 by gambling expansion legislation that would have permitted an on-site casino at Arlington. Illinois breeders, owners and trainers were stunned and felt betrayed when Arlington said it would not apply for a casino license and instead sell the property for development. For years, decades even, horsepeople stood side by side with Arlington representatives in the state capitol in Springfield, lobbying for legislation to permit slots or casinos at racetracks.
Arlington did not apply for 2022 racing dates and it would not be in Churchill Downs Inc's best interests as a casino company to sell the track to anyone who would offer pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing. That would be competition for the gambling dollar and conceivably could hurt Rivers Casino's business.
The Carey family's Hawthorne Race Course appears to be Illinois racing's last hope – unless you count old Fairmount Park in southern Illinois, which has been rebranded as FanDuel Sports Book and Horse Racing.
Hawthorne, which sat directly adjacent to Sportsman's Park, announced plans for a $500 million casino expansion following the 2019 gambling legislation. But construction on the casino was halted in April, with no public explanation or a timeline for completion.
Even if the Hawthorne casino is completed, the situation is far from ideal. Hawthorne is now the only track hosting Standardbred racing in the Chicago area, and this creates not only a potential conflict over racing dates between the two breeds, but future revenue from the casino earmarked for purses will have to be divided between Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds. The 2019 legislation permitted a new harness track/casino to be built in an area south of Chicago, but to date neither a suitable investor or property has been approved.
Arlington's racing days are dwindling down to a precious few, The palatial grandstand remains one of the great wonders of the North American racing world, though it's obvious the once pristine aesthetics and maintenance standards set by the very hands-on Richard Duchossois have fallen considerably as he approaches the century mark in years. Unsightly weeds growing throughout the plant are just one of the eyesores that wouldn't have been there a decade ago. In fact, back then, Duchossois himself might have grabbed a weed wacker to show the maintenance crew how it's done, just as he took control of traffic flow into the parking lot one Arlington Million day not that many years ago.
Speaking of Arlington Million Day, or whatever it was called this year after the signature race's purse was slashed and renamed the Mr. D. Stakes in honor of Duchossois, how about that Tony Petrillo, the track's president?
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Based on reporting by Jim O'Donnell in the Daily Herald (apparently the only Chicago-area newspaper to cover this year's three Grade 1 races, with both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times ignoring them), Petrillo had quite the meltdown, lashing out at media members who did come to cover the races. According to O'Donnell and confirmed by several writers and photographers from horse racing publications, Petrillo would not allow photographers, other than the track photographer, to get in position to photograph any of the big turf races.
After the day's final race was run, buoyed with members of the security staff, Petrillo cleared out the press box while those same writers and photographers were trying to finish their assignments and send their stories and pictures to their respective publications. Petrillo even told one photographer who happened to be on assignment for a Churchill Downs Inc. subsidiary, that she was “banned for life” from Arlington Park.
It's the same treatment owners and trainers have been receiving from Arlington management in recent years.
There was a time when Arlington Park's press box was as welcoming and friendly as any track in the country. It wasn't just the comfortable accommodations or the excellent meals that were served to grateful writers and photographers. More importantly, Richard Duchossois would walk through the press box and thank each member of the media individually for coming to Arlington Park, asking them if there's anything they needed.
How times have changed.
My gut feeling is that this is the end of the road for Arlington Park, the track where I fell in love with racing in the 1970s. It's been a long, slow and painful death to observe since Duchossois relinquished complete control of Arlington in 2000. I may not agree with them, but I understand business decisions and fiduciary responsibilities that drive publicly traded companies like Churchill Downs Inc. What I don't understand is the arrogance and nastiness from Arlington's management that has accompanied the track's tragic fall.
I had always thought the final days of Arlington Park would be bittersweet, a mix of sorrow with the great memories furnished by the horses and people who put on the show for so many decades. But the architects of what seems destined to be this wonderful track's final chapter seem hell bent on making sure it's a bitter end.
The National Football League's Chicago Bears announced Thursday afternoon they have submitted a bid to purchase Arlington Park racetrack in Arlington Heights, Ill., from Churchill Downs Inc.
“We recently submitted a bid to purchase the Arlington International Racecourse property,” said Bears president and CEO Ted Phillips. “It's our obligation to explore every possible option to ensure we're doing what's best for our organization and its future. If selected, this step allows us to further evaluate the property and its potential.”
The Bears are the second known bidder for the 326-acre property that has hosted horse racing since 1927. A group led by former Arlington president Roy Arnold issued a statement on Tuesday saying it has submitted a bid to develop a portion of the property while continuing racing at the northwest suburban Chicago track. Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas Hayes told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday that he had met with “less than 10” potential bidding groups before a 5 p.m. CT Tuesday deadline to submit bids on the property.
The Bears currently play at Soldier Field along Lake Michigan just south of downtown Chicago. That stadium, which first opened in 1924, was renovated at a cost of $400 million earlier this century, reopening in the fall of 2003.
The Bears are owned by the heirs of the late George Halas, who owned and coached the team and first raised the possibility of moving the team to the suburbs nearly 50 years ago.
If Arlington Park becomes the new home of the Chicago Bears, it would be the second historic racetrack that had been owned by Churchill Downs Inc. to be developed into an NFL stadium. Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif., was sold in 2005 by Churchill Downs to the Bay Meadows Land Company, which operated the track until 2013. It was demolished the following year for the construction of SoFi Stadium, since September 2020 the home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers.
Churchill Downs Inc. shocked the Illinois racing industry when it opted not to apply for a casino license at Arlington following passage of an expanded gambling bill giving Illinois tracks something they had sought for more than 20 years. Churchill Downs Inc. is majority owner of Rivers Casino in nearby Des Plaines, and the company is seeking a casino license in Waukegan, north of Chicago.
