Arlington Park

In this instance, you really can't say that the grass is any greener on the other side of the fence. Take your dystopian pick: the floods of Kentucky, or the desiccation of Europe, where I've just returned from a vacation that seamlessly united the city parks of England and Italy in the same wasteland, with just a few bleached spikes still protruding from the baked, ashen earth. However illusory, then, it's a relief to find enough recognizable vegetation salvaged Stateside at least to host all three of Saturday's Grade I...

Trainer, owner and breeder Noel Hickey, who was the first trainer to breed a Breeders' Cup winner when Buck's Boy captured the GI Breeders' Cup Turf in 1998, died Monday at the age of 94. Blood-Horse first reported the story. The Irish-born Hickey, who raced under the name of Irish Acres Farm, his Ocala breeding operation, trained for over four decades and had his best success at Arlington Park. He won the 1990 training title at the Chicago-area track with 49 winners, all of whom were homebreds. He trained his...

For nearly three years, a frayed cardboard box has hidden in the corner of a small apartment in the Westside of Los Angeles, buried from view by wooly blankets, a tennis racket with broken strings, worn clothes long earmarked for the thrift store and an old jacket with a broken zipper and patched leather sleeves. The box is filled mostly with creaky photo albums stuffed full of old newspaper clippings pasted onto faded paper, laminated win pictures--the plastic as brittle as sheet-ice--and handwritten letters. There are magazines and an old...

The first items in a massive online-only auction of the contents of Arlington International Racecourse have been listed for bidding. The sales process, which is scheduled to take place over the next few months in up to 15 separate "events" grouped by asset type, is beginning with food-service and kitchen items. The coveted big-ticket racing-related offerings--marker poles, finish lines, signage, artworks, and even starting gates--will be among the last batches of items to be sold. "We're going to be targeting nostalgia and memorabilia items mid-September," said Judd Grafe, who runs...

It's been almost 55 years since Dr. Fager set a world record for the mile distance when winning the 1968 Washington Park Handicap at Arlington Park in 1:32 1/5, a record that has yet to be broken. In 1973, Secretariat won the GI Kentucky Derby, covering the 1 1/4 miles in 1:59 2/5, a record that still stands 49 years later. There are other examples, all leading to the same conclusion--the Thoroughbred racehorse is not getting any faster. Some believe that horses have gotten as fast as they can get,...

Bill Finley's column on the closing of Pompano Park used it as a textbook example of decoupling. And he warned of the possibility of such decoupling not being exclusive to the world of harness racing or other pari-mutuel wagering establishments; that Thoroughbred racing venues are just as vulnerable. Well there was evidence of such, for all to see, in Chicago in 2021. Last June, I became aware of the potentially permanent closing of Arlington Park at the end of its 2021 season. As a 40-year fan of horse racing and...

The Churchill Downs spring/summer, which will include an Arlington Million Day card transplanted from the shuttered Chicago racetrack, will offer a record 53 stakes races worth $20.37 million. The 44-day Spring Meet is highlighted by the $3-million GI Kentucky Derby May 7 and will run from Apr. 30-July 4. With the coordination of Ellis Park and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, Churchill will host a special Arlington Million Day Aug. 13. The card will feature  four stakes cumulatively worth $2 million: the $1-million GI Arlington Million; $500,000 GI Beverly D....

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...

John G. Dooley, a fixture in the announcer's box at numerous Midwest tracks, has been tabbed to replace Bill Downes as the voice of racing at Horseshoe Indianapolis Race Course, the former Indiana Grand Racecourse. Eric Halstrom, the vice president and general manger of the track, revealed the news in a tweet Friday afternoon. A native of Staten Island, New York, Dooley graduated from St. John's University on Long Island and served as an intern at the Meadowlands and at the New York Racing Association before accepting his first announcer's...

Richard Duchossois, the businessman whose name was synonymous with Arlington Park, a track he bought in 1983, has passed away. He was 100. Duchossois was born in 1921 in Chicago and was a graduate of Washington and Lee University. He joined the Army in 1942 and became the commander of Company C of the 610th Tank Destroyer Battalion, which landed on Utah Beach in Normandy. He served in five European campaigns and later served as the military governor for the region of Eichstatt. He was released from active service in...

The Illinois Racing Board (IRB) on Thursday deadlocked 5-5 on a vote to allow Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), to retain control over simulcasting in 2022 at inter-track wagering (ITW) outlets that the gaming company currently operates under its expiring Arlington International Racecourse licensure. The tie in the voting meant the measure did not advance, and it did not come up for a re-vote. Several IRB commissioners and executives with the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) expressed sentiments that Illinois racing will be better off in the long run without CDI's...

Exactly 50 days after executing a purchase-and-sale agreement that will see Arlington International Racecourse demolished to become the future site of a football stadium, the gaming corporation Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) came before the Illinois Racing Board (IRB) Thursday to request 2022 licensure to retain control over simulcasting at its inter-track wagering (ITW) locations even though it won't be hosting any live racing next year. The IRB heard contentious pro-and-con testimony on the Arlington-related agenda items, but in the end essentially punted on the matter by voting 10-0 to "lay...