American Racing Calendar Puts Spotlight on Arlington Million

by Steve Davidowitz | Aug 11 2011

On Saturday, Aug. 13 there will be plenty of very good races, including the $500,000 Sword Dancer at Saratoga. But this is the one day on the American Racing Calendar that truly beautiful Arlington Park  near Chicago deserves center stage.

That is the day when Arlington hosts its annual turf racing festival that features the world famous Arlington Million, plus two other internationally popular Grade-1 stakes - the $500,000 Beverly D. for fillies and mares at 1-3/16 miles and the $400, 000 Secretariat for 3-year-olds at the Million distance of 1-1/4 miles.

Get all your Arlington Million odds  and Beverly D. odds at Bodog Racebook.

The Arlington Million will be run for the 29th time, including 1985 through 1987, when it was run with patrons using tents in place of the burned down grandstand and '88 when the race was moved to Woodbine in Canada while Arlington was being rebuilt.

On two other occasions - 1998 and 1999 - the Million was not run at all while Arlington shut down in a political dispute with the State of Illinois.

In this year's renewal, the logical horse to beat is the Aidan O'Brien trained European import, CAPE BLANCO, a winner of two important Group 1 races in Europe last year, as well as the Grade-1, Man o' War Stakes at Belmont Park, July 9. Among the horses beaten by Cape Blanco in the Man o' War were MISSION APPROVED and GIO PIONTI.

Mission Approved is an ever dangerous front runner who upset Gio Ponti in the Manhattan Handicap on the Belmont Stakes undercard. Gio Ponti, winner of the 2009 Arlington Million and a three time American turf champion turned the tables on Mission Approved in the Man 'o War but was no match that day for Cape Blanco.

All three of these top class turf horses are back Saturday for the Million and the race is deep with supporting talent:
           
European invader WIGMORE HALL, second in last year's Secretariat is back after showing good form in the $5 million Dubai Duty Free on Dubai World Cup Day March 26; French-bred ZACK HALL is the third European invader and comes to this summer classic off a fourth place finish in France's Group I Grand Prix de St. Cloud seven weeks ago.
 

The Million field also includes a pair of solid Arlington based turf performers and three longshots rated at 30-1 and higher:

RAHYSTRADA won the 2010 Arlington Handicap and was fourth in last summer's Arlington Million, while TAJAAWEED was able to win this year's Arlington Handicap and was sixth in the 2010 Million. The three extreme longshots are DEAN'S KITTEN, PROCEED BEE and GENERAL PERFECT.

In the Beverly D., STACELITA is the 3-1 morning line favorite over the European invader RIVER JETEZ, last year's Beverly D winner, ÉCLAIR DE LUNE  and Gio Ponti's stablemate CHEETAH, trained by Christophe Clement, who has won three Beverly D.'s in addition to Gio Ponti's 2009 Million score.

Clair DeLune, a big story when she won the Beverly D. last year, has not duplicated that form at any time since. Yet, she is working well at Del Mar for her return to the track owned and operated by Richard Duchossois, the man who rebuilt Arlington into a palace for horses and horseplayers after a devastating fire in the mid 1980's.
 
Duchossois, creator of the Arlington Million in 1981 established the Beverly D. Stakes in 1987 to honors his deceased wife. Understandably, the victory by Éclair De Lune, a horse Duchossois owns, was the most emotional and gratifying victory of his life.

Stacelita, a consistent mare, comes into the Beverly D after finishing a respectable third to multiple stakes winner TEAKS NORTH and other top male turf horses in the Grade I United Nations at Monmouth. She is owned by Martin Schwartz, who twice has won the Beverly D. - with Angara in 2005 and Gorella in 2006.

While all the above named contenders have strong world class credentials, the probable favorite for the Secretariat may be the best European import to come to Arlington since that track hosted the Breeders' Cup in 2002.

Also trained by Aidan O'Brien, TREASURE BEACH's impressive European resume includes a fourth placing the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp—in which he ran below the form he showed while winning the 2010 Irish Derby at the Curragh.  If O'Brien manages to bring Treasure Beach to the Secretariat in tip top form, there are very few horses in the field who can run in the same zip code with him.

If Treasure Beach has begun to tail off from his extensive 3-year-old campaign and his international travel to Dubai as well as his present cross Atlantic trip, then the three most likely upset threats will include BANNED, who has flashed good turf form at Colonial Downs and Churchill Downs; WILCOX INN, winner of the Arlington Classic earlier in the meet and the longshot NEWSDAD, who has hinted at Grade-1 talent in important stakes but has not yet put it all together.

The three Grade-1 stakes are scheduled to be shown live and on tape delay via the superstation WGN. Of equal import, Bodog is set to handle plenty of action on these three turf races, among the best on the American racing calendar.

Get all your online horse racing odds  at Bodog.