Tuesday, January 24 2012
ARLINGTON TO RUN 26 STAKES IN 2012 WORTH $5.8 MILLION
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (Jan. 24, 2012) – The International Festival of Racing, featuring the 30th running of the Grade I Arlington Million, tops a 2012 schedule that includes 26 stakes races worth $5.8 million during 90 days of racing at Arlington Park from Friday, May 4 through Sunday, Sept. 30. The Stakes Schedule must first be approved by the Illinois Racing Board at its January meeting.
Arlington's International Festival of Racing will be on Saturday, Aug. 18 and features three Grade I stakes – the $1,000,000 Arlington Million for 3-year-olds & older; the $750,000 Beverly D. for fillies & mares, 3-years-old & older; the $500,000 Secretariat Stakes for 3-year-olds and the newly created $400,000 Arlington St. Leger for 3-year-olds & older scheduled to be run over Arlington’s internationally acclaimed turf course
Monday, January 16 2012
DAVIS RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL WITH NEGATIVE X-RAYS AFTER SUNDAY SPILL AT AQUEDUCT
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jockey Jackie Davis was released from North Shore University Hospital early Monday morning after X-rays and scans came back negative following a spill Sunday after the conclusion of the ninth race at Aqueduct Racetrack. Ryan Curatolo, also involved in the incident, walked off the track and appeared uninjured.
“Her initial X-rays were negative, but she told the doctors she was still in pain, so they did a CT scan, and that was also negative,” said Davis' agent Roger Sutton. “She was hurting, but she’s tough.”
Saturday, November 19 2011
TRAINER GRAHAM MOTION WINS 2011 BIG SPORT OF TURFDOM AWARD
The Turf Publicists of America (TPA) announced today that trainer Graham Motion has been chosen as the 2011 winner of the organization's Big Sport of Turfdom Award. The annual honor is bestowed upon a person or group of people who enhance coverage of Thoroughbred racing through cooperation with media and Thoroughbred racing publicists.
Most notable of Motion’s many accomplishments in 2011 of course was his saddling of Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom. However his considerable success wasn’t limited to the first Saturday in May as his runners accounted for 17 graded stakes victories this year, including additional Grade I scores with Toby’s Corner (Wood Memorial), Summer Soiree (Del Mar Oaks) and Aruna (Spinster).
Wednesday, October 26 2011
STACELITA AND GIO PONTI TOP LIST OF 20 ARLINGTON-RACED HORSES ON LIST OF BC PRE-ENTERED HORSES
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (Oct. 26, 2011) – Arlington Park again proved to be a stepping-stone for the Breeders' Cup World Championships with one Breeders’ Cup Challenge winner, four additional 2011 Arlington stakes winners, 11 other Arlington Park ’11 participants and four additional horses who raced at Arlington in past seasons listed among the record 193 horses pre-entered for this year's event to be run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. on Friday, Nov. 4 and Saturday, Nov. 5.
Leading the way among 2011 Arlington stakes winners pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup is Stacelita, who earned a berth into the Grade I $2 million Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf by virtue of winning the Grade I Beverly D. on Aug. 13. The Beverly D. was part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” format, which automatically places the winners of selected major stakes races at racetracks worldwide, including Arlington Park. into a corresponding divisional race.
Monday, September 26 2011
CURTAIN COMES DOWN ON 2011 ARLINGTON PARK SEASON
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (Sept. 25, 2011) – The 86-day meeting at Arlington Park ended Sunday, Sept. 25, with track management upbeat and looking ahead to the 2012 season.
“We faced some early season challenges with cool and wet weather during May and the first part of June,” said Arlington Park General Manager Tony Petrillo, in his first season at the helm of the suburban Chicago race course. “But our team believed in the plan we laid out and stuck with it allowing us to finish strong to have a great season.”
Arlington Park Barn Notes: Sunday, Sept. 25 2011
LARRY RIVELLI WINS 2011 ARLINGTON PARK TRAINING TITLE
Trainer Larry Rivelli, who had a two-win advantage over conditioner Scott Becker entering Sunday’s closing day of the 2011 Arlington Park season, officially earned his first trainer championship at Chicago’s northwest oval at scratch time when Becker scratched two of the three horses he had entered for the final program of Arlington’s 86-day meeting.
Born and raised in Chicago, the 40-year-old Rivelli is the grandson of the late longtime Arlington Park trainer Pete DiVito and his uncle is Arlington conditioner Jimmy DiVito, but Rivelli becomes the first member of that family to win Arlington’s leading trainer honors.
Sunday, September 25 2011
Arlington Park Barn Notes: Saturday, Sept. 24 2011
JUNIOR WINS 4 FRIDAY TO LAUNCH LAST DAYS BID FOR JOCKEY TITLE
Jockey Junior Alvarado, Arlington’s jockey champion two years ago and runner-up last year, rode four winners Friday at Chicago’s northwest oval to dramatically enter serious contention for leading rider honors at the current session which comes to a close Sunday.
The 25-year-old native of Barquisimeto, Venezuela, was comfortably in front of his nearest rival this summer until he broke his collarbone in a late May spill and was forced to the sidelines for five weeks. Since returning to action on July 3 when 13 wins off the pace, Alvarado has been grinding away at the leaders – including a previous four-win day Sept. 4 – and enters Saturday’s races two wins behind current leader James Graham and is tied with J. Z. Santana for the runner-up spot.
Friday, September 23 2011
Arlington Park Barn Notes: Friday, Sept. 23 2011
JERMAINE RIDES THURSDAY TRIPLE PRIOR TO HAWTHORNE CAMPAIGN
There was little movement Thursday in the race for leading rider honors at Arlington with current leader James Graham and current runner-up J. Z. Santana both going winless, and although current third-place jockey Junior Alvarado had one winner during the day, the riding star of the afternoon was jockey Jermaine Bridgmohan with a riding triple.
The 23-year-old Jamaican-born reinsman won Thursday’s opener aboard Dale Wessels’ Gilded Quest for trainer Tom Swearingen, came back to the winner’s circle to take the fifth on Power Ten Farm’s At the Finish for conditioner Jere Smith Jr., and then bookended the program astride Boss Girl, owned by MSN Equine Group and trained by Donna Dupuy.
Thursday, September 22 2011
Arlington Park Barn Notes: Thurs. Sept. 22 2011
ARLINGTON STAKES WINNERS HAVE INTERESTING FALL FUTURES
Where are the major stakes winners of Arlington’s 2011 season going after the local session brings down the curtain Sunday? At first glance their futures appear quite rosy with the possibilities of further glory well within their reach.
Cape Blanco, the Irish-bred 4-year-old owned by Mrs. Fitriani Hay, Derrick Smith, Mrs. John Magnier and Michael Tabor, is scheduled for a third transatlantic journey from his home base on the Emerald Isle to contest the Grade I Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational on Oct. 1 at Belmont Park.
Wednesday, September 21 2011
Arlington Park Barn Notes: Wed. September 21, 2011
RIVELLI, BECKER CONTINUE TRAINING DUEL; ‘CAT’ COULD POUNCE
Arlington conditioners Larry Rivelli and Scott Becker continued their season-long battle for leading trainer honors Sunday, with Rivelli registering a training double and Becker saddling one winner to remain in close pursuit.
With four racing days left in Arlington’s 2011 racing season which comes to a close Sunday, Rivelli still leads with 38 wins, while Becker’s horses have reached the winner’s circle 35 times. The always dangerous defending trainer champion Wayne Catalano has won 31 races and cannot be eliminated from consideration at this time.
Monday, September 19 2011
Arlington Park Barn Notes: Sunday, Sept. 18
MARKETING MIX ‘PROBABLE’ FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH II CHALLENGE CUP
Glen Hill Farm’s Marketing Mix, who kissed her rivals goodbye at the quarter-pole in Saturday’s Grade III Pucker Up Stakes at Arlington, came out of her impressive effort in good order and is likely to go to Kentucky for her next run in Keeneland’s Grade I Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Oct. 15.
That race, run over the Lexington lawn at nine furlongs, is shaping up as a possible confrontation between Marketing Mix and Phillips Racing Partnership’s Winter Memories, who earned an equally eye-popping score in Saturday’s Grade I Garden City Stakes at Belmont Park in New York.
Friday, September 16 2011
Arlington Park Barn Notes: Friday, Sept. 16 2011
LEIGH BENTLEY TRIES TO KISS THE SKY IN SATURDAY’S PUCKER UP STAKES
Arlington Park trainer Leigh Bentley has saddled horses in more stakes at Arlington than she can remember, and a lot of them went on to victory.
In 2008 Bentley saddled Fab Oak Stable et al.’s Stream Cat to win the Grade III Arlington Handicap and G. Watts Humphrey Jr.’s Communique to take the Grade III Modesty Handicap on the same day – Million Preview Day. Later that summer she saddled D. R. Mason’s Karelian to capture the $100,000 Sea o’ Erin, and one year earlier she saddled Ashbrook Farm’s Wicked Style to win the Grade III Arlington-Washington Futurity.
