Arlington Park

Contact: Graham Ross
graham.ross@arlingtonpark.com

In today's notes:

• Arlington Million Preview at Churchill on Kentucky Derby Day
• Coyote Sighted at Arlington Wednesday Escapes to Freedom

ARLINGTON MILLION PREVIEW AT CHURCHILL ON KENTUCKY DERBY DAY

The 134th running of the Kentucky Derby – America’s most famous Thoroughbred horse race – captures the attention of the nation this Saturday, but also slated for Saturday’s Churchill Downs program is the 21st renewal of the Grade I Woodford Reserve Turf Classic.

That nine-furlong event for 3-year-olds and up over the Louisville lawn annually serves as the first step on the road to the Grade I Arlington Million – centerpiece event of the Chicago Thoroughbred racing season.

However, as opposed to the Kentucky Derby – still almost exclusively for North American runners, the Arlington Million, to be run this summer on Aug. 9, annually attracts horses from Great Britain, France, Ireland and other exotic points of call.

Three Woodford Reserve winners – Masayuki Nishiyama’s Paradise Creek in 1994, James Lewis Jr.’s Mecke in 1996, and Juddmonte Farms Inc.’s Beat Hollow in 2002 – went on to win the Arlington Million later in those seasons.

Columbine Stable’s Manndar in 2002 and Juddmonte Farms Inc.’s Cacique in 2006 won the Woodford Reserve in the spring and were both runner-ups in the Arlington Million later those summers.

Sky Conquerer, hero of last year’ Woodford Reserve, was a 2007 Million candidate until days before last year’s Chicago classic, but Kingfields’ Jambalaya, third to Sky Conqueror in Woodbine’s Northern Dancer but winner of Gulfstream’s Grade II Pan American Handicap the previous winter, regained his best form in time to win last summer’s Arlington Million.

COYOTE SIGHTED AT ARLINGTON WEDNESDAY ESCAPES TO FREEDOM

Arlington Park track photographer Doug Clark of Four Footed Fotos was on the track during training hours Wednesday of opening week when he snapped an unusual photo of a coyote running across the track.

The coyote quickly bolted off the Arlington grounds, but not before Clark recorded the moment for posterity.

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