Arlington Million Cut to $600K, Renamed for Duchossois

The Arlington Million (G1T), the first Thoroughbred race to offer a $1 million purse at its inception in 1981, will be run Aug. 14 as the Mister D. Stakes for a diminished purse of $600,000 as Illinois' three remaining grade 1s will be named in honor of former Arlington International Racecourse owner Richard L. Duchossois and his family members.

The purse reduction comes as no surprise. Churchill Downs Inc., which owns the plush suburban Chicago facility that Duchossois built from the ashes of a former grandstand, has announced its intention to sell the property for redevelopment. No stakes were staged at Arlington in 2020 during a shortened meet after conflict between track management and horsemen and during COVID-19.

The changes in the stakes program also call for the former Secretariat Stakes (G1T) for 3-year-olds to be renamed for Duchossois' late son, Bruce, who had previously been honored in the Bruce D. Memorial Stakes, an ungraded stakes on the Arlington Million undercard. This year's Bruce D., the former Secretariat Stakes, carries a purse of $300,000. The $400,000 Beverly D. (G1T) for fillies and mares long has been named for the entrepreneur's late wife.

The Secretariat was worth $500,000 in 2019, the Beverly D. $600,000.

Arlington president Tony Petrillo said the name change is designed to honor the family just months before Duchossois' 100th birthday, Oct. 7.

"Mr. D has been as important to Arlington Park as Arlington Park has been to Illinois racing," Petrillo said. "Without Mr. D's commitment and dedication to Arlington, we would not have racing in Illinois as we know it today."

Petrillo said the remainder of Arlington's summer stakes schedule will be released later in the month. The track opens April 30 for what's widely assumed to be its final season.

The purse reduction for the former Million ends a run of seven-figure purses that began with John Henry's dramatic, last-stride victory over The Bart in 1981—a signature finish immortalized in a life-size bronze statue that looms over the tree-shaded Arlington paddock.

When the old Arlington grandstand was destroyed by fire in 1985, just three weeks before that year's Million, the race went on anyway in a tent-based, country-fair atmosphere dubbed the "Miracle Million" and the race was won by Teleprompter, owned by England's Lord Derby.

The track received an Eclipse Award for that effort—the first-ever for a track.

Throughout the years, the race attracted top turf runners from both sides of the Atlantic and was a major influence in stimulating international racing competition.

For a brief period, the three grade 1s, referred to collectively as the "International Festival of Racing," offered a bonus scheme for horses competing at Arlington and on Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) day in Paris, the most prestigious event on the European calendar.

The Million has served a "Win and You're In" event for the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) and a bonus qualifier for the Japan Cup in Association with Longines (G1).