Racing Needs Arlington Million to Drive Fan Interest

The migration of Thoroughbred racing from large cities to smaller racino outposts over the past several decades has hindered fan development in the sport.

To the credit of smaller racing states, they found a way to keep moving forward through added-gaming options that helped boost purses at a time when some larger tracks and circuits balked at such ideas. That has contributed to racing no longer being offered in cities such as Boston, Columbus, Ohio, and Portland, Ore. 

Traditional racing states that were slow to offer added gaming or still don't offer added gaming such as California, Illinois, and New Jersey have had to scramble to survive as smaller players with added-gaming attracted horses with healthy purses. The emergence of racinos helped keep purses steady, and those purses have improved as major racing states such as New York and Kentucky have embraced added-gaming. But in that time it appears that racing has lost some fans in those major markets that the generally smaller markets in the racino states have not replaced. This trend has contributed to United States purses being up 26% from 2010-2023 while pari-mutuel wagering is up just 2% during that span.

This brings us to the Arlington Million Stakes (G1T) Aug. 10 at Colonial Downs. For decades Arlington Million day highlighted the racing season at Arlington Park, a spectacular facility that consistently drew large weekend crowds from the Chicago area. Churchill Downs Inc. closed Arlington Park and last year moved this important racing day to Colonial Downs, in New Kent, Va., which is near Richmond, Va.

Saturday's card, the second Arlington Million at Colonial, will offer more than $2.8 million in purses and three graded stakes. While this event no longer can draw on the population of the country's third-largest city, hopefully CDI can make this day an event that draws interest throughout the region—which does boast plenty of racing and industry interest. Four stakes have been added to this year's card that also offers the Secretariat (G2T) and the Beverly D. (G2T) stakes. The Beverly D. is a Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" race to the Filly & Mare Turf (G1T).

The day, which anchors Colonial's $5.7 million stakes program in 2024, serves as another reminder for horsemen of the growing opportunities in turf racing, which is emphasized at Colonial. Overall, the first CDI meet at Colonial in 2022 paid out more than $15.2 million in purses, and last year's meet awarded more than $18 million. 

As for the race, the Arlington Million came up short on numbers, as only six horses have been entered (this year's meet has been averaging 7.69 runners a race). But the field lives up to the international tradition of the Arlington Million as Fitriani Hay's Ancient Rome  ships in from Europe for Charlie Hills while Godolphin's Nations Pride , trained by Charlie Appleby, boasts group or graded stakes wins in five different countries.