Horsemen oppose Arlington’s plan for fewer races

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – After cutting back racing weeks to three days so far at this meet and paring down cards to eight races per day, Arlington was hit with a handle decline in May and could face further problems when its racing week expands to four days in July and August.

Arlington will petition the Illinois Racing Board at a Tuesday meeting to be permitted to run fewer than eight races per day, a move opposed by the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. Moreover, further stakes cuts to an already severely diminished 2015 stakes schedule might have to be considered, Arlington general manager Tony Petrillo confirmed.

Arlington hosted 128 races on 16 race days during May, down from 181 races on 19 days in May 2014. Average daily all-sources handle, compared month to month, declined from $2,424,380 to $1,659,989, a drop of 31 percent, but May cards last year consisted of nine to 11 races compared with eight this year. But even when comparing total average handle by race, Arlington betting was off 18 percent in May, dropping from $254,492 per race to $207,499. All handle figures come from the Illinois Racing Board since Arlington, per the policy of its parent company, Churchill Downs Inc., doesn’t publicize betting financials.

Petrillo cited decreased turf racing opportunities on Mother’s Day and Memorial Day weekend as spurs for the decline, but Arlington had as many grass races, 39, during the shorter May schedule this year as it did in 2014.

Field size was up slightly during the month, increasing from 7.4 starters per race in May 2014 to 7.7. But Arlington is concerned with filling eight more races per week starting in July. The ontrack horse population is down about 500 from this time last year, and shippers have been rare at this meet, with better purses offered at Indiana Grand, Prairie Meadows, and Canterbury Park.

Mike Campbell, president of the ITHA, claims Arlington is “manufacturing a crisis” at the meet, and that the purse account is underpaid by $2 million. Campbell said the contract between the ITHA and Arlington stipulates a minimum of eight races per day, and that the ITHA will fight any attempt to breach that obligation. Campbell and other horsemen also claim Arlington is holding back higher-class races, such as maiden special weight and allowance races, that attract sufficient entries in an effort to save purse money.

Looming in the background is the annual push by Illinois racing interests to be permitted to install slot machines at tracks, and this year, that effort might actually have traction in the state legislature. Illinois is in a budget crisis and would derive hundreds of millions of dollars in up-front licensing fees were gambling expansion approved. The city of Chicago, which has budget problems of its own, reportedly is pushing to be permitted to build a casino, and there is doubt that any gambling expansion can pass the legislature without including horse racing.

Block’s better horses racing on road

No one has been more negatively affected by the trouble at Arlington than trainer Chris Block, whose family, Team Block, has long been among the leading owners and breeders in the state. At a meet dominated by maiden-claiming and conditioned-claiming races, Block is struggling to find spots for his young horses with conditions, and his biggest recent successes have come out of town.

On June 13, Prado’s Sweet Ride won the Grade 3 Regret at Churchill, running back just two weeks after her previous start.

“We’re going to train toward the [Aug. 15] Pucker Up, but in the meantime try to freshen her up a little bit since she had two races back to back in a short time,” Block said. “If we can fit a race in between, we’ll consider it.”

Prado’s Sweet Ride had finished sixth in the Indy Star at Indiana Grand in her race before the Regret, and on that same card, the Block-trained Oak Brook finished second by a neck in the $75,000 P D J F Stakes on grass. Oak Brook has since had a minor setback and will be out of action until late summer or fall, Block said, but Nun the Less, who had to be scratched from the P D J F Stakes because of a foot bruise, is back training steadily and pointed to the American Derby here July 11.

Murrill loses bug

Mitchell Murrill ended the last racing week as the surprising leader in the Arlington jockey standings, but he starts this week a journeyman rider rather than a bug boy after losing his five-pound apprentice allowance.

Murrill through Sunday had won 25 races at the meet, four ahead of Vicente Gudiel, another apprentice.

“I’m not too worried about losing the bug,” Murrill, 21, told Arlington publicity. “I’ll just keep riding good races and working hard. Things won’t come as easy now, but that’s part of the game.”