Rivelli takes first and last shot at Mister D. Stakes

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Larry Rivelli won his first Arlington training title in 2014 and will win his eighth straight this season. He has been not just a perennial leading trainer at the meet, but an utterly dominant one. His 55 wins this season are 35 more than the next-highest training total. In 2020, he won the title with 43 winners to 16 for the runner-up. In 2019, the spread was 78-24, in 2018 it was 76-26, and so on and so forth.

The way things stand, with the Arlington property set to be sold for development and 2021 likely the last season of racing here, this will also be Rivelli’s last year as leading Arlington trainer, and he will try to cap his final season with a victory Saturday in the Grade 1, $600,000 Mister D. Stakes. This is the race formerly known as the Arlington Million and Rivelli never has run a horse in it.

“It’s my first Million starter,” Rivelli said. “First and last.”

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Bizzee Channel is Rivelli’s runner, and he is no vanity entrant. Best performance versus best performance, he can’t keep up with Mister D. favorite Domestic Spending, but after Domestic Spending, the form of the other nine Million entrants takes a considerable drop.

“If he could run one-two-three we’d be pretty happy, and you never know what could happen if Domestic Spending doesn’t show up for whatever reason,” Rivelli said.

Bizzee Channel, a 5-year-old English Channel gelding owned by Vince Foglia’s Patricia’s Hope LLC, Rivelli’s most important Arlington client, won his first graded stakes last month, capturing the Grade 3 Arlington by a neck over fellow Mister D. entrant Two Emmys. Bizzee Channel earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure in that race. He was coming off a career-best 99 in a third-level Arlington allowance-race win.

Once a horse who wanted to lead and would pull hard trying to get there, Bizzee Channel has learned to settle and finish.

“The horse is getting better and better every race,” said Rivelli. “He came out of the last race perfect and hasn’t missed a beat, had two nice works. He’s always had a high cruising speed, but now he can sit behind and that’s even better. He galloped out like a beast in his last race.”

Next summer? There will be no Arlington, but Rivelli plans to keep a strong presence at Hawthorne, which hosts a 2022 meeting to replace Arlington’s.

“It looks like the party’s over here, but it’s better to be a has-been than a never-was,” Rivelli said.