ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Hugh Robertson got a training license in 1971. His first start came at Madison Downs in his native Nebraska – “Little Saratoga,” the locals called the place. Robertson toiled, really toiled, as a small-time trainer, moving out of Nebraska and the Midwest to train for a while in Pennsylvania and Maryland. He and his wife, Terri, eventually nestled into the Chicago circuit, Robertson having established himself as a sharp horseman, playing the claiming game and buying horses on the cheap at auction. On Saturday, late into his training life, and in what is likely the last season of racing at Arlington, his career hit its zenith when Two Emmys, a horse he plucked from a yearling auction for a mere $4,500, went wire to wire under James Graham and won the Grade 1 $600,000 Mister D. Stakes. You might not recognize Robertson’s name, and the Mister D. only came into existence this year, renamed to honor Arlington’s chairman emeritus, Richard Duchossois, who turns 100 in October. The race, formerly known as the Arlington Million, took a purse cut, the local horsemen’s association insisting that Arlington prioritize overnight purses over stakes to maximize the potential earnings for Illinois horsemen. Yet the big money stayed home anyway: Robertson co-owns Two Emmys with Randall Woolfe, who makes his home in nearby Belvidere, Illinois. :: Join DRF Bets and play the races with a $250 First Deposit Bonus. Click to learn more. Robertson never ran a horse in the Million, never even came close, really. The best route horse he trained was Polar Expedition, an Illinois-bred who won almost $1.5 million in a career that ended in 2000. “All this time, I win the Million, and it’s only a $600,000 race,” Robertson dead-panned during champagne toasts following Two Emmy’s improbable victory. A 27-1 shot, Two Emmys paid $56.20 to win, holding off 2-5 favorite Domestic Spending by a neck. It was the first Grade 1 for Robertson, who hesitated to even run his horse in the Mister D., fearing Two Emmys, who is slight, would labor under a 126-pound impost going 1 1/4 miles. “We didn’t even know if we were going to run this horse till Tuesday,” Randall Woolfe said. “Hugh called me. He didn’t know if he could carry that much weight that far. He called me Tuesday morning and said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I think we ought to give it a shot.’ He said, ‘Okay, we’ll enter.’ ” Jockey James Graham, who completely stole the Mister D. on Two Emmys, plays a major role in this narrative, too. Graham, born and raised in Dublin, came to Chicago as a young apprentice jockey, has known Robertson for decades, and for years made his summer home at Arlington, where he won multiple riding titles. He last had ridden Two Emmys in the March 20 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds, where Two Emmys set the pace and held second at 24-1 to Grade 1-winner Colonel Liam. Robertson said he gave Graham simple instructions, “Go to the front and slow it down,” which is exactly what Graham did. Two Emmys skipped straight to the front and barely got out of gallop around the first turn and down the backstretch, going his half-mile in a pedestrian 52.43 seconds. Two Emmys picked it up marginally to go his third quarter in 24.21 seconds, still in the clear, and from there it was a sprint to the finish, Two Emmys getting a head start. “I knew we were going slow,” Graham said. “I thought maybe they were going to jump on me early, but I guess they all bottled themselves up by trying to ride too smart of a race. If they give him any leeway at all, where he can take a deep breath and leave him alone . . . He was a big price and they said, ‘Well, he’s going to come back,’ but he doesn’t come back. He didn’t come back today!” No, he did not. Two Emmys blistered his final quarter-mile in 22.72 seconds. Domestic Spending, dead-heat winner of the Grade 1 Turf Classic in May, clear winner of the Grade 1 Manhattan in June, the best turf horse in North America, launched himself at the leader through the final quarter-mile, quickly cutting into the 3 1/2-length lead Two Emmys took to the stretch call, but his furious rally fell a neck short. “I had a good trip, but it was a slow pace,” said jockey Flavien Prat, who settled Domestic Spending in fourth before sensing the urgency of the moment at the three-furlong marker. “Even if I got myself closer it was really hard to make ground on the winner. Around the turn I made a move, but they just ran away from me.” :: Get DRF Betting Strategies for exclusive analysis and wager recommendations from our expert handicappers. Domestic Spending, losing for just the second time in eight starts, finished 2 3/4 lengths in front of third-place Glynn County. Then came Space Traveller, Bizzee Channel, 3-1 second-choice Armory, Zulu Alpha, and Strong Tide. Winning time for the 1 1/4 miles on a course officially rated “good” was 2:03.34. Two Emmys, named for granddaughters of Robertson and Wolf both named Emily, is by English Channel out of Miss Emmy, by Buddha. Defeated by a neck here last month in the Arlington stakes, the chestnut gelding, still reaching full maturity halfway through his 5-year-old season, stepped up and ran the race of his life on his biggest stage. Two Emmys received a 102 Beyer Speed Figure. Robertson, whose son, Mac, is a successful trainer in his own right, was in the hospital a week ago with a serious, painful case of diverticulitis. Still weak, he left the track after training Saturday morning still unsure if he’d come back for the races Saturday afternoon. “She guilted me into coming,” Robertson said, referring to his wife, Terri, who is a regular presence at the barn and pushed Robertson to actually run Two Emmys on Saturday. Robertson still is walking slow, weak from his recent illness. But Sunday morning, like every day, he’ll be up at 3:30 and at the barn at 4, almost always the first person through the stable gate in the morning. Outwardly grumpy, a man of few words – until you get him started talking – a farm boy quick of mind who earned a full academic scholarship to the University of Nebraska, Robertson has put in a lifetime of work in racing. It paid him back in full on Saturday at Arlington.