The 86-day meeting at Arlington Park ended Sunday with track management
upbeat and looking ahead to the 2012 season.
“We faced some early season challenges with cool and wet weather during May
and the first part of June,” said Arlington Park General Manager Tony Petrillo,
in his first season at the helm of the suburban Chicago race course. “But our
team believed in the plan we laid out and stuck with it allowing us to finish
strong to have a great season.”
The visibility of this year’s Arlington Million (G1), won by Cape Blanco
(Ire) (Galileo [Ire]), was greatly increased as the race was televised
nationally by WGN-America and was broadcast overseas by Racing UK.
In addition, Arlington boasted a 2011 promotional calendar that included a
post-race concert by American Idol finalist Haley Reinhart; special days
saluting Northwestern University, the Chicago Bears and Chicago Blackhawks;
fireworks on July 2 which were enjoyed by a crowd in excess of 36,000; and new
events Military Appreciation Day, Girls Day Out and Binny’s Taste of the Track
which helped expose Arlington to a wider audience.
The meet saw first-time Arlington Park titles for leading trainer, jockey and
owner by Larry Rivelli, James Graham and William Stiritz, respectively.
Rivelli, who had a two-win advantage over conditioner
Scott Becker entering Sunday’s closing day card,
officially earned his first trainer championship
at scratch time when Becker withdrew two of the three horses he had entered for
the final program. With five wins during the first weekend of racing in May,
Rivelli led the trainer standings from start to finish, concluding the season
with 39 wins, two more than Becker. Nine-time leading trainer Wayne Catalano
finished third in the standings with 34 victories. Chris Block was leading
trainer in purses earned with $977,588.
“I believe if the meet had
been just a little bit longer Cat would have caught me,” Rivelli said, referring
to Catalano, winner of the last six Arlington training titles and currently
second on Arlington’s all-time leading trainer list.
Born and raised in Chicago, the
40-year-old Rivelli is the grandson of the late longtime Arlington Park trainer
Pete DiVito and his uncle is Arlington conditioner Jimmy DiVito, but Rivelli
becomes the first member of that family to win Arlington’s leading trainer
honors.
“It’s an honor to win leading trainer honors at a major track like
Arlington because the quality of the other trainers is so high here,” Rivelli
said during training hours Sunday. “There are a like about a million people that
had a lot to do with helping me achieve this and I should thank every one of
them. I’ve got a very good crew of people working for me and this is really more
like an achievement for the whole team. When I first got into this business I
was told that if you have good people around you, you will get good results, and
I’ve always found that to be the case.
“Of course, I also owe a great deal to my
owners and I have to thank them as well. My owners are all a great bunch of
guys, and fortunately they know that there are going to be a lot of
disappointments along the way in this game, but they have always stuck by me and
I really am grateful to them.”
Rivelli began training on his own in 1999 but was
introduced to racing at a much younger age.
“My grandfather Pete started taking me to the races when I was six-years-old,
but the first guy I ever worked for was my uncle Jimmy,” he said. “Jimmy is just
an awesome horseman and I’ve learned just about everything I know from him. He
can just about pick who is going to be a good horse right out of its mother’s
womb, and he doesn’t ever pay very much for them. If I can learn what he’s
already forgotten, I figure I’ll be all right.”
The jockey race came down to the final day with just one win separating the
top three riders entering the closing day card.
Graham, who finished second in the 2009 standings and third last year, earned
his first ever riding title by bringing home 82 winners, three more than
runner-ups Jozbin Santana and Junior Alvarado, Arlington’s 2009 leading jockey.
The 32-year-old Graham, a native of Finglas, Ireland, also led all riders in
purses earned with $1,913,805.
Stiritz’s green and red silks appeared in the winner’s circle 37 times, more
than double his nearest competitor, Richard and Karen Papiese’s Midwest
Thoroughbreds. This is the first title at Arlington for St. Louis, Missouri,
businessman Stiritz, who is also the owner of downstate Fairmount Park. Stiritz
also led the owner standings in purses earned with $773,548.
On the track, Cape Blanco defeated 2009 Arlington Million champion Gio Ponti
in Arlington Million XXIX on August 13 before a crowd of 31,069. The Million
victory gave trainer Aidan O’Brien (Powerscourt [GB], 2005) a second score in
the race while jockey Jamie Spencer visited the Million winner’s circle for the
first time after being disqualified from the win in 2004 aboard Powerscourt.
Two races before the Million, O’Brien also scored with Treasure Beach (GB)
(Galileo [Ire]) in the Secretariat S. (G1). Colm O’Donoghue rode that bay colt,
who earlier this year won the Irish Derby (Ire-G1) just as Cape Blanco had done
the previous year. O’Brien previously won the Secretariat in 2000 with Ciro.
Owner Martin Schwartz earned his third Beverly D. S. (G1) title when his neon
orange silks were carried to victory by Stacelita (Fr) (Monsun) in the 2011
edition, with trainer Chad Brown and jockey Ramon Dominguez each winning the
race for the first time. Schwartz had previously won the 2005 running with
Angara (GB) and the following year’s renewal with Gorella (Fr), both of whom
were trained by Patrick Biancone.
Other impressive on-track performances were turned in by Willcox Inn
(Harlan’s Holiday), who captured the first two legs of the Mid-America Triple —
the Arlington Classic and American Derby (G2) — before being defeated by
Treasure Beach in the Secretariat; Pachattack (Pulpit) in the Arlington Matron
(G3); Shared Property (Scat Daddy) in the Arlington-Washington Futurity (G3);
Rocket Twentyone (Indian Charlie) in the Arlington-Washington Lassie (G3); and
Marketing Mix (Medaglia d’Oro) in the Pucker Up S. (G3).