Arlington Million at Churchill
 

This is new.


I'll keep August 13 on my calendar; only 40 minutes away. Unless it's a zoo.

Want to take bets on how many years before some bourbon distiller renames the race?

I thought the reason Churchill Downs doesn't have summer racing is because Louisville is hotter than fuck in August.

No, it's because the tracks in Kentucky have collaborated on a year round circuit which includes Ellis Park (hotter than... as well) in summer.

True that, but Ellis doesn't card million dollar races where they're trying to lure Godolphin and the Irish lads to load some of their best turf horses into a plane and ship to race in a pea patch where it's 100+ temp. But as it's sometimes said, "It's not the heat, its the stupidity."

If the Delaware Handicap could be run at Saratoga (it actually was run there from 1982 through 1985), then why can't the Arlington Million be run at Churchill Downs? Although an Arlington Million at Churchill would either need to be shortened to 1 1/8 miles or lengthened to 1 3/8 miles.

Then again, if Hawthorne rebuilds their pre-1987 shorter far turn on the turf course (while concomitantly keeping their existing far turn - the resulting configuration would pretty much be the same as that found at Los Alamitos), the Arlington Million can be kept both at its 1 1/4-mile distance, and in Chicago.

The original turf course allowed for a 1 3/16 or a 1 1/2 mile distance. The mile and a quarter would need to begin in the middle of the first turn. Secondly, not sure if the Arlington Million is a trademark name, owned by Churchill Downs. It could be run on the current course at 1 3/8 miles if Hawthorne wanted such a race, which I doubt.

You guys are expecting CDI to give a favor to Hawthorne? The same CDI that wouldn’t allow KD points to be granted for the Illinois Derby?

i can't blame them. out of all the gambling corporations, Churchill looks like the smartest to me even though they did buy Youbet for all that money and didn't keep the platform.

Since the length of the stretch at the Hawthorne turf course would be 990 feet if the "short" far turn was brought back (with the current "long" far turn also kept in place), and the turn radius of the turf course is 806 feet, that means that the distance from the start of 1 1/4-mile races to the far turn would be 514 feet.

See Los Alamitos for another example of how two far turns exist concomitantly.

Look math wizard, the old 6 furlong course allowed for 1 mile and 3/16th. There was no 1 1/4 mile start that was not on the turn. So if your angle is to card a mile and a quarter race, call the Careys and let them know the inner course would need to be 6 1/2 furlongs not the 6 it originally was. The quarter pole was ON the far turn, and the mile and 3/16th start was right where they came out of the clubhouse turn.

Were you the same guy telling me on another forum back in the '90's that they could fit a turf course inside Sportsman's?

If the old 6-furlong turf course allowed for 1 3/16 mile races, then how could that configuration have possibly not have allowed for 1 1/4 mile races?

I did, however, make one mistake: The 1 3/16 mile start on the 6 furlong turf course had a 514-foot run into the first turn, while the 1 1/4 mile start on the 6 furlong turf course - from which the Secretariat Stakes was actually run in 1985 - had an 844-foot run into the first turn.

Even 1 5/16 mile races are possible from that configuration: The 4 1/2-furlong pole was situated exactly at the start of the backstretch - and 1 3/8 mile races can be run using the "long" far turn, thus no "distance gap" (and a Monmouth-style chute can be installed to allow 6-furlong turf races using the "long" far turn).

And I never claimed to be a "math wizard" - only a "geometry wizard." :D

1985 was the year Hawthorne unveiled the new 7 furlong turf course. The new design also included a tunnel to the infield and an infield paddock (both no longer in use)

The old 6 furlong course had races carded at 7f, 1 mile (stand side chute) 1 3/16 and 1 1/2 mile races, and way back in the 70's a 1 mile and 3/4 distance in a starter handicap series. No sprints. Again, a race at 1 1/4 would have started in the middle of the clubhouse turn.

For the record, the turning radius of Hawthorne turf is the tighest anywhere in North America.