11 pre-entered for the Arlington Million
 

From DRF.....


Million lures 11 pre-entries
By MARCUS HERSH

CHICAGO - Eleven horses, four Europeans and seven Americans, have been pre-entered in the Arlington Million, which will be contested along with two other Grade 1 turf stakes on Saturday at Arlington Park.
There were no surprises among the pre-entries - though Arlington-based Major Rhythm, who figures to be the longest price in the race, only entered the picture on Friday - but some uncertainty remains about the final shape of the Million field. Todd Pletcher pre-entered both English Channel and Go Deputy, but plans on sending one of the horses while keeping the other home in New York. Arlington racing officials would love to get English Channel, a multiple Grade 1 winner, but last week Pletcher appeared to favor Go Deputy for the Million, while English Channel could race at Saratoga in the Sword Dancer Handicap. Go Deputy comes off a win in the Bowling Green Handicap, but is far less accomplished than his stablemate.

With English Channel or without, the 2006 Million is at least solid, if short of spectacular. The pre-entries, in alphabetical order, are: Ace, Better Talk Now, Cacique, Cosmonaut, English Channel, Go Deputy, Major Rhythm, Phoenix Reach, Soldier Hollow, The Tin Man, and Touch of Land.

Phoenix Reach, a globetrotting Group 1 winner who hasn't raced in more than a year, arrived here Thursday from England. Ace, who finished second in the 2005 Breeders' Cup Turf, and Touch of Land, who makes his third Million appearance, were both scheduled to arrive Sunday. The German-based Soldier Hollow is booked to arrive Monday.

The Tin Man will be the lone West Coast representative, the connections of Aragorn and Sweet Return, considered possible starters more than a week ago, having decided to point elsewhere. The Tin Man, an 8-year-old, finished sixth in the 2003 Million.

East Coast-based horses due to arrive Thursday include Better Talk Now, fourth in the 2005 Million, and Cacique, who won the Manhattan Handicap and was beaten a half-length by English Channel last out in the Grade 1 United Nations.

Entries will be drawn and post positions assigned for the Million as well as the Secretariat and Beverly D. on Wednesday.


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So without GPK's boy, English Channel, it's 10.....

Were there pre-entries for the other races?

Ivan is coming!

Not seeing any news yet..... I'll keep looking SS. :)

Looks like a pretty solid field, gonna be missing a few of the top horses though in English Channel, Asahi Rising, Hurricane Run, and Ouija Board :)

thanks for being on top of things MMSC....your the best...

No problem and of course I'm gonna be on top of this..... hell, if i could fly out and be at the airport when He arrives on Sunday, i would. :p

Hey ArlJim..... you gonna be at the airport tomorrow? Just wondering... :D

Hey, if you were coming in and needed a ride, I'd be there. But if you're asking me to go over there and greet Aces' plane... well I think I've got a thing tomorrow. yeah that's it, a thing! :D

Greet his plane?????

Oh, you are SO sweet! Do you really think I'd ask you to do that though? Course not!

First, you'd have to call the local flower shop and make sure they can make a huge, floral arrangement. Not in the shape of a horse-shoe mind you... he's a tad peculiar that way. A four leaf clover would be good!

Next up, the peppermints! Go online and find those fine, fine peppermints from Ireland. A couple of dozen boxes should do.

The photographer! Almost forgot! Is there a world class photographer nearby? If not you'll have to fly one in.

Red carpet? Check!

Air purifier? I'll get on that.....

Damn, the plane! Call and make sure he's in first class. He doesn't care about that type of thing but I want him to be comfortable.

Let me think of what else I'd need you to do.....

Unless, of course, you want to break my heart. :D

My early season dream was to see Barbaro return to the turf in this race. He ran well on dirt, but I will forever believe he was maybe 10 lengths better on grass.

What is this guy, the diva of the equine world?

Elton John requires less pampering when he travels.

You remind me of him..... did I ever tell you that?

Does that help? :p

I love you both. :D

I like the Tin Man for the Million and Showing Up.

I am not predicting anything yet but so far I have a feeling that this Phoenix Cross horse might be live, along with a couple other Euros...I always pay attention to the German that comes because they always screw me

Theres Phoenix Reach and Rising Cross. Which do you mean?

Whatever the Phoenix horse is...

I'll know more once my guys get a look at them later this week. I might go Friday morning and Saturday morning to take a look.

Last year, I saw Powerscourt on Saturday morning on track, like 6am.....I went straight home and singled him on EVERY possible ticket, horse looked absolutely amazing

If English Channel shows up, he will win for fun, but he isn't coming so I am going towards the Euros

OH MAN...Just read that Douglas is getting on Soldier Hollow, German horse....

You could drop flower petals when he gets off the airplane. It might be a nice touch.

He was absolutely amazing.....

One of my favorites, even when no one thought he could (before / after the Scottish Derby, etc).

The only horse ever to win it TWICE.:cool:

That's a great idea and thank you.

I don't want ArlJim to have panic attacks or anything so I'll stop. He's actually very easy going..... no fanfare required although one, well..... I won't say it here.

* * * * *

Don't forget to play the Arlington Million Turf Challenge (... all of you)!

http://www.arlingtonpark.com/amtc/

Stop? What do I do now with all these flower petals and peppermints?

Oh well, I still have another mission come Saturday.

went to the pedigree site and looked at Soldiers Hollow

what a monster

but he may get confused running counter clockwise and jump the fence

Are you looking for a date? :D :D :D

Ha ha, you're the best. :D

(Although I can think of what we could do with the flower pet..... oh, never mind). :p

Who has the mount on your superhorse anyway?

Nope, I don't rock the internet dating yet, I have heard mixed results regarding it. You get stalkers but then you get some real nice girls. I have some girl-friends that swear by it though, but not at that point yet

I didn't understand your match.com post is all.

DO we actually expect The Tin Man to come? Man, would that be a story if he could pull the Million out....nothing like an eight year old Affirmed gelding to ruin everybody's day.

Yes he's going.

Did anyone else hear the rumour about who got the Ace mount?

No (imagine weeping smiley face)..... those *******s won't let him.

I heard one last week. Let's wait and see.

He can ride in Ireland..... they're FAIR there, unlike other places.

The ban was upheld by the High Court which, basically, means he won't be riding back home till late 2007 / early 2008.

Insanity.

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY out the window. Very sad news.....

http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/sho...?t=1530&page=3

Update.....

The eagle has landed!:D

From Arlington barn notes.....


INTERNATIONAL STAR PHOENIX REACH READIES FOR ARLINGTON MILLION
Winterbeck Manor Stud’s Phoenix Reach, a winner of Group I and Grade I races three different years in three different nations, has come to America and Chicago for the Grade I Arlington Million this Saturday.

The Irish-bred’s first trip to North America proved successful when he won the 2003 Grade I Canadian International at Woodbine while still a sophomore. The next season Phoenix Reach captured the Group I Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase in December of 2004 at Sha Tin, and was clearly best in the Grade I Dubai Sheema Classic at Nad Al Sheba in March of 2005.

However, he has been away from competition since suffering a small fissure fracture in Great Britain’s Group I King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes a year ago in July, but has been the recipient of a carefully constructed extensive conditioning program begun last spring by his 33-year-old British trainer Andrew Balding.

The program began with big hill gallops around Balding’s yard at Kingsclere in Berkshire – which were gradually increased in intensity – and in recent days has seen Phoenix Reach stretching his legs over Arlington Park’s main track in anticipation of his first start in the United States.

The 6-year-old son of Alhaarth is scheduled to get his lone serious American work prior to Saturday’s Arlington Million on Thursday morning over the local lawn.

“He is fit,” said Richard “Chad” Phillips, Balding’s head traveling lad, on Monday morning when speaking outside Phoenix Reach’s stall at Arlington’s Barn 28A. “He is as ready to run as he ever was. In fact, right now he weighs exactly what he was right before his race in Dubai. He’s had five or six weeks of steady gallops, and now we have one gallop back home we have named the ‘Phoenix Reach gallop.’

“Over the track here at Arlington we’ve picked it up a stride each time we’ve sent him out, but he’ll get one good serious blow Thursday and that should do it,” said Phillips. “Through it all, ever since we started back with him, his joints have been like iron.

“Coincidentally, I celebrate my birthday on Saturday,” said Phillips. “That way, we know there will be some sort of celebration no matter what happens in the Arlington Million.”

Incidentally, Phoenix Reach is exercised by Steve Woolley, who has returned to Arlington Park for the first time since his lone previous trip in 1985 for the “Miracle Million,” less than one month after old Arlington facility burned to the ground.

That year Woolley came with Paul Mellon’s King of Clubs, who finished fourth behind Lord Derby’s victorious Teleprompter in the “Miracle Million.” King of Clubs was trained by Ian Balding, Andrew’s famous father – now retired – who conditioned Mill Reef to win the King George, Epsom Derby and Arc de Triomphe during his own racing career in the early ‘70s.

Andrew Balding’s sister, Clare Balding, a sports and racing presenter for the BBC, came to Arlington in 2002 with that network when the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships were held at Arlington Park.

AIDAN O’BRIEN TRAINEES ACE, IVAN DENISOVICH ARRIVE AT ARLINGTON
Mrs John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Mrs. Harry McCalmont’s Ace, one of the premier European candidates for Saturday’s Grade I Arlington Million XXIV, and Mrs. Magnier, Tabor and Irving and Marjorie Cowan’s Ivan Denisovich, one of the European-based representatives in Saturday’s Grade I Secretariat Stakes, are now on the grounds following their Sunday arrival but are still under quarantine at Arlington’s International Barn.

The two Irish-breds are both trained by Irish-born Aidan O’Brien, the conditioner of last summer’s Arlington Million champion Powerscourt, also owned by Mrs. Magnier. They arrived in the care of O’Brien’s traveling lad Pat Keating, who saddled Powerscourt here last year.

The Celtic duo is expected to clear quarantine Tuesday and go to the track Wednesday, according Adrian Beaumont of the Newmarket-based International Racing Bureau Ltd.

Ace, a 5-year-old son of Danehill, finished second in last fall’s Grade I John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf at Belmont Park Oct. 29, and was third in Belmont’s Grade I Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational earlier that month when beaten less than a length for all of it.

“Ace shipped well and is in very good form now,” said Keating Monday when speaking outside the International Barn.

In his most recent trip to the post, Ace was runner-up by a head in Ireland’s Group III Ladbrokes International Stakes July 15 at The Curragh, and before that finished four and a half lengths behind Ouija Board in the Group I Prince of Wales’s Stakes during Great Britain’s Royal Ascot meeting June 21. That mare, owned by Lord Derby, won the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Lone Star Park in 2004.

Melhor is out, Seaside Retreat staying put.

From DRF...

Tough world traveler
By MARCUS HERSH

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The question remains whether English Channel, among the best U.S. grass horses, will be coming to Arlington Park this week for the Arlington Million, but already here and waiting for English Channel or any other major contender in the 24th Million is Phoenix Reach, an Irish-bred, English-based horse who may have to be reckoned with Saturday.
Phoenix Reach was one of 11 horses pre-entered last week for the Million, but the field could be reduced to as few as nine. Pletcher, who pre-entered both English Channel and Go Deputy, still has not committed to a plan of attack, while Ed Beam, trainer of longshot pre-entry Major Rhythm, said he could send Major Rhythm to Saratoga for the Sword Dancer depending on Pletcher's plans and Saturday's weather forecast. As of Monday, the forecast called for dry conditions with temperatures in the low 80's.

While all this slowly unfolds, Phoenix Reach has cleared quarantine, having arrived Thursday, and has been putting in regular dirt-track gallops. Trainer Andrew Balding, at Saratoga for the yearling sales, said Phoenix Reach would have a breeze on the turf course Thursday. Phoenix Reach's major work for his run at the Million was done at Kingsclere, the 150-year-old English yard where Balding, 33, and his parents - the renowned trainer Ian Balding, and Emma Balding - have 110 horses in training. The 6-year-old Phoenix Reach is among the best of them.

The Million marks Phoenix Reach's first start in more than a year, since the 2005 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, where he finished 10th and subsequently was found to have a small fracture in his leg. Broken bones are nothing new to Phoenix Reach. One start into his 2-year-old season, Phoenix Reach was put away for more than a year with a split pastern, a significant injury to a foreleg that required surgery to insert a metal plate and screws. And, at the end of his 3-year-old season, Phoenix Reach was found to have a hairline fracture, though this injury merely required rest.

"Usually, you'd probably give up with a horse, but he keeps coming back from every setback even better," Balding said. "He's very durable and very tough."

In between the setbacks, Phoenix Reach - who brings of bankroll of some $3.7 million to Chicago - has won Grade 1 or Group 1 races three straight years. At 3, he captured the Canadian International at Woodbine; at 4, he won the Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin; and in March 2005, Phoenix Reach easily won the Dubai Sheema Classic.

Balding says Phoenix Reach "loves to travel," and with this trip to the U.S., he will have raced in eight different countries - and he is not done, either.

"The main target for the season is the Cox Plate in Australia," said Balding, "and we'll take everything from there."

* * *

Melhor Ainda to miss Beverly D.

Melhor Ainda, a close third in the 2005 Beverly D., is officially out of this year's edition of the race with a foot bruise, trainer Bobby Frankel said Monday morning from Saratoga, but Frankel is considering Karen's Caper as a substitute.

Group 1-placed in England, Karen's Caper finished second by a nose last fall in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth at Keeneland, her first U.S. start, but finished ninth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. In her first start this season, Karen's Caper finished fourth as the 1-2 favorite in a second-level allowance race at Saratoga. Frankel said he worked her a half-mile Monday on the Oklahoma training track, a breeze that did not make the official work tab at Saratoga. If Karen's Caper does come for the race, it will give Frankel a starter in all three Grade 1's Saturday; he has Cacique for the Million, and Proudinsky for the Secretariat.

Moscow Burning also is out of the Beverly D., but the race still has an excellent core with Film Maker, Honey Ryder, and Gorella, and could draw as many as 12 entries.

* * *

Seaside Retreat staying home


Seaside Retreat was a good second last out to Go Between in the $1 million Virginia Derby, but he will not get another shot at Go Between in the Secretariat Stakes.

"We're going to pass," said Woodbine-based trainer Mark Casse, adding that Seaside Retreat will stay home for his next start. "There's a race in a couple weeks, the Nijinsky, against older horses. He has a little minor foot bruise in a hind foot, and that's actually the determining factor."

Showing Up is the likely favorite for the Secretariat, which is expected to draw the shortest field among Saturday's featured stakes.

Hope EC stays east
 

really want Major to enter and answer at least half of the owner's dreams. The other half would be winning.

‘RHYTHM’ METHOD: ALL DISTANCES, TURF CONDITIONS AT ARLINGTON
Who’s the local horse with a legitimate chance against the world’s best grass horses in Saturday’s 24th running of the Grade I Arlington Million?

That would be James Messineo’s Major Rhythm, who was ignored five weeks ago in Arlington’s Grade III Stars and Stripes Breeders’ Cup Turf and stung like serpent with a $73.40 win price. The same Major Rhythm who has won 33 percent of his starts at Chicago’s Northwest oval that include distances from a mile to a mile and a half, and won over Arlington Park courses rated from “firm” to “good” to “yielding.”

Oh, by the way, Major Rhythm, trained by Ed Beam, a former Arlington Park outrider, would be ridden in the Arlington Million by Hall of Fame jockey Earlie Fires, Arlington’s all-time leading reinsman and the man who has been Arlington’s jockey champion six different seasons.

“He’s always loved the turf course here at Arlington,” said Beam of Major Rhythm, who ran fourth beaten three lengths for all of it in Arlington’s 2002 Grade I Secretariat Stakes, and third beaten six in last summer’s Grade III Arlington Handicap on Million Preview Day.

In fact, Major Rhythm loves Arlington so much that he was entered in last Saturday’s $150,000 Sea o’ Erin Breeders Cup Mile (eight furlongs) even though he was coming off a win at 12 furlongs in his previous start here.

“There was just too much speed in there for him,” Beam said of Major Rhythm’s Sea o’ Erin scratch off the program. “Tom Proctor’s horse (Sea o’ Erin victor Therecomesatiger, owned by Charles Patton) and that Canadian horse (Sea o’ Erin runner-up Le Cinquième Essai, owned by William Scott) are both real good horses going a mile, and that’s not my horse’s best distance.

“So now we’re thinking about the Million,” said Beam. “We’re considering it, depending on how the race shapes up, and what happens with the weather the rest of this week.

“Everyone says that English Channel (probable Arlington Million favorite if he runs) is staying in Saratoga (for Saturday’s Grade I Sword Dancer Invitational),” Beam said, “but I’m not sure I believe that. Why would he want to run there for half the money if he can run here in Chicago in a million-dollar race? If he (English Channel) does stay there, we’d probably run here, but if English Channel comes here, we’ll probably try to go to Saratoga if we can make arrangements to get there in time. We have been invited there.”

Incidentally, although no Stars and Stripes winner has ever come back to win the Arlington Million in the same year, Leslie Combs II’s Rossi Gold, back-to-back Stars and Stripes winner in 1981-82, came back to run in both those Millions, finishing eighth the first year and 10th the second.

Also, 2001 Stars and Stripes winner Falcon Flight, owned by Gary Tanaka, came back to run fifth in 2002’s five-horse photo Million, beaten two necks and two noses for all of it.

Is it Prado? That was the rumor.....

Might as well (finally) ask if others have heard that one.

* * *

From Sporting Life...

DWYER - PHOENIX CAN REACH HEIGHTS
By Keith Hamer, PA Sport

Martin Dwyer believes Phoenix Reach can overcome a 13-month absence to run a "big race" at Arlington Park on Saturday.

The Vodafone Derby-winning jockey teams up with the Andrew Balding-trained entire in the Grade One Arlington Million.

It will be the six-year-old's first race since he suffered a leg injury when unplaced in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Newbury last summer.

"He's in great order. I galloped him at Kempton a week ago in his last piece of week. He did it very well, it was a good time. I'm very, very happy with him," Dwyer told At The Races.

"We took him to Kempton to give him a good gallop round. He went a walk around the paddock and did everything there without having a race. It was the closest thing to it.

"He's in Chicago and he's going to do a piece of work on Wednesday morning. It will be his last little piece before Saturday.

"Obviously he's been off the track a long time but he loves to travel abroad. He's done us proud and it would be nice if he could run a big race again.

"He's a professional - travelled all round the world - he knows what he's doing, so hopefully he'll run well."

Dwyer also teams up with the dual Oaks-placed Rising Cross in the Beverly D Stakes on the same card.

"John Best's filly is a tiny little thing but she has a big heart and a good engine too," Dwyer added.

"She ran very well to finish second in the Oaks and I rode her in Ireland where she ran a really good race.