Arlington offers automatic berths for International Festival races

Arlington Park officials announced Monday that the track will offer automatic starting berths into the Arlington Million and other International Festival of Racing events plus waive entry and starting fees for the winners of selected Group 1 races overseas as well as the top finishers in the track's local Festival prep races.

In addition to the Arlington Million (G1), the August 21 International Festival of Racing includes the $750,000 Beverly D. S. (G1) for fillies and mares and the $400,000 Secretariat S. (G1) for three-year-olds. All three races will be run over Arlington's internationally acclaimed turf course.

Winners of the Eclipse S. (Eng-G1), which will be run July 3 at Sandown Park in England, and the Grosser Dallmayr-Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen (Ger-G1), at Munich on July 25, will earn their way into the Arlington Million and have their entry and starting fees waived for the 1 1/4-mile race.

At the same time, the winner of the Nassau S. (Eng-G1) at Goodwood in England would gain a starting berth in the Beverly D. and have the entry and starting fees waived for that 1 3/16-mile turf race.

"We hope that by offering these incentives, the winners of these prestigious races will assemble here in August and make the 2010 Festival truly an international event to remember," said Christian Polzin, Arlington Park's new director of racing and racing secretary.

As an added bonus for horses that race at Arlington Park prior to the International Festival of Racing, the racecourse will again waive entry and starting fees for the Festival to the top three finishers in corresponding races on Million Preview Day July 17.

The graded stakes races that make up the Million Preview Day program -- a staple at Arlington since 2001 -- are the $200,000 Arlington H. (G3), which serves as the final local prep for the Arlington Million; the $200,000 Modesty H. (G3), which is the last local prep for the Beverly D.; and the $300,000 American Derby (G2), the second leg of the Mid-America Triple and a prep for the series' final leg, the Secretariat.

"By offering this additional incentive for horses that race here Million Preview Day, we hope to encourage the connections of those horses which turn in strong efforts to participate in our International Festival of Racing five weeks later," Polzin added.

At the same time, Arlington Park officials announced that the track again will offer a participation bonus to the owner(s) of any horse which runs in more than one leg of the Mid-America Triple -- the $100,000 Arlington Classic on May 22, the American Derby and the Secretariat. The owner of record for horses that run in two out of three legs in the series will be awarded $3,000 and the owner of record for horses that run in all three legs will earn $6,000.