Breeders Cup big hit in Chicago
In stark contrast to New York, where the Breeders’ Cup is a non event to most of its citizens, Chicago has taken it by the throat and sees it as an opportunity to show just what Midwest hospitality can add to the World Thoroughbred Championships.
By Saturday most of Chicago’s eight million residents will know what’s happening at their local track, Arlington Park, razed by fire 15 years ago and rebuilt from the ashes to become one of America’s premier racetracks. You get the distinct impression that with its state of the art facilities, a turf course that is arguably one of the world’s best, Arlington Park, will do the Breeders’ Cup justice or die in the attempt.
The city fathers are leaving nothing to chance and if the inhabitants don’t go to Arlington Park, the racecourse will come to them. As the world’s classiest equines were beginning to gather at the track yesterday morning, a surreal ceremony took place in Downtown Chicago, the heart of this stunning city with its harmonious marriage of art and architecture.
Against a backdrop of skyscrapers on Block 37, the corner of Randolph and State Streets, Chicago opened the ‘Winners Circle’, an outdoor arena that will host a series of events promoting Breeders’ Cup and ‘mans relationship to the horse’. Curious office workers looked on as Breeders’ Cup President and supremo DG Van Clief, stood on a temporary platform set on a woodchip surface and thanked Chicago for welcoming the Championships in style.
Flanked by bugler Joe Kelly and work riders from Arlington Park, including Irish jockey Mickey Doyle, DG launched the Winners’ Circle to an unsuspecting population.
Chicago had never seen anything like it. With the skyscrapers towering above them, a display team of quarter horses cantered into a sand arena behind the platform and gave a foot perfect display of barrel cutting.
Stunned commuters en route to offices stopped in their tracks and stared and you couldn’t exactly blame them. Covered in glitter that sparkled under the mix of spotlights and bright sun, the horses weaved expertly in and out of the barrels.
But if the bejewelled horses struck an incongruous note in that setting, the disparate group of riders caught the attention. Decked out in white stetsuns and suits covered in rhinestones, the display team comprised an odd assortment including a few middle aged, powdered matrons with bright red lips and bespectacled, bearded men who looked as if they would have been more at home in pinstripe suits.
One rider bore such a striking resemblance to Aiden O’Brien that ridiculous though it might have seemed, we nevertheless took a second look. The barrel cutting came to an end, music blared and the team cantered around in perfect harmony, reins in one hand banners in the other.
The Winners’ Circle was duly launched and will play host to a week long series of what are described as ‘interactive and educational programmes’ promoting the Breeders’ Cup. Dancing Lipizzaner stallions, Andalucian horses, Mexican cowboys and horses from ‘medieval times’ will join the line up at Block 37.
Chicago doesn’t do anything by halves and for those who don’t make it to Arlington Park, the Winners’ Circle in its unlikely setting, will show the races live on a giant screen. The Breeders’ Cup has hit town and if Chicago has its way, it will be a regular visitor.
