If the Irish 3-year-old colt Deauville wins Saturday’s Arlington Million it will be only the second time in the 34-year-old history of the international race that youth has been served.
In 1983 the English colt Tolomeo took command with 1/16th of a mile to run and prevailed by a neck in a fight to the finish-line with John Henry to become the only 3-year-old to win the Million.
During the 1980s it wasn’t uncommon to see 3-year-olds in the 11/4-mile grass race and some of them did well. The English filly, Madam Gay, came in third in the inaugural running in 1981; the English colt, Be My Native, finished third in 1982; the U.S. colt, Sunshine Forever, was third in 1988; and the French filly, Lady in Silver, was a game second in 1989.
Since then no 3-year-olds have been in the top three and they generally have been conspicuous by their absence from the race. The main reason is the emergence of the Grade I Secretariat Stakes for 3-year-olds as a world class supporting act for the Million. Like the Million, it is a 11/4-mile grass race. Although the purse is lower — this year it’s $400,000 — the contestants don’t have to cope with experienced and accomplished turf specialists.
Deauville looks like he’s up to the test. The blue-blooded colt comes from the yard of Europe’s leading trainer, Aidan O’Brien of Ireland, who won the Million with Powerscourt in 2005 and Cape Blanco in 2011. Racing at the highest level, Deauville had two wins and two places in six starts in Ireland and England and then came to New York in July to capture the Grade I Belmont Derby. That 11/4-mile race was the last start for the colt who is 6-1 on the morning line.
Sophomore starters: Three 3-year-olds are in the starting lineup for the Million’s sister race, the Grade I $700,000 Beverly D. for fillies and mares: Ballydoyle (9-2) and Coolmore (6-1), both trained by O’Brien and boasting aristocratic pedigrees, and Elusive Million (30-1), an import from France making her U.S. debut for her new trainer, Chad Brown.
A member of racing’s sophomore class has never won 13/16-mile grass race, which will be run for the 27th time. The best efforts by 3-year-olds have been a second by Capades of the U.S. in 1989 and thirds by Necklace, an Irish representative trained by O’Brien in 2004, and a third by Melhor Ainda of the U.S. in 2005.
Triple Crown veterans: Cherry Wine (12-1) will try to make a name for himself as a grass horse in the Secretariat after getting mixed results in this spring’s classic races on the dirt — a second in the Preakness and a seventh in the Belmont. Oscar Nominated (12-1) is another contestant who was on the Triple Crown trail; he has gone back to grass racing after finishing 17th in the Kentucky Derby.
House horse: French import Marypop (30-1) will try to follow the trail blazed by Eclair de Lune in 2010 and give Arlington Chairman Dick Duchossois his second victory in the Beverly D., a race named in honor of his late wife. Marypop finished fifth when she made her U.S. debut for trainer Mike Stidham in last month’s Grade III Modesty Handicap at Arlington after recording three wins and two places in eight races in her homeland.
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Foreign Intrigue: Billabong (10-1) will become the first Moroccan-born horse ever to race at Arlington — and probably the first to appear in America — when he competes in the Grade III $300,000 American St. Leger. The 7-year-old won nine of his 11 races in Morocco before moving to France in 2014.
Neil Milbert is a freelance reporter for the baiduhai.