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Arlington Park (formerly Arlington International Racecourse) was a horse race track in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Called the Arlington Park Jockey Club during a period of its history, it was located adjacent to the Illinois Route 53 expressway and serviced by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. On February 15, 2023, the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) completed their purchase of the Arlington Park property. It has been reported that the team intends to build a stadium on the site to play its home games. Overview Horse racing in the Chicago region had been a popular sport since the early days of the city in the 1830s, and at one time Chicago had more horse racing tracks (six) than any other major metropolitan area. Arlington International was the site of the first thoroughbred race with a million-dollar purse in 1981. The premier event at Arlington Park was the International Festival of Racing, held in early August, which featured three Grade 1 races on turf: the Arlington Million Stakes, Beverly D. Stakes and Secretariat Stakes. Owner Churchill Downs Inc. announced plans in February 2021 to sell all 326 acres of Arlington Park property for redevelopment. On September 29, 2021, the Chicago Bears announced that they reached an agreement to purchase the property; the sale was finalized in February 2023. History Arlington International Racecourse was founded as Arlington Park by California businessman Harry D. "Curly" Brown who would later serve as president of Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba. The track officially opened in 1927 to 20,000 spectators. Jockey Joe Bollero, who later became a successful trainer, rode Luxembourg to victory in the first race ever run at Arlington. Benjamin F. Lindheimer acquired control of Arlington Park in 1940 and owned it until his death in 1960. Long involved with the business, adopted daughter Marje Lindheimer Everett then took over management of the racetrack. Widely respected Hall of Fame trainer Jimmy Jones of Calumet Farms was quoted by Sports Illustrated as saying that Lindheimer "was the savior of Chicago racing" and that "Arlington Park became the finest track in the world—certainly the finest I've ever been on." On July 5, 1948, Citation won the Stars and Stripes Stakes in his first appearance since winning the Triple Crown, equaling the record of the time by winning in 1:49 1/5. On June 24, 1952, jockey Eddie Arcaro becomes the first American jockey to win 3,000 races. Five years after the seating capacity increased to 30,000 and parking facilities expanded to accommodate 15,000, a new paddock was unveiled in 1960. In 1964, Arlington Park inherits the thoroughbred race dates of Washington Park, who is now exclusively running harness races. In 1966, future Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. gets his first American victory. Two years later, the future Hall of Famer Dr. Fager wins the one-mile Washington Park Handicap in world record time of 1:32 1/5 - he carried 134 pounds and held that record until 1998. In 1968, Marje Everett sold the racetrack to Gulf & Western, remaining as director. The following year, she was accused of bribing Illinois Governor Otto Kerner Jr. The alleged bribes were in the form of stock options in 1961 that Kerner bought at a reduced price and then sold in 1968 at a profit. Kerner was eventually convicted of mail fraud, but Everett denied at trial that she intended to bribe him, and the government never identified her as a briber. In June 1973, Arlington organized a race for three-year-olds, the Arlington Invitational, to lure Secretariat to the mid-west. Secretariat won easily and Arlington created the Secretariat Stakes, also for three-year-olds but on the turf, in his honor. In 1981 under the direction of track president Joseph Joyce Jr., Arlington was the home of the world's first million-dollar thoroughbred race: The Arlington Million. The result of that race is noted in bronze at the top of the paddock at Arlington, where a statue of jockey Bill Shoemaker riding John Henry to a come-from-behind victory over 40–1 longshot The Bart celebrates Thoroughbred racing's inaugural million-dollar race. Arlington entered a new era in 1983 when Richard L. Duchossois led an Illinois investment group to purchase the track from its former owners and made a pledge to continue presenting championship racing; that was tested on July 31, 1985, when a small fire spread quickly out of control and completely destroyed the grandstand and clubhouse. Unsure of the future of Arlington, the meet was moved to Hawthorne Race Course - yet it was announced that the Arlington Million would still be held at Arlington International. On August 25, 1985, they did just that by using temporary bleachers. Three years after Joyce resigned over disagreements with Duchossois, the track was fully reopened as a new name, Arlington International Racecourse in 1989. In 1996, 34,000 fans jammed into Arlington to see the two-time Horse of the Year and future Hall of Famer Cigar tie the modern day record of 16 consecutive wins in the Arlington Citation Challenge. In 2000, reopening after a two-year shutdown caused by contractual disputes preventing racing, Arlington was purchased in September by Churchill Downs Inc. Known as Arlington Park at the time, it hosted hosted the 2002 Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at their track. In 2007 to promote safer racing, Arlington International Racecourse invested $11 million to install a synthetic racing surface called Polytrack which is still used today. Do the Wave won the first race on the Polytrack on May 4. On May 11, Arlington debuts an alternate finish line at the 1/16 pole. Known as Arlington Park for twelve years, it was renamed Arlington International Racecourse in 2013. In 2016, Arlington debuted the Arlington Racing Club, an ownership group with the goal to garner interest in thoroughbred ownership. Reality television On May 14, 2010, Lee DeWyze, a citizen of Mount Prospect, Illinois, and a contestant on American Idol, performed a concert at Arlington Park for approximately 41,000 fans. Also on May 14, Arlington is featured in an episode of Undercover Boss where Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen goes to Arlington and Calder Race Course. A year later, on May 14, 2011, Haley Reinhart, of Wheeling, Illinois, also made the top 3 on American Idol. She, like DeWyze, had a hometown concert at the track for nearly 30,000 of her own fans and supporters. Pioneers in racing Arlington was the first track to install a public-address system and employed the pioneering race caller Clem McCarthy to describe the action. It added the first electric totalizator which allowed a credible tote board and decreased time between races, in 1933. In 1936 it added a photo finish camera. It introduced the first electric starting gate in 1940 and the largest closed-circuit TV system in all of sports in 1967. In 1971, Arlington held the i.... Discover the Arlington Industries Inc popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Arlington Industries Inc books.