Jockey Chris Emigh, Arlington’s
leading rider in 2006, but who has been hanging his tack at Indiana Downs this
summer, returned to his Chicagoland home Sunday and accompanied his daughter
Taylor to a local horse show when his cell phone rang.
Realizing the caller was
trainer Scott Becker, for whom Emigh rides frequently, the jockey answered the
phone with the greeting, “911 Emigh.”
As he suspected, Becker wanted
him to ride two horses for him that day at Arlington
as late jockey changes: William Stiritz’s Honour First in the fourth race
and Stiritz’s Navy Wings in the fifth.
Honour First and Navy Wings
both made the pace and held on willingly in the late stages with Emigh’s urging
to each score neck victories, giving the Emigh-Becker tandem a double for the
afternoon.
Jockey Julio Felix also had a
riding double Sunday, winning the seventh race on Sugar Daddy Stable’s
Charbourg for conditioner Manny Perez and the ninth on Millard R. Seldin
Revocable Trust and the Estate of Hoss Inman’s Cherokee Lord for trainer
Charlie Livesay. The latter finished fourth in last summer’s Grade I
Secretariat Stakes at Arlington.
SATURDAY HAT TRICK VAULTS GRAHAM TO SECOND IN STANDINGS
With three wins last Saturday
during Arlington
Park’s Million Preview
Day – including a half-length tally in the Grade III Arlington Handicap aboard
Shadwell Stable’s Tajaaweed – jockey James Graham vaulted to second place in
the local standings entering Thursday’s racing program.
The Arlington Handicap is the
designed local preview for the Grade I Arlington Million, which will be one of
the three Grade I races offered during Arlington’s 2011 International Festival
of Racing on Aug. 13.
Tajaaweed, who is trained by
Danny Peitz, finished third in the 2010 Arlington Handicap and sixth in the
2010 Arlington Million, but is being pointed once again toward this summer’s
showcase race after last Saturday’s impressive win.
Graham, who also won
Saturday’s fifth race on G. Watts Humphrey Jr.’s New Wave for trainer Rusty
Arnold and the sixth on John Wade’s Aweeoneinthebunker for conditioner Doug
Matthews, is one win behind Arlington’s current leading rider J. Z. Santana
entering Thursday’s 10-race program.
ALL-TURF PICK-5, LATE PICK-4 FEATURED FRIDAY AT ARLINGTON
The first half of Arlington
Park’s 2011 summer season
officially ends Friday, but features an All-Turf Pick-5 as well as a late
All-Turf Pick-4 as highlights of the day.
The Pick-5 and Pick-4 are both
50-cent wagers, and the Pick-5, which begins with Friday’s fifth race, also
features a low 15 percent takeout.