Five European-trained horses have been confirmed as starters by the International Racing Bureau for the Arlington Million on Aug. 21 at Arlington Park. They are currently headed by Summit Surge, recent winner of the Group 2 York Stakes, plus the third- and fourth-place finishers in the 1 1/4-mile, 88-yard contest, Allybar and Debussy.
Summit Surge will be saddled by Luca Cumani, the man who engineered Tolomeo’s upset of John Henry in the 1983 Million. Allybar, trained by Mahmoud Al Zarooni for Godolphin, was a two-time Group 3 winner on Tapeta at Meydan this winter before finishing a short neck third in the Dubai World Cup. Debussy is a John Gosden-trained son of Diesis who won the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano at Deauville last August at the Million distance of 1 1/4 miles.
Lady Jane Digby, who earned herself an automatic spot in the Million by winning the 1 1/4-mile, Group 1 Bayerisches Zuchtrenne against males at Munich, will be a rare female starter in the Million. The 5-year-old daughter of Oasis Dream is trained in England by Mark Johnston. Completing the list of confirmed Europeans in the Million is Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Tazeez, whose best effort for trainer Gosden this year was his sharp third behind Byword and Twice Over in the 1 1/4-mile, Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Famous Name remains on the fence for the Million.
“His trainer, Dermot Weld, is waiting on the ground,” the IRB’s Adrian Beaumont said. “He wants some cut in the ground and is playing it very carefully. He will not make a decision about the Million until late next week.”
Famous Name has won all three of his starts at Leopardstown this year, most recently in the 1 1/4-mile, Group 3 Meld Stakes.
Mikel Delzangles has his listed-placed Biased lined up for the Beverly D., for which Pachattack, a two-time listed winner this summer for Gerard Butler, is currently a probable, according to Beaumont. The Zarooni-trained Buzzword, only fifth in Pounced’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last fall but recently the winner of the 1 1/2-mile German Derby, will go in the Secretariat Stakes. Wigmore Hall, winner of a 1 1/4-mile, 88-yard handicap at York on July 10 for Michael Bell, prepped for the Secretariat in a 1 1/4-mile conditions race at Newmarket on Friday evening.
