Finding ourselves in the Chicago suburbs one Saturday afternoon with a few hours to kill, we decided to go to Arlington Park to bet on the ponies.
While they have been racing on this site since 1927, the grandstands and other areas were rebuilt in the mid 1980s after a major fire. I have had the opportunity to visit a number of horse racing venues and Arlington Park is one of the nicer ones, just a step below Keeneland and Santa Anita.
The clubhouse and grandstands have a ‘modern’ look to it, giving it a very different feel than Churchill Downs or Santa Anita.
As with most thoroughbred tracks they have a dirt track and a turf track.
We had an excellent time for the first 4 races….
Until a tornado blew through (although to be fair it didn’t touch down at the track, but there were tornado warnings for the immediate area – with winds approaching 80 MPH with torrential rain).
The synthetic track stood up well, with an interesting look after the rain.
RDZ Photography 