The motivational phrase, “This is the first day of the rest of your life” has become sadly twisted at one of America’s iconic racing venues. Friday, opening day of the 2021 racing season, marks the first day at the end of Arlington Park’s life. Arlington opened in 1927. It closes, permanently, barring an unexpected change in trajectory, when this 68-day racing season concludes Sept. 25. Churchill Downs Inc. acquired Arlington in 2000. Now, the corporation, which owns a majority share in Illinois’ largest casino, located about 13 miles from Arlington, is leading one of the world’s most lauded racetracks into its tomb. CDI hinted during summer 2020 that Arlington’s future was precarious – hardly a surprise to anyone familiar with the decrepit state of Illinois racing – and earlier this year, during a shareholder’s call, intimation became proclamation with CDI announcing it would close the track and sell the massive Arlington tract for development. :: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now. “You never know what could happen, but that’s the plan right now,” Arlington president Tony Petrillo said. “To find another location for Arlington.” You heard that right. The company line says CDI wants to continue operating an Illinois racetrack after 2021. But things are not so simple as picking up and changing venues. CDI can’t just move their current racetrack operator’s license attached to Arlington to a new spot. They’d have to be re-licensed and go through the entire process of opening a new track. If the company isn’t committed to racing at Arlington, a wonderful, perfectly acceptable venue, why would they open a new track? The presumption is that CDI wants to preserve the ability to operate its lucrative account-wagering company, TwinSpires, in Illinois, and to do so requires the ADW be attached to a racing facility. Racing date applications for 2022 are filed with the Illinois Racing Board in late July, and it will be interesting to see what CDI, which still owns and holds a license at shuttered Quad City Downs in East Moline, Ill., has in mind. Meanwhile, the racing product this summer should actually be all right. While new racing secretary Dave White said Tuesday that the stables currently house only about 600 horses, Petrillo said the track eventually expects close to 1,400. Average daily overnight purses, according to David McCaffrey, executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, will be about $160,000, the highest number in years. A good part of that added daily money comes from a reduction in stakes racing compared to 2019. The Arlington Million is no more, renamed the Mister D stakes for Arlington’s chairman emeritus Richard Duchossois, who turns 100 in October. The race’s purse is $600,000 this year, and “Mister D Day,” Aug. 14, includes the $400,000 Beverly D. and the $300,000 Bruce D., formerly the Secretariat. Racing on Polytrack and grass is conducted Friday and Saturday through the end of May, when Sunday cards are added. Four-day weeks are the norm during July and August, with first post generally set at 2:25 p.m. Central. Arlington will lean heavily on its world-class grass course and, through the use of a temporary rail, usually have two turf lanes set up for concurrent use. Every day, though, the clock is ticking. “I’ve really underestimated this deep emotional tie horsemen have to Arlington,” McCaffrey said. “They’re excited about the prospect of racing at Arlington this year and having a full meet, yet there’s this sword of Damocles hanging over their head.”