LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For years, Arlington Park’s opening day coincided with Kentucky Oaks Day. Then COVID-19 struck, and Arlington didn’t begin a 2020 meeting until July. In 2021, the opener returned to the first Friday in May – a dark day, not a celebration. Churchill Downs Inc., Arlington’s owner, already had decided, strictly for financial reasons, to shed the track from its corporate portfolio. In May 2022, the massive Arlington grandstand, the vast tract of land upon which it rests, stood quiet as a remote Illinois prairie. No one would have felt the closure more acutely than the trainer Larry Rivelli, the owner Vince Foglia, and the jockey Jareth Loveberry. Rivelli won every Arlington training title from 2014 through Arlington’s end. Foglia, who races as Patricia’s Hope LLC, was the perennial leading owner starting in 2015. Loveberry, late to the party, arrived in 2020, winning the riding title that year and the next. “I grew up by Arlington Park. I went to the high school nearest Arlington Park,” Foglia said. “The whole thing feels tragic. I drive by it all the time and just say, ‘Wow, what a shame.’ ” Let the first Friday in May 2023 rouse bittersweet memory. Rivelli, Foglia, and Loveberry have other business on Saturday. :: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. A colt named Two Phil’s brings Rivelli, Foglia, and Loveberry to their first Derby. He’s the first Chicago-based horse for the race since War Emblem was sold after winning the Illinois Derby at another defunct Chicago track, Sportsman’s Park, and shipped from Hawthorne to the Churchill Downs string of Bob Baffert to win the 2002 Derby. The Two Phil’s folks are not just here to vibe with the Derby scene. “I’d have found a different course for this horse if I didn’t think he could win. Believe me, I’m the last guy that wants to go put a suit on and walk around with the big shots,” said Rivelli, spotted Tuesday morning doing backstretch interviews in sweatpants. Two Phil’s has other owners. Phillip Sagan bred him and retains a 10 percent share after selling another 10 percent to Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables in mid-April. Sagan and his son Anthony Sagan had a one-horse stable in 2016. The Sagans used to race harness horses at Maywood Park, another defunct Chicago track. Anthony Sagan said he and his father got an itch to try their hand at Thoroughbreds. Former jockey Jerry Lasala and former trainer Gene Lotti proposed an unraced 3-year-old filly by the very minor sire General Quarters. “We bought her sight unseen for $40,000,” Anthony Sagan said. “Most people thought I was crazy. It was a lot of money for her pedigree. Sometimes the less you know, the more you know.” Mia Torri had talent. Her racing career ended with two stakes wins and earnings of more than $300,000, and the Sagans decided to breed her. This, they knew nothing about. Lasala told them to talk to Steve Leving. Leving has bobbed and weaved around Chicago racing for several decades: a bloodstock agent, a racing official, the last agent for jockeys Jorge Velazquez and Wesley Ward, racing manager for Frank Calabrese. For years he made Ward’s entries at Royal Ascot and advised Ward, a good friend of Rivelli’s, on which European races to target. Leving and Rivelli talk every day. Back in the jockey agent game, Leving brought Loveberry to Arlington and helped him to a breakout meet this past winter at Fair Grounds. Loveberry has since moved his tack to Kentucky and, on Leving’s advice, switched to Kentucky agent Matt Muzikar. Leving also knows pedigrees inside and out. He planned the mating that produced Dreaming of Anna, 2006 champion juvenile filly for Calabrese, and he met the Sagans at a suburban restaurant. “I brought my paraphernalia,” he said. Leving gets obsessive with research and planning. He came up with a stallion for the Sagans: Hard Spun. Mia Torri was bred and foaled a chestnut colt – the Sagans’ second Thoroughbred holding. The youngster had some physical issues but soon turned a corner and looked good enough to make it into the prominent early portion of Keeneland’s 2021 September yearling sale. The colt didn’t meet a reserve of $150,000 and several months later was entered and withdrawn from a 2-year-old in training sale. “We couldn’t get anyone to show any interest,” Anthony Sagan said. The colt came to Chicago and went into training with Rivelli. By then he’d been named. Phillip Sagan is friendly with Jerry Lasala’s father, also a Phil. Those are the two Phils. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2023: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more “As Larry’s training the horse, he told them, ‘If you want someone to buy part of him, I got the guy,’ ” said Foglia – who was the guy. Foglia until 2013 had only gone racing as a bettor. “Things were going well financially, so I started dabbling. I said let’s claim one – and then I was hooked,” said Foglia, who eventually brought his mother along for the ride. Her name is Patricia, thus, Patricia’s Hope. Foglia had some Illinois-bred allowance and stakes horses along with owner-breeder Richard Ravin but mainly he and Rivelli played the claiming game, buying and losing horses in large quantities, winning scads of Arlington races. Those were the days. Arlington’s closing and Chicago racing’s moribund state required recalibration. “We changed the business model; less horses, more quality,” Foglia said. Foglia has a horse of high quality. Two Phil’s got ready early and debuted last June 23 at Churchill, where he was checked hard past the half-mile pole but continued stoutly for fifth. Second out, Two Phil’s won well in a six-furlong Colonial Downs maiden sprint, setting a strong pace, and Sept. 17 in the Shakopee Juvenile at Canterbury sat off a couple horses before dominating. The Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity in October at Keeneland marked a step back, though a useful one. Two Phil’s, breaking from post 12 in his two-turn debut, blew the first part of clubhouse turn. “He was pretty green going into that race, pretty aggressive,” Loveberry said. “I thought we learned the most about him in that race. I urged him at the three-eighths pole and even after going through all that, he still gave me something. He got tired going long for the first time, but he’s a horse who’s not going to give up.” More trouble in the Street Sense Stakes on Oct. 30 at Churchill. Two Phil’s and Loveberry almost got dropped going into the first turn. The colt recovered, relaxed behind horses on a sloppy track, and cruised to a five-length victory. Loveberry and Leving were going to Fair Grounds, and Leving suggested Rivelli send the horse there, too. Two Phil’s took up residence in Louie Roussel’s private barn under the care of groom and exercise rider Gonza Gonzales. In the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 21, Two Phil’s loomed and led in midstretch before Instant Coffee ran him down. Same thing Feb. 18 in the Risen Star, where Two Phil’s made his move coming off the far turn, briefly leading until Angel of Empire and Sun Thunder passed him. Rivelli brought Two Phil’s back to Chicago, where Rivelli has been going to the track most of his 52 years. Pete DiVito, Rivelli’s grandfather, was a Chicago trainer. Rivelli’s uncle Jimmy DiVito is a successful trainer himself and mentored his nephew. Rivelli considered one other profession, but when his football career ended after college, he turned to racing. Rivelli started training in 2000, won 18 races in 2001, and never looked back. He got all the way up to 143 winners in 2021 and has run five horses, all 2-year-olds in Breeders’ Cup races. He had seen Two Phil’s gallop over the Tapeta surface at Turfway, thought the horse had gone well, and picked out the Jeff Ruby Steaks here for Two Phil’s next spot. Tour de force isn’t too strong a descriptor. Two Phil’s stalked kindly for Loveberry, cruised to the lead in upper stretch, and drew off easily to a 5 1/4-length win. He galloped out so powerfully that an outrider had to help Loveberry pull up halfway down the backstretch. The major speed-figure makers aligned: Two Phil’s was fast enough in the Ruby to win the Derby. “I’ll get nervous when they go into the starting gate, but right now I’m treating it like another race,” Rivelli said last week. “I’m not doing anything different with him. I’m keeping it the same. He gallops a mile and a half or a mile and a quarter, depending on the day. He just ran a mile and an eighth five weeks ago. He’s got a ton of experience.” Two Phil’s also has the right temperament. The Rivelli barn hums along mid-morning while Two Phil’s takes a daily nap. :: Get the full DRF Kentucky Derby Clocker Report by Mike Welsch and the DRF Clocker Team Loveberry went to Hawthorne to ride Two Phil’s in his final Derby work on April 27. Loveberry believes maturity and general improvement, not a switch from dirt to synthetic, produced the Turfway breakthrough. “I felt like I was riding on clouds in the work. He just responded to my slight touch and took off. He pulled up and came back to the barn as high as a kite,” said Loveberry. Loveberry tried his luck at Churchill’s spring meet in 2017. He started decently, ended up with four winners from 71 mounts. “I kind of got starstruck. I wasn’t ready for it.” he said. A Michigander, Loveberry rode his first race before perhaps 100 people at Great Lakes Downs. Saturday, he’ll get a leg up from a first-time Derby trainer for first-time Derby owners with 150,000 looking on. Five years ago, these guys would’ve figured they’d be spending their first Saturday in May at Arlington. That track’s shut tight. This could be much better. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.