WITH Arlington Racecourse about to be sold for redevelopment, this year’s Arlington Million has been renamed the Mister D. Stakes (12.13am), honouring long-time track owner Richard L. Duchossois.

Aidan O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore, combine again in the US with Armory. The Galileo colt has been a consistent top-level performer including a runner-up finish in the Ladbrokes Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Australia last October.

He was third, beaten just a length and a half, in a classy renewal of the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot behind Love two months ago before a fourth in the Group 2 Sky Bet York Stakes on July 24th.

Other international connections are provided by Space Traveller, a Bated Breath five-year-old, although he runs now for American trainer Brendan Walsh but with Danny Tudhope on board. He won a listed race at York in May.

The favourite is Domestic Spending from the Chad Brown barn and Klaravich Stables’ four-year-old Kingman gelding has won six of seven starts and is on a four-race winning streak. He looks one of the best turf performers in the US in recent seasons and should score here.

Fillies

In the Beverly D Stakes (10.49pm), Santa Barbara faces a much tougher task than she had when winning the Belmont Oaks against three-year-olds fillies in mid July.

She has to face Lemista from the Chad Brown barn and the trainer has won the last five runnings of the Beverly D.

Graham Motion’s morning line favourite Mean Mary is also a strong challenger.

Lemista was a multiple group-race winner here for Ger Lyons and makes her third US start. Owned by Peter Brant, Lemista needs to bounce back after coming home last of eight in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga last month.

Brown dismissed that run this week as nothing like her true form. Before the Diana, the four-year-old daughter of Raven’s Pass was a good second, half a length behind Grade 1 winner Harvey’s Lil Goil the Grade 3 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont Park in May.

“I loved her race in the Beaugay and her work Sunday was the best work I’ve seen from her,” Brown said this week.

Mean Mary beat a strong field of fillies at Belmont in the Grade 2 New York Stakes over 10 furlongs, beating Joseph O’Brien’s Thundering Nights. She is still seeking her first Grade 1 win but with five graded stakes wins to her name, the daughter of Scat Daddy will be tough to pass from the front.

Local fillies complete the field with the top three from Arlington’s Grade 3 trial, the Modesty Stakes: Naval Laughter, Joy Epifora, and Bramble Queen. Sophie Doyle gets another shot at a Grade 1 on Naval Laughter.

Saratoga

Got Stormy, who won the Fourstardave for Mark Casse in 2019, will try to do it again on Saturday.

The six-year-old mare will attempt to overcome five males and two other mares in the Grade 1 Fourstardave Stakes where Chad Brown supplies the favourite again with a son of Dark Angel in Raging Bull, already a Grade 1 winner this year.