The $100,000 John Henry at 1 3/16 mile for 3-year-olds and upward, and the $100,000 Estrapade at a 1 1/16 mile for fillies and mares, will both be contested over Arlington Park's turf course. The $100,000 Gilded Time, for 2-year-olds at seven furlongs, is also on the card.Gary A. Tanaka's Riddlestown, overmatched in Kentucky Cup Turf Handicap (gr. III) Sept. 21, may have found a field more to his liking in the John Henry 'Cap. He heads a field of eight in the grass affair, slated as the seventh race of the afternoon. Bien Nicole, owned by John & Kris Richter & John Allan Richter, is a daughter of Bien Bien and a winner of her last four in a row, all on grass, and may merit favoritism in the Estrapade, which has attracted 11. The Estrapade is carded as the ninth race Friday.
Overbrook Farm's Desert Warrior, apparently overmatched in Belmont's Champagne (gr. I) last time, is another who finds an easier field in Friday's Gilded Time, which has a field of seven juveniles and will be run as Friday's fifth raceThe John Henry is named in honor of the winner of the inaugural Arlington Million and the race's only two-time victor to date. The Estrapade recognizes the Grade I Arlington Million's only female winner, and the Gilded Time honors the winner of the 1992 Arlington-Washington Futurity, who went on to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) that season.