Churchill Downs Incorporated long-serving Board of Director Richard L.
Duchossois has been selected the 2010 Honored Guest of The Thoroughbred Club of
America’s Annual Testimonial Dinner at Keeneland Race Course, on Sunday, January
9, 2011.
The Honored Guest designation is awarded annually to a person selected by the
Club for rendering outstanding service to, or contributing toward the betterment
of Thoroughbred racing and/or breeding.
Duchossois is also currently a member of The Jockey Club and has been the
guiding force for Arlington Park since 1983, when he headed a group that
purchased the track from Madison Square Garden Corporation.
Additionally, he is the founder and co-owner with his four children, of
Duchossois Industries Inc., which operates and/or owns major stakes in a
diversified group of businesses involving consumer products, entertainment and
venture capital.
A Chicago-area native, Duchossois graduated from Morgan Park Military Academy
and was attending Washington and Lee University when he was called to active
military service, in 1942. He served in five European campaigns and was awarded
various citations before being released from active service as a major, in 1946.
In 1991, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by Washington and Lee
University.
Under Duchossois’ leadership, Arlington Park has received three Eclipse
Awards. The track became the first ever to receive an Eclipse Award in 1985, for
running the Arlington Million after a fire burned down the entire grandstand.
Dubbed the “Miracle Million,” the Grade 1 turf race was run for 35,000 fans,
only 25 days after the inferno devastated the track.
The track’s second Eclipse Award was earned in 1987 for the production of 10
television shows featuring Arlington Park’s major Thoroughbred stakes races. In
1989 the track earned its third Eclipse Award for its extraordinary investment
into the future of racing, with the complete reconstruction of the racetrack.
In 2002 Duchossois was named a co-winner of the National Thoroughbred
Writer’s Association Joe Palmer Award for “meritorious service to racing” and
Duchossois personally received the 2004 Eclipse Award of Merit, in recognition
of his lifetime achievements in Thoroughbred racing.
On the international front, Duchossois is the third recipient of the American
Jockey Club’s Gold Medal in 1986 and the Special Sovereign Award by the Jockey
Club of Canada in 1988, as well as the fifth recipient of the prestigious Lord
Derby Award in London from the Horserace Writers and Reporters Association of
Great Britain.
To join the festivities of honoring this extraordinary man on January 9,
2011, please call The Thoroughbred Club of America at 859-254-4282 or e-mail the
Executive Director, Betty Flynn at
BSFlynn@aol.com.