Rival Trainer Protests Late Fill-In for Criminal Type in Arlington Cup

The trainer of a long shot in Saturday’s $600,000 Arlington Challenge Cup has protested the substitution of Steinlen for Criminal Type.

“I am protesting because the closing of invitations is listed as July 20,” said Gedaliah Goodman, trainer of Santangelo. “I feel to change a horse after the race is finalized is improper. To me, it’s outrageous.”

Criminal Type is the nation’s top-ranked horse in the Thoroughbred Racing Communications poll.

When invitations were issued, Criminal Type’s trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, was eager to challenge Easy Goer and Sunday Silence at equal weights after his horse had beaten them separately while they bore lighter weights.

But when Easy Goer was suddenly retired because of a career-ending injury, the purse for the Challenge Cup was automatically reduced from $1 million to $600,000.

Lukas argued that Criminal Type’s performance in winning six of nine races and earning $2,129,650 this year should have been enough to keep the purse at $1 million.

Arlington owner Dick Duchossois refused to change the monetary ground rules, and Lukas asked permission July 21 to replace Criminal Type with Steinlen. Track stewards allowed the substitution.

The proposed substitute is last year’s national champion grass horse and the defending Arlington Million champion.

“Steinlen could have been put on the eligible list with Unbridled. He wasn’t,” Goodman said.

Arlington President Ken Dunn defended the substitution. The rules call for the field to be drawn at 10 a.m. Thursday, he said, so “technically, that means we can invite up to 10 a.m. Thursday.”

Besides Sunday Silence, Steinlen and Santangelo, the card for the 1 1/4-mile race features Opening Verse, Western Playboy, Beau Genius and Mi Selecto.