We’ve visited Pimlico to look at Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Day on Friday and Preakness (G1) Day on Saturday, but of course, there’s racing action going on in our backyard as well.  After a one-year hiatus during which it was run at Churchill Downs, the Arlington Matron (G3) has returned to the Chicago area.

The race will be run for the eighty-first time this year.  Now that it’s back at Arlington, the Matron is once again the only nine-furlong polytrack stakes in North America for older fillies and mares.   Several past and present local stakes namesakes have counted the Arlington Matron among their victories.  Pucker Up (1957) has a turf stakes run in her name on Aington Million Day, Old Hat (1965) still lends her name to an early-season sophomore fillies’ sprint stakes at Gulfstream, Sweetest Chant (1982) is the namesake of an early-season turf mile for three-year-old fillies at Gulfstream, and Hawthorne used to run a graded dirt route for older fillies and mares in the name of Sixty Sails (1974, 1975).   Another notable recent winner is Illinois-bred Grade 1 winner and millionaire La Tia (2014).

Head over to Picks and Ponderings, read my preview of the Arlington Matron, and let me know your thoughts in the comments!