August 23 - Saturday's Arlington Million (Gr 1) at Arlington Park couldn't have been any more exciting as favourite and defending champ Gio Ponti looked set to wrap up the 1 1/4 mile turf race, but then Irish-bred Debussy rallied late to win the epic outing.

As the feature race of the action-packed Gr 1-laden card in Chicago, ahead of the Arlington Million racegoers were eager to see if 5-year-old Gio Ponti could deliver another stunning victory and become only the second horse to win back-to-back races.

And judging by how well Gio Ponti was backed, a lot of betting fans had confidence in the Christophe Clement-trained runner. But it seems Debussy's jockey, William Buick, had other ideas, despite spending most of the prestigious race way down the field.

With a good lead in the stretch, Gio Ponti - with Ramon Dominguez up - seemed untouchable. However, down the field, Buick saw a hole along the rail and guided the 4-year-old colt through it to begin chasing down Gio, eventually catching and passing him.

Debussy won the 2010 Arlington Million in a time of 2:03.01 and paid $24.00. He finished half a length ahead of Gio Ponti who finished in front of Tazeez in third. The win was Debussy's second of the year out of six races, his first being in England in May.

Said Buick after the race, 'I thought I have so much horse, but I'm not going to have enough room. But then the hole opened and we got it.' Also happy at the victory was Debussy's trainer, John Gosden, who admitted he'd been trying to win the race for years.

'Debussy had nowhere to go,' said the top-rated English trainer. 'But I think the other runners just got tired during the last part and he dashed up the rail and did it really well. I've been trying to win this race [Arlington Million] for 28 years.'

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2011/12/09 12:47:24 AM