Now that the successful public relations campaign is over, the hard work begins for the Breeder's Cup in Arlington Hts.

Arlington Park, selected as the site for the 2002 Breeder's Cup races on Oct. 26, 2002, now has 10 months to get ready for the biggest single event ever to come to the village.

Facilities and arrangements will have to be made for 50,000 visitors from all over the world in international horse racing, a media horde led by NBC-TV (which will televise the event live), and more cars than the park area has seen anytime in its 74-year history.

In another delicious circumstance, the Cup comes to the park in its 75th anniversary year.

The Journal spoke with Dan Leary, director of commun-ications for the park, and the first thing he said was, "I'm glad I did this at Belmont Park in New York in 1995. It will be a big help to have that experience."

This is the 19th year of the Cup, which features eight races on Oct. 26 involving the best thoroughbreds in the world. Purses and awards will total $13 million guaranteed. For one day and the week preceding it, Arlington will be the capital of the horse racing world. For four hours on Oct. 26, the park will be watched by millions of TV viewers all over the world.

The challenges? Leary said the three biggest will be:

* Providing enough seats for the 50,000-plus spectators on race day. The current grandstand and nearby areas now hold only about 12,000.

* Providing enough space for the thousands of cars that almost everybody will be bringing to the area.

* Providing equipment, space, and facilities for the NBC television crews and the hundreds of additional media representatives from throughout the world.

"We're going to call in consultants and experts to help us expand our seating and our parking areas," Leary said. "We will have to expand our seating by at least five times."

He said nothing has been firmed up yet, but possibilities include constructing new trackside seating along the western and eastern edges of the track, and building temporary seating on the south side of the track along Euclid Avenue. There are some tall trees there, he said, making that option difficult.

For parking, he said the park will probably work with the village and with nearby communities such as Rolling Meadows and Palatine, to provide parking facilities. Leary said he didn't know if the fairly large parking deck at the district court building across Euclid from the park would be available for the Cup. When we think of satellite parking facilities, we probably have to think about shuttle buses or vehicles to get people back and forth," he said. "That adds another planning challenge."

"We have to keep in mind that this isn't just a one-day event," Leary said. "The week leading up to it is full of pre-Cup events for the media, social gatherings, etc. We anticipate that the large number of visitors will start arriving early in the week, and it will slowly build up to race day on Saturday."

He did say that all additional seating would be temporary only and constructed solely for the Breeder's Cup week.

The event is expected to pump more than $58 million into the Arlington Hts. and northwest suburban economy, he said. This includes about $36 million in direct spending by guests, $22 million in salaries and wages to workers who prepare and operate the park, and the creation of 827 new jobs. Anticipated revenue to the state includes about $4.3 million in tax income.

In a briefing paper prepared by a Dallas consultant for the Greater Woodfield Convention and Visitors Bureau and Arlington Park, it was pointed out that, "These visitors have comparatively high incomes and arrive well ahead of the actual Breeders' Cup races to take part in related media events and visit other attractions offered by the host community."

While widely respected as one of the finest, if not the biggest, racing venues in the world, Arlington Park was not the first choice for this event. "We were in the right place at the right time for 2002, although we probably would have gotten the event eventually,." Leary said. "We got it for next year because Santa Anita in Los Angeles, the first choice, is under construction and can't do it."

The biggest Breeder's Cup ever was in 1998 at Churchill Downs in Louisville Kentucky, when more than 80,000 persons attended. The Breeder's Cup organization calls the event the "Super Bowl of thoroughbred racing."

In terms of logistics, the Cup is the second biggest racing event in the world, behind only the Kentucky Derby in May, when more than 150,000 attend to see one race lasting two minutes.

Mayor Arlene Mulder, said she is "absolutely thrilled" to bring the event to her village. "I believe that a big factor was when Tom Meeker, president of Churchill Downs, visited here last summer for the Arlington Million," she said. "He said he was most impressed with the facilities and people here. His support, and the park's new relationship with Churchill Downs, certainly played a big role in our success."