Duchossois family sells 1 million more shares back to Churchill Downs
Once the largest single bloc of Churchill Downs Inc. shareholders, The Duchossois Group this week sold back more shares to the company that owned the former Arlington Park racetrack before its sale to the Chicago Bears.
The Chicago-based business group and investment firm, controlled by former Arlington Chairman Richard Duchossois’ son Craig, sold 1 million of its 4 million shares to Churchill Downs at a price of $123.75 per share, for a total price of $123.75 million, under terms of a stock repurchase agreement signed Monday.
The deal between the longtime business partners - following a merger in 2000 that made Louisville-based Churchill owner of Arlington Park - is one more in a line of stock repurchases going back to 2015.
During a previous sale of 1 million shares in February 2021 - just before Churchill put the 326-acre racetrack property on the market - Craig Duchossois told the Daily Herald that the transactions were part of his family's plan to diversify its holdings after the Churchill stock grew to become a large percentage of their assets.
The Duchossois Group also sold 1 million shares in June 2017 and another 1 million in November 2015.
The latest deal - set to close Jan. 2 - will leave CDI Holdings LLC, an affiliate of The Duchossois Group, with 3 million shares. The group doubled its number of shares in May after Churchill’s board of directors approved a two-for-one stock split.
Richard Duchossois, who died Jan. 28, 2022 at age 100, retired from the Churchill board in 2019. Craig Duchossois stepped down in 2018.