by Neil Milbert

After an unseasonably warm early autumn in the Chicago area, rain, hail, high winds and cold temperatures arrived early this week.

It’s a sign of the times in Illinois harness racing — competing in the cold weather is becoming the new normal at Hawthorne Race Course.

After having been conspicuous by their absence from Chicagoland for more than eight months, the standardbreds will return to Hawthorne this weekend with programs on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 7:10 p.m.

Thereafter, there will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday night racing for the remainder of the calendar year followed by Saturday and Sunday night racing from Jan. 4-Feb. 23. Then, there will be an even longer lapse than there was this year, a hiatus that will continue until Nov. 7.

Illinois harness racing’s version of climate change was caused by the decision of corporate overlord Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) to shut down its architecturally-magnificent and tradition-rich thoroughbred showcase, Arlington International Racecourse, following its 2021 meeting to eliminate competition for a nearby casino in which it owns a 62 per cent interest.

CDI had lobbied for casino gambling at Arlington for nearly two decades before becoming the major stockholder in Rivers Casino in 2018. Then, after legislation was passed in 2019 that allowed Illinois racetracks to become racinos, CDI did a sudden about-face, spurning offers from thoroughbred groups to purchase the track and selling the track to the Chicago Bears with the stipulation that there be no gambling of any kind on the property.

Faced with higher-than-expected property taxes the Bears tore down what Architectural Digest once called “the world’s most beautiful racetrack” but the NFL team now regards the site as its second choice for the location of a new stadium, leaving the rubble from the teardown as CDI’s legacy to Illinois racing.

As a consequence of the disappearance of Arlington from the thoroughbred map, dual-purpose Hawthorne is the only racetrack remaining in the Chicago metropolitan area.

To accommodate both the thoroughbreds and harness horses, Hawthorne and the Illinois Racing Board have been experimenting with the schedule. Next year will be the fourth time since 2022 that it has been different from the previous year.

Compounding the situation for members of the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association (IHHA) and Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (ITHA), Hawthorne’s plans for a $400 million racino that would supply a subsidy to purses have been stalled since large portions of the grandstand and clubhouse were torn down in 2020. And a new suburban Chicago track exclusively for harness racing allowed by the 2019 racing bill has not been built.

Meanwhile, harness trainers and drivers have been using programs at the state fairgrounds at Springfield and DuQuoin and the 27 county fairs to earn purse money during the summer and early autumn.

“I went to the county fairs this summer for the first time in about 20 years; I raced at about a half-dozen of them,” said Casey Leonard, who in 2023-24 won his sixth driver championship during the last seven meetings at Hawthorne. “The IHHA secured an influx of money that bolstered the fairs. Between the fairs and making the long drives to Springfield and DuQuoin, I kept very busy [during the months there was no racing at Hawthorne].”

Non-betting races with money coming from the Hawthorne purse account were held at the fairgrounds in June, July, September and October and the Illinois Department of Agriculture funded six pari-mutuel racing programs for Illinois-breds during the State Fairs at Springfield and DuQuoin in August. A seventh program scheduled for Springfield had to be rescheduled for Sept. 11 because of a rainout and didn’t offer pari-mutuel betting.

Most of the 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds who starred at the state fairgrounds and county fairgrounds will be at Hawthorne on Saturday and Sunday, competing in elimination races for what has evolved into the main event in Illinois racing, Hawthorne’s Night of Champions on Nov. 9.

There will be 15 races with total purses of $202,300 on Saturday and 14 races with purses totaling $212,600 on Sunday. Eight of the races on the first night and nine on the second night will have pots of $20,000.

On Saturday there are 140 entries and 19 on the also-eligible list and on Sunday 114 entries and four also eligibles.

Three horses voted 2023 state champions — Whiskey Lou, Lous Private Eye, and Gorgeous Big Guy — will be in action Saturday.

In leg 3 of the Beulah Dygert Memorial for 3-year-old filly trotters Leonard is driving Whiskey Lou for trainer Curt Grummel and owner/breeder Randy Wilt and in leg 3 of the Erwin F. Dygert Memorial for 3-year-old male trotters he will be at the reins of Lous Private Eye for trainer Steve Searle and Flacco Family Farms, LLC. Lou’s Legacy is the sire of both trotters.

Whiskey Lou has won 10 of her 11 races this year after winning four times and placing four times in eight starts last year.

“I drove her stablemate, Calypso Moon, last year and Curt asked me if I wanted to switch this year,” Leonard said. “I’ve driven her all year and she is a super horse to drive, straight-gaited and extremely willing. She does everything right.

“She’d be perfect on the year if it wasn’t for the championship at Springfield. She drew [post] 1. I got out of there in decent enough shape to get in mid-pack but then a horse ran on the rail and went sideways into us, knocking my horse off-stride. It wasn’t my filly’s fault; if it wasn’t for that I’m pretty confident she’d be undefeated. She finished really well to be fourth.”

Lous Private Eye has a 7-1-1 record in 10 starts this year, an improvement over last year’s 4-0-4 resume in 10 outings.

“At times he has shown glimpses of how good he could be,” Leonard said. “He has had a few pretty nice starts and a few okay starts. Steve has done a good job of pointing him toward the big races.”

Gorgeous Big Guy is the only undefeated horse racing at Hawthorne this weekend. He is 10-for-10, going into leg 3 of the Robert F. Carey, Jr. Memorial for 3-year-old colt and gelding pacers after compiling a record of seven firsts and four seconds in 11 outings last year.

The son of Ashlee’s Big Guy is trained by Erv Miller, who lost the 2023-24 Hawthorne trainer title to Amy Husted in a close race, and is driven by his son, Marcus Miller.

Marcus became a rising star in Chicagoland several years ago when he began driving in races while a student at DePaul University. Then, he went to the East Coast before returning to Illinois this summer to become the go-to-guy for his father after Erv’s primary drivers, Cordarius Stewart and Atlee Bender, were sidelined with injuries sustained in the same race at Oak Grove.

“It put them out of commission and left a pretty big hole in our Midwestern portion of the barn,” Marcus said. “I live in Pennsylvania and I’ve been going back and forth trying to fill in for those guys. My normal summer routine would be Pocono, Chester and then the New York Sire Stakes.

“If the horses are racing well, I’ll probably keep showing up some more [during the Hawthorne meeting]; out east it’s a down time of year for me. It’s unfortunate what has happened in Illinois. The stakes program is still okay; the horses able to win those races earn a decent amount of money so that helps but I wish it was like it used to be, that’s for sure.

“It’s good to be able to drive Gorgeous Big Guy; he’s a really, really nice horse.”

Sunday’s card doesn’t have any 2023 state champions but it does showcase four horses that excelled at Springfield and DuQuoin: Thebeautifulthings in leg 3 of the Incredible Tillie for 2-year-old filly pacers, Cash Money Twenty in leg 3 of the Incredible Finale for 2-year-old male pacers, Battlin Bob in another leg 3 Incredible Finale race, and Kays in Charge in leg 3 of the Fox Valley Flan for 2-year-old filly trotters.

Thebeautifulthings has won six of seven for Amy Husted and the trainer’s husband, driver Kyle Husted, and was clocked in 1:52.1 when she was victorious in a pari-mutuel race at DuQuoin on Aug. 27. She earlier was a pari-mutuel winner at Springfield.

Cash Money Twenty is likewise no stranger to pari-mutuel racing. He won by 10¾ lengths at Minnesota’s Running Aces in July and then at the Illinois State Fair at Springfield after coming to Illinois to race for trainer Mike Brink and Leonard. In his next start, at the DuQuoin State Fair, he finished second as the 1-5 favorite, his only defeat in eight starts.

“He has a lot of natural ability and he’s doing it on sheer talent right now,” Leonard said.

“At DuQuoin he had the rail. I had to use him pretty hard to maintain position. Then, Travis Seekman [driving Battlin Bob] got me in a bad spot and I had to move him three-wide before we got to five eighths, which is asking a lot. I overused him. Travis did a nice job and Battlin Bob [the winner by four lengths] is a nice horse.”

Battlin Bob has a seven-race composite consisting of five wins, one place and one show for trainer Hart Walker, his co-owner and co-breeder.

Seekman also is the driver of Kays In Charge. The filly is owned by former IHHA president Marty Engel and trained by Tom Simmona and she is coming to Hawthorne with seven triumphs and a pair of seconds in nine starts.