Illinois harness dates decrease with no racino in sight
by Neil Milbert
Pari-mutuel racing opportunities for harness horses in Illinois continued to shrink when the Illinois Racing Board drafted the 2026 schedule on Thursday (Sept. 18).
Hawthorne Race Course’s Suburban Downs meeting was awarded a grand total of 34 race programs, a reduction of six from this year’s allotment and 12 fewer than in 2024.
The 2025 fall/winter meeting that is scheduled to be held from Nov. 7-Dec. 30 will continue in 2026 from Jan. 3-Feb. 15.
Then, the harness horses will move out of Hawthorne and the thoroughbreds will move in.
The standardbreds will come back for a Nov. 6-Dec. 27 meeting that is expected to again extend into the following year.
Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association (IHHA) president Jeff Davis and executive director Tony Somone had hoped to persuade the board to begin that meeting in late October to provide six days of racing opportunities for 2-year-olds under more favorable weather conditions. Davis noted that there were 423 harness foals born in Illinois in 2023 versus 108 thoroughbred foals.
But the board voted 9-0 to let the thoroughbreds begin their Hawthorne meet on April 2 and continue racing through Nov. 1 for a total of 63 programs.
“At least we didn’t lose anything further,” Davis said. “And Hawthorne is okay with adding 28 days of non-betting races at Springfield and DuQuoin (state fairgrounds from June 8 through Oct. 20) and funding the purses.”
The closing of the Maywood Park and Balmoral Park harness tracks following their 2015 meetings and the decision by corporate overlord Churchill Downs, Inc. to shut down the thoroughbred showcase Arlington International Racecourse after its 2021 meeting to wipe out competition for the booming nearby casino in which it owns a 62 per cent interest, have left Illinois with only two tracks. They are Hawthorne in Chicago’s near southwest suburbs and Fairmount Park across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.
Fairmount is limited to thoroughbred racing after ceasing harness racing in 1998.
“If we hadn’t stepped in there would be no harness racing in Illinois this year,” Hawthorne president Tim Carey told the board. “We remain absolutely committed to harness racing. We realize this is not the ideal schedule but it’s the best we can do.”
Fairmount will race 57 programs from April 14-Oct. 27. Unlike Hawthorne, Fairmount doesn’t have a grass course and the board took that into consideration in drafting the schedule after hearing testimony from Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (ITHA) president Chris Block and executive director Dave McCaffrey and Fairmount general manager Vince Gabbert.
“Hawthorne does turf racing in October and that enables us to maximize field size,” Gabbert said. “We’re looking to reduce overlap and maximize the 1,300 [thoroughbred] horses we have in Illinois.”
Block said, “October will be our best month. Canterbury and Prairie Meadows will be closed and we will get horses who raced at those tracks and horses from Fairmount who don’t have turf racing opportunities.”
Board member Rocco Zucchero asked Gabbert about the possibility of conducting harness racing at Fairmount.
“Finding an alternate location would be a better option for us than flipping the track,” Gabbert said.
McCaffrey, who began his racing career as a harness driver at now-defunct Quad City Downs and Fairmount Park and served as president of the IHHA before becoming executive director of the ITHA, disagrees.
“Fairmount had harness racing for 30 years,” he said. “One way to alleviate our schedule problems is to bring harness racing back to Fairmount.”
The elephant in the room at the dates hearings was the proposed $400 million Hawthorne casino made possible by 2019 legislation that produced a massive expansion in gambling in Illinois and enabled tracks to become racinos.
Large portions of Hawthorne’s grandstand and clubhouse were torn down in 2020 in anticipation of construction and since then every year at the dates hearings Carey has assured the board and horsemen that financing is being finalized that will make the racino a reality.
“We came here last year with the hope we would be doing the project this year but we were unable to do so,” Carey said. “We’re still committed to doing the project.
“We anticipate making an announcement in the fourth quarter of this year and opening in the fourth quarter of 2027.”
The racino would allocate a significant portion of its adjusted gross revenue to purses, taking harness and thoroughbred racing at Hawthorne off life support.
“First and foremost, horse racing no longer can stand on its own,” McCaffrey testified. “I’m a horse guy all my life and it’s painful to say that. In Philadelphia, they race for $55 million and $52 million of that comes from their Parx Casino and $3 million from purses and simulcasts; at Oaklawn Park, 80 per cent of their purse money comes from their casino [subsidy].
“There are 650 [thoroughbred] horses on the Hawthorne backstretch right now, an all-time low. The only way out of this is a racino. It is of utmost importance. We have to get the racino built or we will disappear.”
REST IN PEACE: The Illinois racing community is mourning the death of Jim Edgar, the popular moderate Republican who was the state’s governor from 1991-99. A horse owner and breeder who was a staunch supporter of both thoroughbred and harness racing, Edgar died on Sept. 14 because of pancreatic cancer complications. He lied in state in the capitol rotunda in Springfield on Friday (Sept. 19) and a memorial service was scheduled for Saturday (Sept. 20) at Central Baptist Church in Springfield.
