Illinois situation seems dire
by Neil Milbert
With Illinois racing seemingly on life support, the state’s harness owners, trainers, drivers, and breeders are hoping and praying that the Illinois House of Representatives will address the deteriorating situation at its spring session that began Wednesday (Jan. 21) by passing HB 2724 and Gov. J.B. Pritzker will sign it into law.
The state Senate passed a replica of the bill 49-8 on Oct. 30 during the fall veto session.
It allows for construction of a harness track/casino in downstate Decatur and removal of the statutory boundary extending from Hawthorne Race Course’s suburban Stickney location that enables the Chicago metropolitan area’s only racetrack to veto construction of another racino within 35 miles.
Hawthorne’s ongoing financial crisis has become more acute in the past two months, first because of its failure to meet Illinois Racing Board licensing requirements for it to extend the harness meeting that began on Nov. 7 into 2026 and then because of continued bouncing checks for purse payments.
The Racing Board’s executive director, Domenic DiCera, on Jan. 6 announced that Hawthorne had posted surety bonds “to correct the deficiencies” and was “in compliance” for issuance of a 2026 license that would allow the track to resume its twice weekly programs on Jan. 17 and 18 and race for the duration of the meeting that is scheduled to end Feb. 15.
But then the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association (IHHA) slammed on the brakes because of Hawthorne’s inability to make good on the checks that began bouncing in December and continued in January.
As a consequence, the Jan. 17 and 18 races were called off, the third cancellation in as many weekends.
Now entries were taken on Thursday (Jan. 22) for 13 races on Jan. 24 and 12 on Jan. 25, offering a total of $140,000 in purses.
“They said they were confident we’d be back racing again this weekend,” IHHA executive director Tony Somone said on Wednesday afternoon. “But we’ve heard that before. At this point we don’t know for sure.”
Elaborating on the reason for the previous weekend’s cancellations, Somone said: “The horsemen who have online accounts at the racetrack could see the money is there but the accounts were frozen.”
At the time he estimated that the bounced checks totaled $500,000 and that another $300,000-$400,000 that ITHA members hadn’t tried to catch for fear that they too would bounce. Much of the money owed was from purses from the main event in Illinois racing, the $1.1 million Night of Champions for Illinois-breds on Nov. 15.
In the wake of the three consecutive cancellations, the IHHA’s thoroughbred counterpart, the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (ITHA), posted on its web-site that it was “gravely concerned” because “recent events relating to Hawthorne’s financial conditions are deeply troubling.”
The ITHA post also cited “Hawthorne’s inability to import out-of-state [simulcast] signals because of alleged failure to make settlement payments to host tracks” and went on to say, “it’s also past time for Hawthorne to finalize a deal to operate a racino to generate the additional purse funds necessary to ensure that Illinois thoroughbred racing may survive, compete, and ultimately flourish.”
The IHHA members agree wholeheartedly. They too have been taking a hit because the simulcast blackout is having a negative effect on purses and they also have been pleading for Hawthorne to find a collaborator to remake the racetrack into a racino.
When a massive Illinois gambling expansion law passed in 2019, allowing tracks to offer casino gambling — with a portion of the adjusted gross revenue going to purses — it seemed that happy days were here again for the people in Illinois racing.
But then, after lobbying for nearly two decades for permission to let tracks become racinos, Arlington International Racecourse’s corporate owner Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), did a startling about face and announced it was putting the opulent and tradition-rich thoroughbred track up for sale with a string attached: there was to be no pari-mutuel racing or any other form of gambling on the premises.
The obvious intent was to wipe out competition in Chicago’s northwest suburbs for the state’s most profitable casino, Rivers Casino in nearby Des Plaines, in which CDI in 2018 acquired a 62 per cent interest.
The NFL’s Chicago Bears purchased the property and tore down the track, hoping to secure favorable terms from the state and area municipalities to build a stadium but thus far they have been unsuccessful.
When Arlington discontinued racing following its 2021 meeting Hawthorne became the only Chicago area racetrack still standing and the harness horses and thoroughbreds were forced to time-share.
Compounding the problem for both breeds is the inability of Hawthorne president Tim Carey to secure funding for a $400 million state-of-the-art racino that he initially said would open in the spring of 2021. In pursuit of that end significant portions of the grandstand and clubhouse were demolished in 2020.
However, instead of opening a racino, Hawthorne has subsequently been fending off creditors. It has been hit with liens, asserting that the track owes as much as $5 million in unpaid bills for the demolition work. And the demolished area is an eyesore.
Another area of uncertainty for the IHHA is the uncertainty regarding the May-October non-betting races at the State Fairgrounds in Springfield and DuQuoin that have been held for the past few years with funding from the Hawthorne purse account.
Now, many are wondering if this opportunity to partially fill the void while the thoroughbreds are running at Hawthorne, will still be available, given the track’s mounting financial problems.
Some clarity on the situation may be forthcoming at the Jan. 28 Racing Board meeting — the agenda calls for Carey to testify.
No matter what Hawthorne’s president says, the paramount concern for members of the IHHA is the status of HB 2724 in Springfield. Some think it’s a matter of life or death for Illinois harness racing as we know it.
