Hawthorne remains in a coma

by Neil Milbert

After being on life support since the start of the 2026, Hawthorne Race Course’s Suburban Downs harness meeting has been in a coma since the Illinois Racing Board suspended its organizational license on Jan. 26.

This means that there can be no harness racing at the Chicago metropolitan area’s only track until it provides proof that it “can meet the minimum standards” detailed in the Illinois Harness Racing Act.

This year’s schedule called for the standardbreds to race Saturdays and Sundays through Feb. 15, a continuation of the meeting that began on Nov. 7, and again from Nov. 6 through Dec. 27 — a total of 34 programs.

But there has been no racing this year — first, because Hawthorne failed to post 2026 surety bonds before the Racing Board’s Jan. 1 deadline; then, after that issue was resolved, because of bouncing checks to owners, trainers, and drivers dating back to last December; and now, because of the organizational license revocation.

The purse bank account has been locked and the only checks that have cleared are those from other accounts and those for certain simulcast signals. (Hawthorne continues to earn money from its off-track betting parlors while its harness meeting is suspended.)

Sandwiched between the harness meetings on the calendar is a March 29-Oct. 7 thoroughbred meeting, a total of 63 programs but now, because of Hawthorne’s ongoing financial woes, the thoroughbred dates also seem to be in jeopardy.

In addition to making good on the bounced purse account checks totaling in the neighborhood of $1 million, Hawthorne is confronted with a $5 million lien from contractors for 2020 demolition work for a proposed casino at the track and a reported $1.6 million owed Churchill Downs, Inc. for unpaid simulcast fees dating back to 2025.

At the Jan. 28 Racing Board meeting Hawthorne’s director of racing Jim Miller testified that stall applications for the thoroughbred meeting have been sent, 55-60 trainers have applied, and plans call for the track to be converted after the harness meeting ends on Feb. 15.

“We are prepared for the start of on-track [thoroughbred] training before the start of the meeting,” he said.

However, Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association president Jeff Davis said on Feb. 4 that if the Suburban Downs suspension is lifted before the end of the current meeting, he will ask the Racing Board to push back the thoroughbred dates to make up for some of the lost harness dates.

“We had talked to the [Racing Board] executive director about staggering these lost dates over time [extending into the fall meeting],” Davis said. “We won’t race again this weekend, which means 10 lost dates.”

Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association president Chris Block is skeptical about Miller’s timeline and has doubts that any form of racing can continue without the infusion of funds.

“The chance of us racing thoroughbreds at Hawthorne this year are about 50-50,” Block said. “I can only imagine what this is like for the harness horsemen. This is catastrophic. We need clarity; we need truth.”

At the Racing Board meeting Hawthorne’s assistant general manager John Walsh said Hawthorne president Tim Carey couldn’t attend because he was working with professionals in downtown Chicago and was close to making a deal with an unnamed new partner — “someone nearby who is interested in Illinois racing and who really wants this to succeed and move quickly.”

Walsh was hopeful that the deal would be done by mid-February.

Both Davis and Block deplore the fact that the racino that was made possible by 2019 gambling expansion legislation and was scheduled to open in 2021 and funnel money into harness and thoroughbred purses was still in limbo.

“This is not a six-week problem; it’s a problem that goes back six years when Hawthorne received exclusive rights to develop a racino at the current location and a harness track at another location,” Davis emphasized. “Local governments in the vicinity of the track have lost an estimated $36 million in revenue [from a Hawthorne racino] and the state has lost about $150 million and now after six years of promises Hawthorne can’t clear a $400 check to a trainer.”

The IHHA president urged the Racing Board “to be actively involved with legislators and the governor on the need for options. We have a bill in the [Illinois] House that that had unanimous bi-partisan support in the Senate when it passed the Senate [in October] during the veto session of the legislature.”

The bill calls for elimination of the 15-mile boundary from an existing track that would prevent a new track to be constructed within that distance from an existing track and a new harness track in downstate Decatur.

“We’ve heard of locations in Richton Park and Matteson that are looking at building if the boundary is eliminated,” Davis said. “And we have an agreement with Decatur calling for the people there to fund purses [for non-betting races] this summer at Springfield if this bill goes through soon enough, enabling them to open in 2027. We’d pay them back over time.”

By then, if the present trend continues, an obituary may have been written for Hawthorne Race Course.

Hawthorne is one of North America’s oldest racetracks. It was owned by its builder, Edward Corrigan, when it opened for thoroughbred racing in 1891.

Four years later racing was banned by the state legislature.

In 1909 Hawthorne was sold to Thomas Carey, great grandfather of Tim Carey. After three attempts by Thomas Carey to revive the sport, the ban was repealed and racing returned to the track in 1922.

In 1924 the Chicago Business Men’s Racing Association made an agreement with Carey to take over daily operations. That arrangement endured until 1947 when Charles Bidwill, who’d been running the track, died.

Then, Robert Carey, son of the then deceased Thomas Carey, took over operations and the track has been operated by family members ever since.

Harness racing made its Hawthorne debut in the spring of 1970 and in those early years such world renowned standardbreds as Sir Dalrae and Speedy Crown showed up for its major races, the Suburban Downs Pacing Derby and the Erwin Dygert Memorial Trot.

Now, for many years there have been no races of national significance and the track’s biggest races have been limited to Illinois-breds.