Harness racing community to receive $3 million from Hawthorne bankruptcy proceedings
by Neil Milbert
At long last — after several delays — Illinois harness owners, trainers, and drivers are finally going to get the nearly $3 million that bankrupt Hawthorne Race Course’s Suburban Downs meeting owes them.
At his latest hearing on Monday (April 20) U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Timothy Barnes issued his final order on Hawthorne’s debtor-in-possession loan.
Within that loan are the $1,345,382 owed the owners, trainers, and drivers for bounced and uncashed checks and $1,560,073 in frozen purse account funds.
The money to cover the bounced and uncashed checks — some of which date back to last November — is expected to be made available on Saturday (April 25), enabling processing to begin. There are procedures in place for Hawthorne to follow, and plans call for the track’s bookkeeper to begin mailing the replacement checks next week.
The $1,560,000 in frozen purse account funds is scheduled to be available on Saturday (May 16).
However, while Judge Barnes stipulated that the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association (IHHA) would receive its designated funding from Hawthorne to cover its operational expenses going forward, the collective bargaining agent for the owners, trainers, and drivers did not receive the $360,000 in back money it is owed.
The judge agreed to increase the amount of cash Hawthorne has available from its lender JDI Loans from $16 million to $20 million and the revised line of credit loan will continue through Aug. 1 instead of expiring in July.
The Illinois Racing Board will meet on May 20 and the IHHA’s executive director, Tony Somone, who spearheaded the drive to get the owners, trainers, and drivers the money they are owed, believes at that time the board will restore the Suburban Downs racing license that was suspended on Jan. 26 because of the bounced checks and frozen purse accounts.
As a consequence of Hawthorne’s financial crisis all 14 of the harness programs scheduled for January and February were canceled and the thoroughbred meeting that was to begin on March 29 was delayed until Sunday (April 19).
The thoroughbred meeting will have programs every Sunday and Thursday afternoon through Nov. 1 after which the standardbreds are scheduled to reclaim the track for their Suburban Downs meeting from Nov. 6-Dec. 27 with programs on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in November and Saturday and Sunday in December.
The numbers for the first day of the current thoroughbred meeting were lackluster — 42 contestants in seven races, purses totaling $82,500 and a total handle of $413,736 versus $1,124,510 that was wagered on last year’s March 30 opening day card.
In March, Judge Barnes approved payments of $1.1 million in overdue purse money and $281,000 in bounced checks owed to members of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.
The indebtedness to IHHA and Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (ITHA) members that Hawthorne incurred is only the tip of the financial iceberg that the family-owned track is confronted with. A significant number of creditors are out-of-state tracks that stopped taking races from Hawthorne and sending their own signals to the track because of its prolonged failure to pay outstanding simulcast bills.
Amid all of the ongoing uncertainty, ITHA president Chris Block and executive director Dave McCaffrey fear that the thoroughbred meeting might not be able to reach its Nov. 1 finish line.
“Much depends on whether a buyer steps up and makes a serious bid to purchase the track for the purpose of opening a racino and continuing horse racing,” the ITHA website cautioned. “If such a buyer doesn’t emerge by mid-July it’s conceivable that the loan could abruptly terminate.”
A gambling expansion law permitting casino gambling at Illinois racetracks was enacted in 2018 and Hawthorne received a license from the Illinois Gaming Board the following year. Hawthorne president Tim Carey announced a $40 million expansion project to accommodate a racino at the track and a portion of the grandstand was demolished in 2020.
But Carey has been unable to secure financing and all that the project has produced is vestiges of the demolition and unpaid creditors who did the teardown.
The target date for the sale of the Chicago area’s oldest sports venue that was purchased by Tim Carey’s great grandfather Thomas Carey in 1909, is July 13.
Hawthorne’s financial consultant David Campbell is reviewing offers to either market the property for real estate development or for an ongoing racing operation bolstered by a casino component. He testified in bankruptcy court that one letter of intent proposed a $115.1 million price for the real estate.
If Hawthorne is sold for real estate development the only racetrack remaining in Illinois will be Fairmount Park, a thoroughbred track in downstate Collinsville across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.
However, IHHA executive director Somone is hopeful that the Illinois legislature will authorize a harness track/racino at downstate Decatur before its spring session concludes at the end of May.
