What’s going to happen to Hawthorne’s 11 OTBs?

by Neil Milbert

Now that harness and thoroughbred racing in the Chicago metropolitan area have ceased as a consequence of bankrupt Hawthorne Race Course’s $90 million sale to the Delaware shell corporation Allimac 23 for real estate development a lingering question remains:

What will happen to Hawthorne’s 11 off-track betting parlors?

According to the Illinois Racing Board’s projects manager, Bob Dinneen, Hawthorne’s license runs through Dec. 31 as does the license of its Suburban Downs harness subsidiary which had its license restored on May 13 after being suspended by the board on Jan. 26 because of the track’s financial instability.

In order to apply to the board for a yearly organizational license an applicant must have a racing facility and OTB licenses are limited to licensed racetracks.

Those restrictions would seem to put Hawthorne’s OTBs out of business in 2027.

“The big concern now is where the OTB profits [for the rest of the year] are going to go,” said the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association executive director Tony Somone. “For every dollar bet at the OTBs 20 cents is profit of which 10 cents goes to the horsemen and 10 cents goes to the racetrack.

“If the Racing Board is going to keep them open every penny should go to the unsecured creditors. It shouldn’t go to Hawthorne’s pockets. There are no rules on situations like this. These are questions that need to be addressed by the board.”

The Racing Board’s executive director, Domenic DiCera, will be out of the office through Aug. 11 so it’s highly unlikely that anything will be decided until the regulatory body meets later in the month.

Besieged by approximately 250 creditors owed an estimated $138 million Hawthorne declared bankruptcy on Feb. 27.

Allimac was the only bidder for the 119-acre property that has been under Carey family ownership since 1909. Closing is scheduled for early September.

In the meantime, the track will stay open until Aug. 31 to allow the thoroughbreds remaining on the premises to train and give 337 stable area adult workers and their 147 children time to relocate.

The thoroughbred meeting began on April 19 — three weeks later than scheduled — and was scheduled to run through Nov. 1 but it ended prematurely on July 19. By then racing was limited to Sundays and purses for the last three weeks remain unpaid.

All 14 of the harness programs scheduled for January and February were canceled and the Nov. 6-Dec. 27 harness meeting will not be held, which means that 2026 will reach the finish line with no standardbred racing in the Chicago area for the first time since 1945, the year before pari-mutuel betting on the sport began at Maywood Park.

The only racetrack remaining in Illinois is Fairmount Park, a thoroughbred track and racino across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

Many in the racing community were hoping that Fairmount would take over the Hawthorne parlors that are located in Crestwood, Evergreen Park, Hoffman Estates, Joliet, Lansing, McHenry, North Aurora, Oakbrook Terrace, Prospect Heights, Rockford, and Villa Park but Dinneen said that’s impossible.

The Racing Board’s projects manager cited the statute that stipulates OTBs must be located within 160 miles of the track that holds the license, and the 11 OTBs are beyond the Fairmount boundary.