Mini-meetings come alive in Illinois

by Neil Milbert

Pari-mutuel harness racing is dead in Chicagoland but it has come alive downstate, thanks to the annual mini-harness meetings at the State Fairs in Springfield and DuQuoin.

The races, under the auspices of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, are limited to Illinois-bred pacers and trotters.

They began last week on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Springfield and will continue there on Wednesday (Aug. 19) and Aug. 20.

Then, the scene will shift to DuQuoin for races on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 and 2.

“It’s survival,” was the succinct assessment of the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association director, Tony Somone, as he pondered the 12-race opening day program.

The State Fair programs also will be simulcast in Illinois to bankrupt Hawthorne Race Course’s 11 off-track betting parlors; Fairmount Park and Casino, the thoroughbred track that is located across the Mississippi River from St. Louis and is the state’s only surviving pari-mutuel venue; and Fairmount’s three OTB locations.

All 14 of the harness dates scheduled to be raced at Hawthorne in January and February were cancelled and the Nov. 6-Dec. 27 meeting was wiped out after the track that dated back to 1891 went out of business on July 19 during its thoroughbred meeting that was scheduled to run through Nov. 1.

A Delaware shell corporation, Allimac 23, in July purchased the 119-acre property in the near south Chicago suburb of Stickney for $90 million with plans to convert it into a real estate development.

Tim Carey, president of the track that had been family-owned since 1909, hoped a bidder would emerge that wanted to perpetuate harness and thoroughbred racing and activate the dormant racino license he secured in 2020, but Allimac was the only suitor.

Closing is expected to take place at the start of September.

The $90 million purchase price is significantly short of the amount that Hawthorne owes its approximately 250 creditors. Estimates of the track’s indebtedness start at $138 million but some reports suggest the amount is considerably higher.

As a consequence of Hawthorne’s closing, the Chicago area — which had seven flourishing racetracks — is now a pari-mutuel desert.