by Neil Milbert

For the third time in three years, the Illinois harness racing community will have to live with an unprecedented schedule.

By a 9-0 vote Thursday (Sept. 21), the Illinois Racing Board approved the 2024 schedule that was jointly submitted by the Hawthorne Race Course, the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association (IHHA) and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association (ITHA).

It calls for Hawthorne to extend the current 49-night Sept. 9-Dec. 31 harness meeting to Jan. 1-Feb. 12.

The thoroughbreds will take over the Chicago metropolitan area’s only remaining racetrack for a 62-program meeting from March 23-Oct. 13.

Then, the standardbreds will return Oct. 19 and race through Dec. 30, giving them a combined total of 49 programs.

To offset the gap in the schedule, the IHHA again will work with the Illinois Department of Agriculture to maximize summer opportunities for harness horses by holding non-betting racing funded by the Hawthorne purse account at the State Fairgrounds in Springfield. In 2024, there will be 28 programs in June, July, August, September and October with racing on Thursday and Friday, an 11-program increase from the 2023 dates that had Springfield racing 14 programs and the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds racing three more.

They will be followed in August by the annual pari-mutuel mini-meetings at Springfield and DuQuoin.

This year, a March 5-Sept. 4 thoroughbred meeting prefaced the first appearance of the standardbreds at Hawthorne this month and in 2022 the calendar was divided into four segments with Jan. 7-March 2 and July 2-Sept. 11 harness meetings and April 2-June 25 and Sept. 23-Dec. 31 harness meeting.

The three-year Chicago racing version of musical chairs was necessitated by the decision of corporate owner Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) to sell the world-renowned thoroughbred showcase Arlington International Racecourse to eradicate racing and possibly racino competition for a nearby casino in which it acquired a majority interest in 2021. The property was sold to the Chicago Bears with the stipulation that there would be no racing or casino gambling and the NFL team has demolished the track.

“The loss of Arlington [starting in 2022] was as devastating as it could be to [thoroughbred and standardbred] owners and breeders who are doing everything they can to keep horses on the racetrack,” ITHA president Chris Block told the racing board. “Without Hawthorne we wouldn’t have racing. I go around the country and people cannot believe we have the two breeds sharing the racetrack. I have a lot of confidence in the Carey family [that owns Hawthorne)} and what they’re doing.”

Complicating the status quo is the demolition of large portions of the grandstand and clubhouse that began in 2020 in order to transform Hawthorne into a combination racing and casino gambling venue at a projected cost of $400 million.

Racinos became legal in 2019 under a law allowing for a massive expansion of gambling venues in Illinois and, in addition to Hawthorne, the downstate thoroughbred track Fairmount Park across from St. Louis is in the process of preparing to become a racino.

A portion of the adjusted gross revenues from the racinos will be allocated to purses, thereby significantly enhancing the quality of racing and the tracks’ prominence in the North American simulcast marketplace.

“With the approval of the [Illinois] Gaming Board we will have the casino up and running by the end of 2024,” Hawthorne president Tim Carey told the racing board. “Top to bottom, left to right every part of the racetrack will be affected by the casino, even the backstretch.

“I truly believe Illinois racing is on the precipice of a tremendous renaissance. We will make Illinois a truly dynamic influence on the sport of racing in North America as a whole. In the meantime, it requires the empathy and understanding of both breeds. I appreciate everyone’s understanding. There’s rationale and reasoning for everything we’re doing. It’s something we’re building for the long term and horse racing will benefit because of that.”

The IHHA’s new president, Jeff Davis, praised Hawthorne’s management team.

“Juggling a racetrack for two breeds is no small feat,” he said. “The proposed schedules are not perfect but they represent a commitment. Between 2018 and 2021 there was a 95.5 per cent increase in standardbred mares bred. That should give you an indication of the future of Illinois racing after the opening of the racino at Hawthorne.”

The 2019 gambling expansion law also allows for six new casinos in the state — some of which already have begun operating at temporary locations — and a new harness track/casino in one of seven south suburban Chicago townships.

Later that year, it appeared that the racino would become a reality when video gaming operator Rick Heidner and Carey informed the racing board that they were partnering to construct the new track in Tinley Park and a 2020 meeting from Dec. 6-29 was awarded by the board.

However, the proposed racino’s racing license and dates were denied after a Chicago Tribune story linked some of Heidner’s business endeavors to a banking family with alleged organized crime connections.

Although Heidner was later exonerated by the gaming board, the proposal, by then, was dead.

At Thursday’s hearings that prefaced the awarding of 2024 dates, Carey testified he and Hawthorne’s management team “remain fully committed to developing a second track and ensuring the success and growth of harness racing in the state of Illinois.

“We have completed preliminary market diligence for a standalone harness track and racino and will continue to move that project forward once financing for the casino development at Hawthorne is completed. We have to do our own racino first.”

An important byproduct of the start of casino gambling at Hawthorne will be the provision in the 2019 expansion law that calls for the elimination of purse recapture, which has had a severe negative impact on harness and thoroughbred purses for nearly 30 years.

Purse recapture is a 1995 provision of the Illinois law that allows racetracks to recoup losses on live handle brought on by the authorization of full-card simulcasting of races from other states. The recapture amount is 2 per cent of the decrease of Illinois handle on Illinois races from1994. This amount is deducted from purse accounts.

In 2023 the amount deducted from harness and thoroughbred purses is $6,774,544.

Finish lines: A long-time member of the board of directors, Davis was elected IHHA president at the organization’s meeting on Monday (Sept. 18). He has been an owner/breeder since 2010 and his love of standardbred racing dates back to the 1970s when his family patronized now-defunct Quad City Downs. Outgoing president Marty Engel remains a member of the board of directors.

In 2024, Hawthorne will race on Sunday and Monday from Jan. 1-Feb. 12 and Saturday, Sunday and Monday from Oct. 19-Dec. 30.

Horses are continuing to prepare for the main event in Illinois harness racing, Hawthorne’s Night of Champions for Illinois-breds on Oct. 7. Fox Valley Gemini, the 8-year-old gelding pacer who is the only horse to win a Night of Champions race for six consecutive years, and Annas Lucky Star, the 9-year-old trotting mare, who for an unprecedented seven years has been a recipient of an IHHA award designating her as the champion of her filly/mare age group, will be in action in Sunday’s prep races. Also competing on the Sunday card will be the 2-year-old gelding trotter Fireballs Pride. By winning his debut at Hawthorne he improved his eight-race resume to five wins and three places after excelling on the county fair circuit where he won four starts by margins ranging from 10 ½ to 16 lengths.