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The Bitter End: Arrogance Of Arlington Park Management Washes Away Memories Of A Better Time

The new millennium was not kind to horse racing in Chicagoland.

In 2000, the Bidwill family's Sportsman's Park, the bullring in the gritty south side suburb of Cicero that for years hosted both Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing, had just been transformed to an auto track that planned to continue offering Thoroughbred races on dirt spread over a concrete oval. That absurd experiment lasted a couple years. The auto track was a dud and a financial disaster. The dirt track was unsafe. Sportsman's ran its last horse race in 2002 and is now the site of several big box stores.

And 2000 was also the year Richard Duchossois merged his family-owned Arlington Park in the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights into the portfolio of the publicly traded Churchill Downs Inc. Then under the leadership of Thomas Meeker, Churchill Downs had been on something of an acquisition spree, having just purchased Calder Race Course near Miami, Fla., and Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif.

We know how those acquisitions have worked out for the Thoroughbred industry. Meeker left Churchill Downs in 2006, one year after Hollywood Park was sold to a land development company that would close the track in 2013 and construct an NFL football stadium in its place.

Calder's grandstand was torn down in 2015 and the racing surface and a portion of the stables were leased to The Stronach Group, owner of Gulfstream Park, to run a spectator-less meet re-branded as Gulfstream Park West. That lease expired last year and Calder/GP West is now history. So, too, are the purse supplements that came from the Calder Casino, for which horsemen helped Churchill Downs Inc. fight for approval in a 2008 referendum.

It's difficult to imagine how there is a future for Arlington Park as a racetrack after the current meet ends next month. Churchill Downs Inc. is majority owner of Rivers Casino 10 miles away and turned down the opportunity created in 2019 by gambling expansion legislation that would have permitted an on-site casino at Arlington. Illinois breeders, owners and trainers were stunned and felt betrayed when Arlington said it would not apply for a casino license and instead sell the property for development. For years, decades even, horsepeople stood side by side with Arlington representatives in the state capitol in Springfield, lobbying for legislation to permit slots or casinos at racetracks.

Arlington did not apply for 2022 racing dates and it would not be in Churchill Downs Inc's best interests as a casino company to sell the track to anyone who would offer pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing. That would be competition for the gambling dollar and conceivably could hurt Rivers Casino's business.

The Carey family's Hawthorne Race Course appears to be Illinois racing's last hope – unless you count old Fairmount Park in southern Illinois, which has been rebranded as FanDuel Sports Book and Horse Racing.

Hawthorne, which sat directly adjacent to Sportsman's Park, announced plans for a $500 million casino expansion following the 2019 gambling legislation. But construction on the casino was halted in April, with no public explanation or a timeline for completion.

Even if the Hawthorne casino is completed, the situation is far from ideal. Hawthorne is now the only track hosting Standardbred racing in the Chicago area, and this creates not only a potential conflict over racing dates between the two breeds, but future revenue from the casino earmarked for purses will have to be divided between Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds. The 2019 legislation permitted a new harness track/casino to be built in an area south of Chicago, but to date neither a suitable investor or property has been approved.

Arlington's racing days are dwindling down to a precious few, The palatial grandstand remains one of the great wonders of the North American racing world, though it's obvious the once pristine aesthetics and maintenance standards set by the very hands-on Richard Duchossois have fallen considerably as he approaches the century mark in years. Unsightly weeds growing throughout the plant are just one of the eyesores that wouldn't have been there a decade ago. In fact, back then, Duchossois himself might have grabbed a weed wacker to show the maintenance crew how it's done, just as he took control of traffic flow into the parking lot one Arlington Million day not that many years ago.

Speaking of Arlington Million Day, or whatever it was called this year after the signature race's purse was slashed and renamed the Mr. D. Stakes in honor of Duchossois, how about that Tony Petrillo, the track's president?

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Based on reporting by Jim O'Donnell in the Daily Herald (apparently the only Chicago-area newspaper to cover this year's three Grade 1 races, with both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times ignoring them), Petrillo had quite the meltdown, lashing out at media members who did come to cover the races. According to O'Donnell and confirmed by several writers and photographers from horse racing publications, Petrillo would not allow photographers, other than the track photographer, to get in position to photograph any of the big turf races.

After the day's final race was run, buoyed with members of the security staff, Petrillo cleared out the press box while those same writers and photographers were trying to finish their assignments and send their stories and pictures to their respective publications. Petrillo even told one photographer who happened to be on assignment for a Churchill Downs Inc. subsidiary, that she was “banned for life” from Arlington Park.

It's the same treatment owners and trainers have been receiving from Arlington management in recent years.

There was a time when Arlington Park's press box was as welcoming and friendly as any track in the country. It wasn't just the comfortable accommodations or the excellent meals that were served to grateful writers and photographers. More importantly, Richard Duchossois would walk through the press box and thank each member of the media individually for coming to Arlington Park, asking them if there's anything they needed.

How times have changed.

My gut feeling is that this is the end of the road for Arlington Park, the track where I fell in love with racing in the 1970s. It's been a long, slow and painful death to observe since Duchossois relinquished complete control of Arlington in 2000. I may not agree with them, but I understand business decisions and fiduciary responsibilities that drive publicly traded companies like Churchill Downs Inc. What I don't understand is the arrogance and nastiness from Arlington's management that has accompanied the track's tragic fall.

I had always thought the final days of Arlington Park would be bittersweet, a mix of sorrow with the great memories furnished by the horses and people who put on the show for so many decades. But the architects of what seems destined to be this wonderful track's final chapter seem hell bent on making sure it's a bitter end.

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Arlington Horsemen Beg for Help. IRB Instead Tweaks 15-cent Admissions Tax

For the fourth consecutive meeting of the Illinois Racing Board in the six months since Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), announced its industry-devastating intention to sell Arlington International Racecourse for “non-horse racing” purposes, the 10-member board on Tuesday remained stunningly silent on the prospect of suburban Chicago's premier Thoroughbred venue going dark forever after Sept. 25.

How pronounced was the “elephant in the room” syndrome during the IRB's one-hour Aug. 17 teleconference?

After listening to impassioned pleas from the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) and members of Arlington's backstretch community for the IRB to undertake some form of action that might stave off closure or at least ensure a fair bidding process that could help a different operator gain control of the iconic track, commission members said absolutely nothing in response.

After the IRB heard the desperate pleas of the horse people, the board quickly and mutely moved on to a non-critical voting exercise that was the figurative equivalent of rearranging deck chairs while the Titanic swiftly sank.

Among the far-flung items that the IRB devoted time to advancing unanimously by voice vote on Tuesday were a series of rulemaking initiatives pertaining to a 15-cent tax on racetrack admissions, the outdated practice of tracks issuing admission tickets to patrons, and giving permission for tracks to allow patrons in tax-free after the sixth race instead of the seventh.

Left abjectly unaddressed was the fact that as of next season, it appears more and more of a reality that the IRB won't have to worry about collecting that 15-cent admissions tax at Arlington, because the iconic Thoroughbred venue could be bulldozed for development by then.

“We find ourselves in the most difficult place of losing Arlington altogether,” ITHA president Michael Campbell said during the public commentary portion that started the meeting. “And even though there's another consortium out there that wants to buy Arlington Park for the purpose of racing, it's my belief, because of intel that I'm receiving, that the highest bid won't [save the track from redevelopment].

“Now that's inconceivable to me, because in any business situation I've been involved in, it's the highest bid that counts. But not in this one. Because the worst-kept secret in Illinois–and we all know it–is that Churchill Downs and [that corporation's business entity at] Rivers Casino is attempting to eliminate horse racing at Arlington Park because they're afraid that it will turn into a [competing] gaming location,” Campbell continued.

Campbell labeled CDI's stated attempt to make sure that Arlington gets sold to a non-racing entity as “obstructionist,” and he said such behavior by the gaming corporation is “unconscionable from my standpoint.”

Although CDI has stated it has received multiple bids on the 326-acre Arlington property, only four have been publicly disclosed by the bidding parties.

Just one, submitted by the track's former president, Roy Arnold, in partnership with developers and investors, calls for the track to remain in place, while a mid-size arena for a minor-league hockey team is constructed as part of a 60-acre entertainment district alongside a 300-unit housing development and 60 acres of industrial space. Racing would continue under that new ownership.

A public announcement on CDI's selection of the winning bid is expected to come by early fall, and the local regulatory approval process could start before the end of the year.

“I would implore this commission: Use your authority. Look into this. Create transparency in this bidding process. There's no reason that bad actors should be rewarded in this state,” Campbell said. “Please help us out here. We have to save Arlington Park.”

After the rulemaking voting took place, to close out the meeting, each of the commissioners were called upon to make comments on any topic that they felt was important for the board to address.

Most commissioners opted to remain silent. Several took the opportunity to welcome a new commissioner or to say they'd like to read a series of scholarship essays written by children from the backstretch community that had been referenced earlier. Only one of the 10, Alan Henry, brought up Arlington at all.

As he has for four consecutive meetings now, Henry read into the record prepared statements underscoring the dire nature of Arlington's pending closure.

But Henry offered no plan of action in which the IRB would step up and take an active role in trying to help the state's Thoroughbred racing survive. Hawthorne Race Course is the only Chicago-area track to have applied for 2022 dates, and its annual calendar will have to be split between Thoroughbred and Standardbred dates next season.

“From what I can gather, as of [Aug. 16], at least one group that wants to keep [Arlington] alive remains actively in the running, most realistically in 2023, and is seeking ways to make a deal work,' Henry said. “The industry is facing a totally avoidable tragedy and drifting an dangerous waters.”

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Craig Duchossois: Blame Politicians, Not Churchill Downs For Arlington Park’s Demise

Craig Duchossois, son of former Arlington Park owner Richard Duchossois, said Illinois politicians are to blame for the pending demise of the suburban Chicago racetrack owned by publicly traded Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI).

In an interview with the Daily Herald, Duchossois said the 2019 legislation that gave Illinois racetracks the right to operate a casino came “too late” for Arlington Park. By the time the law passed, CDI already had purchased an interest in the Rivers Casino, about 10 miles away from Arlington Park. It now is the casino's majority owner.

Illinois horsemen were stunned when CDI officials announced months after the bill was signed into law that they would not seek a license to operate a casino at Arlington Park. CDI's chief executive officer, Bill Carstanjen, announced plans to sell the property last year and began accepting bids earlier this year. Among the interested parties are the NFL's Chicago Bears. At least one group is interested in keeping racing alive at Arlington by developing a portion of the property but maintaining the track, grandstand and stabling.

Arlington Park did not apply for 2022 racing dates.

“If they (Illinois lawmakers) would've gotten their head out of the sand and done it five or 10 years earlier, whole different ballgame,” Duchossois said. “Who knows what would have happened then. But at least we would've been given the chance to compete fairly, and they didn't allow that. And now they're saying Churchill is at fault? That just doesn't make any sense.”

Duchossois, like his father a former member of the CDI board of directors, told the Daily Herald discussions about closing Arlington and developing the property came up a number of years ago.

Arlington merged with CDI in 2000, making the Duchossois family the largest single shareholder in the company whose flagship racetrack, Churchill Downs, and its headquarters are located in Louisville, Ky. Churchill Downs also owns Fair Grounds in Louisiana and Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania (both tracks also have casinos) but ceased racing operations at Calder in Florida (replacing it with jai alai to maintain a casino license) and sold Hollywood Park in California to a land development company that eventually closed the track and built a football stadium there.

In February 2021, CDI repurchased one million of the three million shares reportedly held by The Duchossois Group. The private transaction was valued at $193.9 million.

Craig Duchossois was interviewed by the Daily Herald on the afternoon of the track's signature event, formerly known as Arlington Million Day. The Arlington Million, inaugurated in 1981, had its named changed to the Mr. D. Stakes to honor Richard Duchossois, while the prize money was slashed from $1 million to $600,000. Duchossois, 99 years old, did not attend.

Report: Two Additional Non-Racing Entities Reveal Bids For Arlington Park

A report in the Chicago Daily Herald this weekend revealed that a total of at least four bids have been submitted to Churchill Downs Inc. to purchase Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., only one of which intends to keep horse racing alive. That bid is headed by former track president Roy Arnold.

The Chicago Bears have also put in bid to purchase the site, but the two new bids revealed over the weekend would develop the 326-acre property for mixed-use purposes.

One is from Chicago-based Glenstar Properties, which has a unique proposition which would allow Churchill Downs to partner in the development in a shared-risk, higher reward scenario.

The fourth bid is from Schaumburg-based UrbanStreet Group LLC, and while details were scant, it appears likely the group would also redevelop the site.

Read more at the Chicago Daily Herald.

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