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With ’25 the New Target for Racinos, Optimism Accompanies ’24 Illinois Race Dates

Illinois racing is still struggling to recover from the twin blows of the 2021 closure of Arlington International Racecourse and the inability of the state's two surviving Thoroughbred venues–Hawthorne Race Course and FanDuel Sportsbook & Horse Racing–to follow through with building their proposed racinos that were legalized back in 2019.

Yet Thursday's Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting was conducted with a noticeably welcome tone of cautious optimism, as commissioners unanimously approved 2024 race dates against the backdrop of revamped racino construction schedules at both venues that could mean gaming revenue will finally be flowing into the state's Thoroughbred purse accounts by 2025.

Hawthorne, just outside Chicago, was granted a bump upward to 78 programs for 2024, an increase of 10 days over this year's schedule. Instead of closing on Labor Day, next year's meet will extend through mid-October.

FanDuel–which almost everyone who spoke at the meeting still refers to by its nearly century-old name, Fairmount Park–in 2024 will race a similar 62-card template as it did this season.

But the track 280 miles southwest of Hawthorne (just over the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri) will have to share Saturday racing with Hawthorne for the bulk of next year as Hawthorne attempts to build its season around night and weekend racing to avoid horses competing amid loud and intrusive construction of the racino.

Hawthorne for decades has had a decidedly blue-collar reputation. But for the past two years it has been thrust into only-game-in-Chicago leadership status after the devastating exodus of the more opulent and suburban Arlington, which was sold and is being redeveloped as the possible site for a football stadium.

Tim Carey, Hawthorne's president and general manager, did not spare superlatives when he painted a vision of the future for the track that his family has owned since 1909.

“I truly believe that Illinois horse racing is on the precipice of an incredible renaissance, that will not only uplift our local participants, but will re-establish Chicago racing to national prominence,” Carey said, adding that the plan to bring the racino to life would transform Illinois into “one of the most exciting and prosperous markets for horse racing in North America.”

Yet every time Carey referenced the long-awaited racino during the Sept. 21 meeting, he was careful to get it on the record that everything he was promising was predicated on the Illinois Gaming Board signing off on details of the deal in a timely manner.

“They, of course, still have to approve everything that we do–financing, the commencement of construction,” Carey said. “We don't have that yet. We need to provide that to them.”

Fairmount Park/FanDuel Sportsbook | T.D. Thornton

Melissa Helton, the president and general manager at FanDuel/Fairmount, estimated the same 14-month start-to-finish construction phase for her downstate track as Hawthorne's management was outlining.

“We're hoping by the end of the year to have that started,” Helton added. She didn't bring up–nor did commissioners ask her–about how construction would affect the horses at the two-days-a-week 2024 meet (Apr. 16-Nov. 16).

Chris Block, the president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, expressed confidence in Hawthorne's plan. Perhaps as early as Sept. 22, his organization is poised to sign a two-year deal for racing there.

“The horsemen are going to have to suck it up again and start training at five in the morning to accommodate construction, and [Saturday racing] is going to be a necessity for us when we're under construction,” Block said. “We're going to need to run on Saturday and Sunday, and [Thursday] evening. So the horsemen are ready for that [and] we look forward to that. We're working together, we're going in the same direction with something that is an absolute necessity in this day and age in the Illinois horse racing industry.”

But, Block added, “I really, really, really look forward to 2025, and the operation of that casino, and the rebirth of Illinois horse racing, and a positive direction not only in breeding, but in racing.”

Hawthorne is also pledging to move forward with plans to identify and build a second racino that would eventually be the separate home of commercial Standardbred racing in greater Chicago. That would mean Thoroughbred and harness horses would no longer have to share the same venue, which is what currently keeps both breeds from year-round racing in the state.

Carey said Hawthorne will cease its 2023-24 fall/winter harness meet in time for the track to be converted for Thoroughbred training by Feb. 13.

Hawthorne's 2024 Thoroughbred meet will open Mar. 23 with Saturday and Sunday racing until June 21, when the schedule expands to three days weekly by adding Thursday evenings until the meet closes Oct. 13.

In 2023, Hawthorne originally had Saturdays on the schedule. But the IRB in April approved a request to move those Saturdays to Thursdays, with Hawthorne management advocating at the time that switching to Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays would be a better business decision handle-wise. It also eliminated the Saturday overlap with FanDuel/Fairmount, which traditionally races Tuesday afternoons and Saturday evenings.

The racino construction has changed those business parameters, and Hawthorne's 2024 request to go back to Saturdays came as a surprise to FanDuel/Fairmount.

“Today is the first day I'm hearing that they were going to pick up on Saturday,” Helton said. “The last conversation I had with [Hawthorne racing director] Jim Miller, they were keeping their schedule the same, [and] obviously it will impact how many horses we have on the field.”

Asked for his take prior to the commissioners voting 9-0 to endorse the Saturday overlap, Illinois Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association president Jim Watkins, who trains horses at both venues, said he didn't think the two tracks running on the same day (Hawthorne in the afternoon, Fairmount in the evening) would be a big deal.

“I think it's workable,” Watkins said. “The other option for Fairmount would be to go to a lesser [weekday], and that, of course, would hit us in the pocketbooks [via loss of handle revenue], and we're not in great shape.”

Yet a couple of moments later, Watkins painted a more positive picture of the current meet at FanDuel/Fairmount, which is scheduled through Nov. 18.

“The purse account is in a good position, nearly $1 million to the positive, so the horsemen are not in debt to the track,” Watkins said. “We anticipate, because of funds that have come in, that we will be able to have, for the fourth year in row, a purse increase of hopefully 10-20%.”

Watkins also noted that “we've gone to eight races a day [from the IRB-mandated seven], and if the entries stay as strong, we're anticipating possibly nine or 10 races some days. The horse population, since the closure of Hawthorne on Labor Day, we've gone from 572 to 676 with a few more stables bringing a few more in.”

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Illinois Purse Increases: ‘A Band-Aid On A Gushing Wound’

Purses will be on the short-term rise at the tracks in Illinois, thanks to a pair of recent money recovery efforts initiated by the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA).

One increase at the current Thoroughbred meet at Hawthorne Race Course that will be effective June 15-July 15 involves an 18% across-the-board purse bump derived from a claw-back of funds related to the closure of Arlington International Racecourse.

A separate initiative required passage of a bill in the Illinois Legislature on its final day of the session last month. That action transferred $5.1 million of a surplus in the state's Horse Racing Fund to purses at both the Thoroughbred and Standardbred meets at Hawthorne, plus the Thoroughbred meet at FanDuel Racing (more commonly known as Fairmount Park).

David McCaffrey, the ITHA's executive director, told commissioners at Thursday's Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting that while horsemen are grateful for any help they can get, the influxes will only provide temporary financial relief.

“This is a terrific band-aid,” McCaffrey said, speaking specifically about the money from the Horse Racing Fund. “Make no mistake, it's a band-aid on a gushing wound that is Illinois racing, because things are at their all-time worst right now.”

According to an explanation posted in the ITHA's website, After Arlington closed in September 2021, that track's corporate management “attempted to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars from the horsemen's purse account. Arlington eventually folded in its attempt to keep the money after ITHA pursued litigation against Arlington, compelling the track to release the money. ITHA is now directing the remaining settlement funds to Hawthorne purses, which will account for the purse increase from June 15 to July 15.”

The separate $5.1-million transfer comes from the Horse Racing Fund, which McCaffrey said is largely derived from a 1.5% tax on all bets placed on Illinois racing. Traditionally, that fund accumulates and operates at surplus, and it had grown to “about $10 million” by the beginning of 2023, McCaffrey said.

Starting back in January, McCaffrey said, The ITHA, the IRB, and other stakeholders had lobbied for the passage of a law that would direct about half of the surplus toward Thoroughbred and Standardbred purses.

The ITHA's website noted that the Hawthorne share for the Thoroughbred purse account will be $2.295 million, and that the increase from the fund will go into effect “possibly starting in mid-July, upon the expiration of the [separate] purse increase beginning June 15.”

Racinos became legal in Illinois in 2019, but they aren't up and running yet at Hawthorne or FanDuel.

“Hopefully, it gives us a bridge to get to racinos when they start producing some revenue,” McCaffrey said.

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ITHA vs. Arlington to Federal Court

A $775,000 purse account dispute between the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) and Arlington International Racecourse, LLC, that has simmered for over half a year got escalated to federal court Wednesday.

The ITHA is alleging a purse account underpayment in 2021 from now-defunct Arlington and a breach of contract triggered by Arlington's refusal to hand over the money once it became known the property was scheduled to be sold and that no racing would occur there in 2022.

Asked for comment via email late Wednesday afternoon, Arlington president Tony Petrillo wrote, “I haven't heard of this matter.” TDN then provided Petrillo with a copy of the lawsuit and gave him an hour to digest it, but did not receive a further reply prior to deadline for this story.

However, Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI), the Kentucky gaming corporation that owns Arlington, had stated in a March 23, 2022, letter to the ITHA that an overpayment actually occurred last racing season, and that any additional purse-account revenues that did accrue via simulcasting after the race meet ended in September don't have to be delivered to the horsemen just yet.

A chunk of this dispute hinges on how the two long-time adversarial entities define the word “track” as it appears in the contract they inked for the 2020-21 race meets.

“The term 'TRACK' as used in the Agreement refers to the entity Arlington Park Racecourse, LLC, not the physical racetrack itself,” wrote Joseph Quinn, CDI's corporate counsel. “Arlington is actively pursuing additional horse racing opportunities in the State of Illinois. Until Arlington knows that it will not hold a future succeeding Race Meeting, it is not required to deliver the amounts held in the purse account to the ITHA.”

Quinn's letter to the ITHA then included this stunner: CDI wants the horsemen to pay $150,000 toward the purse account, “as required under the agreement”-even though Arlington missed the deadline for applying for 2022 dates at any Illinois location more than eight months ago.

The ITHA, in its Apr. 20 civil complaint filed in United States District Court (Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division), disputed the points made by CDI in the Mar. 23 letter and framed the situation like this:

“The parties negotiated specific terms regarding any 'underpayment' of purses to address the possibility that Arlington would not be holding races at the Arlington Park racetrack in 2022….

“The contract provided that if Arlington underpaid purses in any amount during 2021, the underpayments would be 'carried forward and added to Purses for distribution at the next succeeding Race Meeting at TRACK.'”

“The contract further provided that 'if no such succeeding Race Meeting takes place, Arlington 'will deliver to ITHA the amount of the underpayment as soon as it is known that there will be no such Race Meeting…'”

Notwithstanding “multiple written requests” to deliver the money, the ITHA is alleging that Arlington and CDI are still refusing to pay.

“It has been known for many months that Arlington Park has sadly hosted its last horse race,” the complaint stated. “As has been widely reported and acknowledged, Arlington, LLC, and/or CDI has agreed to sell the Arlington Park property to the Chicago Bears.

“There will be no succeeding race meeting at Arlington Park in 2022. Indeed, there will be no such race meeting in 2022 at any venue operated by Arlington, LLC, in Illinois….

Arlington, LLC, has no plans to conduct a race meeting in Illinois at any time in the foreseeable future.”

With regard to CDI's “reminder” in the Quinn letter for the ITHA to pay the $150,000 to the purse account, the complaint stated that CDI has both the purpose of the payment and the financial calculations wrong.

According to the ITHA, the contract “provided that if certain conditions were met with respect to the purses” the ITHA would “contribute $150,000 to purses for Illinois-restricted stakes races.”

CDI's Mar. 23 request instead asked for that money to be paid “to the purse account.”

“Arlington's own accounting of the purse account balance from 2021 (more than $775,000) already reflects a $150,000 reduction in the underpayment,” the complaint stated.

“In other words, if ITHA were to send Arlington, LLC, a check for $150,000 today, the result would be that the already-substantial underpayment of approximately $775,000 (money to which ITHA is legally entitled) would grow by $150,000 to approximately $925,000.

“By the time Arlington, LLC, requested that ITHA make a payment to the purse account, Arlington, LLC, was already in material breach of the parties' agreement,” the complaint stated.

With regard to CDI's assertion that it is searching for an alternate Illinois location at which to apply for a license to stage races, the ITHA's complaint stated this:

“While Arlington, LLC's, letter claims that it is 'actively pursuing additional horse racing opportunities in the State of Illinois,' Arlington, LLC, has never identified any such opportunities, even when pressed to do so by the Illinois Racing Board.”

The ITHA's suit seeks a declaration that Arlington has breached the contract, all allegedly outstanding purse amounts, plus damages in an amount to be established at trial.

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Cautious Optimism in Illinois Racing

Illinois racing has its problems. There's no more Arlington Park, there will be only 64 days of racing this year and the circuit will shut down in the middle of the summer. But with the 2022 season about to start Saturday at Hawthorne, officials at that track are predicting that navigating through this year will be challenging but not impossible.

“How are we going to do? I can tell you more Wednesday when we draw the first card,” said Racing Secretary Al Plever. “But I think were going to be OK.”

The Hawthorne spring meet consists of 34 days and runs through June 25. When Arlington was running, racing would shift there in the summer before returning to Hawthorne in the fall. That gave horsemen a seven-month racing season that consisted of 118 days last year. But Hawthorne won't be running a summer meet because it must also host two harness racing meets each year. That means that there will be no Thoroughbred racing in the Chicago area for the bulk of the summer, from June 26 until a 30-day fall meet begins Sept. 23.

The fear was that the gap in the summer would lead to an exodus out of Illinois, with horsemen choosing a circuit where there were more racing opportunities and they wouldn't have to pack their bags in the summer.

“At the end of June, we're all going to have to leave,” said trainer Mike Campbell, the former president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. “The problem we are all facing having to leave our homes. I will not live in my home here for more than four months a year. That's a problem. Everybody is in same boat.”

But Plever said only a handful of Illinois regulars have left and that stalwarts like Larry Rivelli, who will have 80 horses at Hawthorne, have remained loyal. Most have found a place to call home during the summer. The best fit appears to be Canterbury Park. The Minnesota track will have 65 days of live racing, beginning May 18 and ending Sept. 17. In an effort to attract Chicago horsemen, Canterbury has put together a bonus package for Illinois-based horses. A thoroughbred starter that raced in Illinois in 2021 or 2022 but has not previously started at Canterbury will be eligible for a $1,000 bonus in their first start of the 2022 season.

“It will be a little different this year because people used to be able to stay here pretty much all year and now we have a couple of months where they are in limbo,” said Hawthorne Assistant General Manager John Walsh. “They can go to Canterbury, which is a great track that has turf racing When they're done there they can come back in the fall and I think we will also have some sort of bonus program for horses coming in from Canterbury. I haven't heard of too many people who are staying away.”

Campbell said he will spend the summer at Colonial Downs and knows of other trainers who will be doing to Indiana Grand, Prairie Meadows and the Ohio racetracks.

One of the reasons horsemen are committing to Hawthorne is that a sizable purse increase will be ushered in this year. At about $120,000 a day in 2021, Hawthorne had among the smallest purses in the sport. This year, the simulcasting money bet off-season in Illinois does not have to shared with Arlington and the horsemen have also secured a one-year subsidy from the state. Plever said purses will average about $190,000 a day this year with purses for maiden special weight races increasing from $22,000 to $40,000.

Walsh also believes a later start–Hawthorne typically opened about a month earlier–will help.

“We might get off to a bit of a slow start but I think that by May we will be 40 to 50 percent better off than we have been at some of the past spring meets,” Walsh said. “We're going to have more turf racing. Weather-wise, we're sure to have some decent days in May and June. When you're running in March and April there can be rain or even snow and you're hard pressed to even get on the turf course. I think we will do much, much better and the signal will look better with some green grass instead of everything being just gray.”

But there will be challenges. Thoroughbreds used to be able to train at Hawthorne when it was shut down in the winter, but, because of the harness meet, which didn't end until March 20, that wasn't possible. With the track not opening for training until Monday, five days before opening day, there will be a number of horses who aren't yet ready to go. Plever said that of Monday there were 400 horses on the grounds and he expected another 200 to 300 would arrive by Saturday. That may not seem like a lot, but Hawthorne, throughout April, will race just two days a week, on Saturdays and Sundays.

In the longer term, Hawthorne should be just fine. A casino is in the works and the added money should yield a generous hike in purses. There is also the hope that a new harness track will be built somewhere in Illinois, which would mean that Hawthorne could go back to running Thoroughbreds only.

“This meet, it is the start of something,” Walsh said. “Once the casino opens up that will really energize things. We have a time line now. In time, these purses here are going to go through the roof.”

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