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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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Hawthorne Swaps Saturdays For Thursdays For Remainder Of Season

Hawthorne Race Course will swap out Saturdays in favor of Thursdays for the upcoming June-through-Labor Day portion of its season, continuing a schedule switch that the Chicago-area track began with the current spring meet.

The Illinois Racing Board (IRB) granted the change with a unanimous vote at its Apr. 20 meeting.

Right now Hawthorne is racing on a Thursday-and-Sunday schedule. The changes will go into effect starting May 31, when the meet expands to three days: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Post times are 2:30 p.m. Central.

Jim Miller, Hawthorne's racing director, explained to IRB members the reasoning behind the request to move off of Saturdays.

“Fortunately, things have actually worked really well just in the first four or five weeks of the meet here, because originally we were going to race on Saturdays and Sundays in the spring,” Miller said. “And just finding the amount of competition on Saturdays usually had our handle somewhere around $900,00 per card on a Saturday. By shifting to Thursdays, there's been less competition, more exposure for us [via simulcasting], and actually on Thursdays we're averaging close to $2 million per card in handle.

“For comparison purposes, last year in the spring meet our average handle per card was about $1.2 million. Right now we're just over $1.6 million. So the belief is by kind of continuing this trend during the summer by racing Wednesday-Thursday-Sunday, you'll have a lot more exposure on Wednesday and Thursday compared to a Saturday card when you're starting to get to the bigger meets [and it's] so hard to compete.

Miller pointed out that the schedule change allows for the dovetailing of dates with FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing (formerly Fairmount Park), some 275 miles to the southwest, which races on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

“It works for everybody. It works for handle in the state,” Miller said. “It works for the riders who try to ride and make a living at both racetracks. The horsemen have the ability to go to both of these racetracks as well. Even though it is not a perfect world where you have five straight days of racing at one location, at least there's five days of racing within the state.”

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CDI Denied Illinois OTB Licenses

The Illinois Racing Board (IRB) on Thursday deadlocked 5-5 on a vote to allow Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), to retain control over simulcasting in 2022 at inter-track wagering (ITW) outlets that the gaming company currently operates under its expiring Arlington International Racecourse licensure. The tie in the voting meant the measure did not advance, and it did not come up for a re-vote.

Several IRB commissioners and executives with the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) expressed sentiments that Illinois racing will be better off in the long run without CDI's involvement after the gaming corporation intentionally missed a 2019 racino licensure deadline and then entered a purchase-and-sale agreement this past September to sell the iconic racetrack for development.

But the denial of ITW licensure to Arlington will also create near-term purse revenue problem for Illinois horsemen, because no one will be running those simulcasting facilities until a new licensee gets approved to take them over.

Executives of Hawthorne Race Course have indicated an interest in running the venues that Arlington will be vacating, and earlier this year Hawthorne already started operating several ITWs that Arlington walked away from. But state law dictates the number of ITWs any given track owner can control, and Hawthorne will need that law changed if it wants to operate any ITWs beyond the one parlor remaining under its current allotment.

“When and if presented with any applications for parlors, we'll take action,” IRB executive director Domenic DiCera said after the vote in response to a commissioner's question about what the next steps were in the process. “At this moment, there's no predictive action that we can take. I think it's been well-stated that potential legislative action is required. So [the fate of the ITWs] is undetermined and unknown at this time.”

CDI's president and chief operating officer, Bill Mudd, was repeatedly grilled by commissioners prior to the vote about why CDI wants to retain ITW privileges even though it is in the process of abandoning Arlington, which is widely considered one of the most opulent Thoroughbred tracks in America.

Mudd said the reason CDI wants to run ITWs is “because we are looking for an alternative racing solution in the state of Illinois, particularly in the Thoroughbred side.” He added that once CDI finds that property, they don't want to have to “recreate” an entire network of ITWs from scratch.

But even though commissioners pressed Mudd for specifics on CDI's vision for a new racetrack, no details were forthcoming, as Mudd held firmly to vague, corporate-speak phrasing the gaming company's executives have been uttering for months.

“In terms of specific locations that we're looking at, I'd say we're looking everywhere,” Mudd said. “What I won't say [or] identify is specific properties that we're looking at. That's competitive information.”

The dialogue soon grew circuitous. Although several commissioners clearly wanted answers, the entire tone of the questioning about why CDI pulled the plug on Arlington stood out in contrast to the perplexing wall of silence that commissioners mostly upheld during the early part of 2021, when CDI's bid-soliciting process for Arlington began.

Commissioner Benjamin Reyes said he didn't believe CDI was truly looking to operate a new racetrack, and he likened what is happening with Arlington to the recent demise of Hollywood Park and Calder Race Course, two other prominent Thoroughbred tracks that went belly-up during CDI's stewardship.

“What's to convince us that you guys are looking for something? I don't think you guys are in the state of Illinois, I'll tell you that much,” Reyes said. “I would recommend to the commissioners that maybe we not give you [an ITW] license, and only consider giving you a license once you come up with a new [track] site. That way you have some motivation to move up finding a location if that's what you really have in the back of your mind.

“In California you did this. In Florida you did this,” Reyes continued, referring to the Hollywood and Calder shutdowns. “And now you did it in Illinois. What's there to [show us] you're operating on good faith? I don't see anything. I'm not convinced of anything that you could do that will help the horse racing industry here.”

Commissioner Alan Henry agreed.

“CDI could have applied for placeholder racing dates in 2022 and cobbled together a year or two of status-quo racing while hoping to finalize their development plans,” Henry said. “Instead, they chose to permanently shut down Arlington Park, in the process condemning both [Thoroughbred and Standardbred] breeds to drastically reduced dates next year and an increasingly perilous future.

“As I interpret what I consider the logical intent of state statutes, the conclusion I reach is that CDI must have an organization license for 2022 in order ultimately to conduct inter-track and off-track betting on racing in Illinois. It does not have that license, nor did it apply for one. Simple common sense tells me that should be end of story. But apparently, it's not.”

Henry continued: “By word and deed, after lobbying for and then rejecting the opportunity to apply for a racino license, then jilting the track, I believe Churchill has acted in a manner that directly subverts this board's mission to support and enhance the state's horse racing industry. By that I mean that in no way, shape, or form does shuttering Arlington Park ensure that Illinois remains competitive with neighboring states or stimulate growth within the industry…or encourage the state's breeding programs. In fact, CDI's actions have done exactly the opposite. And we absolutely should not be enabling them…

“To be clear, this is not about looking backward in anger,” Henry said. “This is about looking forward with confidence that the racing industry is not going to once again be blindsided by a corporation driven by objectives not compatible with a healthy racing industry.”
Prior to the vote, David McCaffrey, the executive director of the ITHA, asked commissioners to hold CDI accountable for its cumulative harmful actions.

“On what planet does a racing corporation that lobbied for years and years to get a gaming bill; that chose not pursue the [racino license granted by the] gaming bill, then chose to sell [Arlington] to a non-racing interest when [other] racing interests had submitted bids to buy the property and essentially harm the game beyond repair [get] held accountable?” McCaffrey said.

IRB chairman Daniel Beiser and commissioners Beth Doria, John Stephan, Henry, and Reyes all voted against granting CDI the ITW licensure.
Voting in favor were commissioners Leslie Breuer, Marcus Davis, Lydia Gray, Charles MacKelvie and Leslye Sandberg.

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Illinois Racing Board Nixes Arlington’s OTB Licenses But Approves TwinSpires ADW

You win some, you lose some.

That's how it went for Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) and its dormant track, Arlington Park, during Thursday's regularly scheduled meeting of the Illinois Racing Board when the 10 commissioners deadlocked on a motion to permit Arlington to continue to operate off-track betting faclities, effectively killing the measure. CDI won a second vote by a 9-1 margin permitting TwinSpires, the company's advance deposit wagering platform, to maintain its license and operate in the state in 2022.

The meeting was contentious at times, with Arlington's Tony Petrillo and Hawthorne's Tim Carey shouting over each other during discussions about ADW revenue.

Commissioner Alan Henry, a fierce critic of CDI over its decision to not race at Arlington in 2022 and sell the track property to the NFL's Chicago Bears to build a football stadium, referred to the closing as a “flagrant obscenity,” saying that, “It's now time for this board and this state to move on from Churchill Downs.”

This came after Chris Block, newly elected president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said the move to close Arlington has put the state's Thoroughbred industry “on the brink of collapse.”

But the board apparently has a number of CDI loyalists who felt it was in the best interest of racing to permit Arlington Park to maintain its OTB network despite not operating a live race meetingin 2022 – in what the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association said was contrary to law.

Petrillo told the IRB that CDI remained committed to live racing in Illinois, saying the company was continuing to search for a property to build a new track to replace Arlington. When pressed by the board, he couldn't offer any specifics. Two senior CDI officials, Bill Mudd and Brad Blackwell, joined the call, but they offered no specifics, either, saying they hoped to find a place to build a track and then get a casino license.

To several commissioners, that made no sense, inasmuch as CDI turned down an opportunity to add casino gambling to Arlington after enabling legislation was passed in 2019. Horsemen and CDI worked hand in hand for many years to get the legislation approved.

When it came time to vote on Arlington's OTBs, five commissioners were in favor and five against; thus, the motion did not pass. The yes votes came from Leslie Breuer, Marcus Davis, Lydia Gray, Charles MacKelvie and Leslye Sandberg. Voting against the Arlington OTB licenses were board chairman Daniel Beiser, Beth Doria, Alan Henry, Benjamin Reyes and John Stephan.

Hawthorne is expected to pick up the slack from the Arlington OTBs that will not reopen, although under current law it is one OTB short of the maximum it can operate. Hawthorne is expected to seek legislative help that will permit them to expand their network.

For an advance deposit wagering company to be licensed in Illinois, it must have a contract with a state racetrack and the consent of the representative horsemen's group.

TwinSpires had previously reached an agreement with Fanduel Sportsbook and Horse Racing, the downstate track formerly known as Fairmount Park. The Illinois Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association that represents horsemen at Fanduel/Fairmount withheld consent until just before Thursday's meeting. The board could have approved the license without consent, if the commissioners felt the horsemen were being unreasonable, but the agreement made that a moot point after the Illinois HBPA gave their consent.

However, there was one last chance for the IRB to block TwinSpires' operations in Illinois by denying the company an ADW license. After much debate, that license was approved by a 9-1 vote. Henry was the lone dissenter.

As commissioner Henry explained, the approval will hurt horsemen at Hawthorne because the bulk of purse revenue will remain at Fanduel/Fairmount although 75% of the ADW customers live in the Chicago area.

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