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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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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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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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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Appearing via video before the regulatory agency during a regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Nov. 18. Petrillo lobbied to keep Arlington Park's diminishing number of OTBs operating in 2022 despite the decision by the suburban Chicago racetrack's parent company, Churchill Downs Inc., to end racing there and sell the property to the NFL's Chicago Bears for construction of a new football stadium.

Arlington Park ran its final race on Sept. 25 after deciding earlier not to seek racing dates in 2022, saying the property was being put up for sale. Four days after the 2021 meet ended, Churchill Downs announced a deal to sell Arlington Park to the Bears for $197.2 million. The company rejected a bid from a group led by former Arlington Park president Roy Arnold to purchase the property, continue racing and develop a portion of the land.

There were two agenda items related to Arlington and CDI continuing to profit off Thoroughbred racing through the continued operation of its Trackside OTB in a separate building on the south end of the Arlington Park property and five other OTBs in the state. CDI also wants its advance deposit wagering brand, TwinSpires, to keep operating in Illinois, though it must have a contract with both a racetrack and horsemen's organization and currently does not have an agreement with horsemen, either at Hawthorne and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association or FanDuel Fairmount Park and the Illinois Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.

Attorneys for Hawthorne racetrack and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association argued that Arlington should not be eligible for what the racing law refers ti as “inter-track” wagering because Arlington is no longer an operating racetrack and is not licensed for 2022. Commissioner Alan Henry said the question comes down to legislative intent, the best long-term interests of the racing industry and common sense. Henry said Churchill wanting to profit off OTBs is like the farm that sells its prized Holstein to someone and then wants the profits from the milk it produces.

Counsel for the Illinois Racing Board advised the commissioners that, in his opinion, Arlington Park could be awarded the license under the law.

Hawthorne said it was willing to take over operations in some of the regions where Arlington currently has OTBs, though it is restricted to 16 OTB locations and already has 15 open.

The gaslighting began when Petrillo said Churchill Downs Inc. is committed to live racing in Illinois – less than two months after selling the state's signature racetrack for development. (In his next breath, Petrillo said racetracks can not be profitable on their own.)

“We maintain an interest in racing and pursuing other opportunities to continue live racing within the state,” Petrillo said. “At this time, we don't have any location that we could identify but we continually pursue this each day for another location.”

Petrillo started shedding what looked on my computer screen like crocodile tears.

“These (OTBs) are very important because they provide jobs, they're going to provide a number of jobs across each of these geographical areas to people to support their families. Especially in these economic times it's very important for these jobs to be maintained.”

Commissioner Beth Doria called Petrillo out for the audacious comment.

“Mr. Petrillo, I heard you reference the loss of jobs several times,” Doria said. “But I'm just wondering where that concern was when you actually closed the racetrack itself.”

Another commissioner asked Petrillo if he felt the closing of Arlington caused “dramatic damage” for the Illinois racing industry.

“Any business closing in any part of the industry has an impact that could be construed as negative,” Petrillo said in a comment that can only be construed as tone deaf by the thousands of lives affected by the closing of Arlington Park.

The Illinois Racing Board voted to delay a decision on Arlington Park's request until the Dec. 16 meeting. Let's hope the board does the right thing and denies the OTB licenses next month and allows Hawthorne to take them over. If CDI and Arlington opt to get back in racing with the construction of a new track, OTBs should be part of their operation. Until such time, they are no longer in the racing business in Illinois.

That's my view from the eighth pole.

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The IRB heard contentious pro-and-con testimony on the Arlington-related agenda items, but in the end essentially punted on the matter by voting 10-0 to “lay over” the decision-making process until its December meeting.
Four issues stood out during the extended debate Nov. 18:

Firstly, Arlington president Tony Petrillo is intent on spinning the ITW licensure as a “demonstration of the [corporation's] continued commitment to be involved in horse racing in the state” that will preserve jobs.

Secondly, Hawthorne Race Course president and general manager Tim Carey said that Hawthorne Race Course is “absolutely” interested in taking over the operation of the most lucrative of the simulcasting parlors should Arlington not be granted a license to run them. And IRB commissioners appeared in agreement that those locations will end up generating roughly the same amount of revenue if Hawthorne operates them instead of Arlington.

Thirdly, the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) is against Arlington retaining control of the parlors, citing the fact that since Arlington doesn't hold a license as a track, it can't then be granted ITW privileges.

Finally–and perhaps most surprisingly–the IRB itself repeatedly questioned the motives of CDI after commissioners had remained largely mute on the devastating topic of the Arlington sale for the better part of the last year.

“I just have a concern, as a board member, in how we've been treated by Churchill Downs,” said IRB commissioner Marcus Davis, noting that CDI could have opted to work out a plan to sell its land while preserving racing at Arlington in the short term, thus allowing for a smoother transition to year-round, dual-breed racing at Hawthorne.

“I don't get the sense that I can trust what Churchill has to say when they do the things that they do [like closing Hollywood Park and Calder Race Course],” Davis said.

IRB commissioner Alan Henry went a step further, advocating against granting ITW licensure to CDI.

“I don't think it's in the best interest of the public or horse racing to have [CDI] operate these parlors,” Henry said. “This is the same company that shut down the most beautiful track in the country…and it was just thrown in the ash heap for an alleged higher purpose that doesn't make any sense to me. I don't know that we should be rewarding the company with parlors when they don't have a track to run at.”
Henry said that in recent years, CDI has “torched” IRB directives aimed at fostering and promoting the sport.

“What I see in these [ITW] requests seems an awful lot like the farmer who sells his prized Holstein, then expects to still get paid for some of the milk it produces,” Henry said.

Henry noted that Arlington closed two of its parlors in 2020, and is set to “offload” four of its least-profitable remaining ones over the next few weeks.

Petrillo kept reiterating that CDI still wants to be involved in racing in Illinois, although he was vague on specifics.

“Our commitment to racing in the state and the product is indicative of our pursuit of these licenses,” Petrillo said. “At this time, we don't have any locations that we could identify, but we continually pursue this each day for another location.”

Petrillo said that keeping the ITW locations under Arlington's control will generate only a relatively small amount of revenue for CDI itself–about $250,0000 to $300,000–but that horsemen would reap the benefits of purse money derived from ITW bets.

“These licenses overall will produce a significant amount of handle–$76 million in handle, and will see about $8 million in host fees and purses going directly to Hawthorne,” for 2022, Petrillo said.

“We feel it's important that the board take action on these licenses today, as 80 to 100 [ITW workers] would be sitting in suspense on whether they have jobs or not,” Petrillo said.

“It would cause a lot of unrest for the public as well,” Petrillo added–without explaining how that strife could ever top the industry-wide calamity CDI triggered by deep-sixing Arlington.

IRB commissioner Beth Doria politely but firmly upbraided Petrillo by saying, “I've heard you reference the loss of jobs multiple times in your presentation today. And I'm just wondering where that concern was when you actually closed the racetrack itself.”
Davis underscored that it won't make much of a fiscal difference which licensee operates the ITWs.

“There may be a small [operational] hiccup. But if Hawthorne took over the OTBs, that money will still flow to the state; it will still flow to the horsemen. But at least we know that [Hawthorne has] a commitment, because they've committed to racing year-round. I don't see anything like that ever coming from Churchill Downs,” Davis said.

Despite some of the commissioners' misgivings about licensing Arlington to run the ITWs, the now-defunct track does have some relative precedents on its side.

Petrillo pointed out that when Arlington was rebuilding from its fire in the 1980s and was later emerging from a separate closure in the 1990s, the IRB let it keep operating ITWs without live racing.

And John Gay, the attorney for the IRB, said when asked during Thursday's meeting that “it is my opinion that the plain language of the [state] statute allows the board to issue these licenses if it so chooses.”

Henry disagreed.

“I am well aware that [CDI] can apply for these licenses because they raced for 60 days in 2021,” Henry said. “And yes, they may have operating control of a racetrack because they control the property. But they turned down their right to request 2022 racing dates, and they do not have a license to conduct pari-mutuel racing in 2022, nor have they requested one.

“I know it's a matter of legal dispute, and there are what I consider dissimilar precedents that allowed previous [ITW] approvals,” Henry said. “But common sense tells me that ITW licenses should only be granted to viable track operators that actually want to engage in horse racing, and that disqualifies these applications.”

When asked by Davis why CDI should be trusted to be involved with Thoroughbred racing in Illinois based on the Hollywood and Calder closures, Petrillo answered by saying that with regard to Hollywood, the current CDI management team was not involved in that decision. He didn't address Calder, which did close under the corporation's current regime.

As for the decision to sell Arlington, he said it was a “very heart-aching decision” for Bill Carstanjen, CDI's chief executive officer, to make.

When Petrillo was asked by Henry if he thought CDI's decision to rid itself of Arlington represented “fairly dramatic damage to the Illinois racing industry in the near term,” Petrillo admitted that Arlington's closure “could be construed as negative.”

But, Petrillo added, shifting into spin mode, “the one racetrack [Hawthorne] that will be remaining to conduct Thoroughbred racing will also see a significant amount of revenue being sent to their facility.”

Henry asked Petrillo if he had any regrets about CDI intentionally missing a deadline in 2019 to build a racino at Arlington after more than a decade of working with the ITHA to get the Illinois Gaming Act passed.

“I don't think that my personal feelings or my personal opinion is of any relevance in this matter,” Petrillo replied.
Henry said that as racinos at Hawthorne and Fairmount Park do open in the state, “The industry in a post-CDI world, in my opinion, will emerge on stronger and more reliable footing. Further, I see no signs that CDI's commitment to racing is going to improve.”

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Back on Sept. 29, Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the gaming corporation that owns Arlington, announced the signing of a $197.2 million purchase and sales agreement that would transfer the crown jewel of Illinois racing to the Chicago Bears for the planned construction of a new stadium and mixed-use development.

With Arlington out of the equation for 2022, Thoroughbred dates in greater Chicago will wither to just 76 programs over two seasonal meets at Hawthorne Race Course, which will also host 75 dates of Standardbred racing next year.

One day after the Arlington sale became public, the state's Senate Executive Gaming Committee met to discuss the future of horse racing in Illinois. Henry said at the Oct. 14 IRB meeting that he came away “with a bad feeling” after listening to that hearing.

“I get that it looks bleak,” Henry continued. “But 30-year Marine Corps veteran Roy Arnold, the front man for the underbidders, made it clear to the subcommittee that he is not retreating.”

Arnold formerly worked for CDI as Arlington's president, starting in 2006 and resigning in 2010. When the track was put up for sale earlier this year, he partnered with a group of developers and investors to try to buy the property. That group's bid was the only known offer to preserve racing at Arlington.

When the Bears won the bidding process, Arnold said at the next-day Senate hearing that he would be willing to either work with the new owners to keep the track operational on 125 acres of the site or to step in and pursue the purchase if the football team backed out.

Henry said that a purchase and sales agreement is “not evidence of a done deal. There are still many variables out there. Just one of them is that at any moment, Chicago's mayor could throw some serious cards on the table [regarding a counter-proposal to keep the Bears in their current downtown home] now that the Bears have called her bluff.”

Henry continued: “Sure, Arlington Park's permanent closing may be likely, But it is not inevitable. Why? Because a Bears-Arlington Park partnership makes too much sense to blithely dismiss. And because if the Bears withdraw, [Arnold's group] is standing at the ready.”

Henry said that as “everyone in the industry knows, the 2022 racing calendar is a stopgap that is likely unsustainable beyond next year. Half a season for either breed is simply not enough.”

One idea that has been floated is for a harness track to be built on the site of a former state-owned mental health facility in the village of Tinley Park, about 30 miles southwest of Chicago. That would allow Hawthorne to transition over to full-time Thoroughbred racing, and each breed would have its own year-round racetrack.

“The consensus among horsemen is the construction of a harness track in Tinley Park is an integral piece of the solution, and should be treated as a priority. But right now that is just not happening,” Henry said.

“As I hear it, some Thoroughbred trainers are now considering moving to Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas at the end of the current Hawthorne meet and not coming back in late winter,” Henry said. “Some are also looking at Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, and other states for 2022 given the need to lock in stalls next summer.”

Henry continued: “Then there's the reality that advance-deposit wagering platforms are grabbing rapidly increasing percentages of the betting handle. That means money is increasingly being diverted away from the [horsemen's] already paltry purses. The laws governing that split have to be rewritten to better ensure a healthy industry.”

Henry also noted that although racinos have been legal in the state since June 2019, none are yet operational at either Hawthorne or FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing (the rebranded Fairmount Park), so purses aren't being supplemented by gaming revenues.

Henry suggested that moving forward, there should be a standing item on every IRB agenda for Hawthorne and FanDuel to update their progress on building racinos, and also “to address the harness track situation.”

But beyond one commissioner thanking Henry for his “particularly interesting” comments, no other IRB members voiced support for Henry's suggestion about the standing agenda item. And none of them chimed in about the state of the racing circuit when given the chance to speak during the “commissioner comments” section of the agenda.

This “elephant in the room” pattern of largely ignoring the most dire and pressing racing issue in the state has persisted at IRB meetings for the better part of 2021. With the exception of Henry, who has been outspoken about Arlington's pending closure for six consecutive IRB meetings since CDI declared the property would be sold for non-horse-racing purposes, the other nine IRB commissioners have, for the most part, maintained a stunning silence about the collapse of Chicago racing.

So what other matters did the IRB take up on Thursday? The proceedings were almost entirely officious.

By 10-0 votes, the IRB approved the licensing of an outrider and an entry clerk for Hawthorne's upcoming harness meet, disbursed Quarter Horse purse funds to FanDuel for the four races that track carded this past season, and signed off on granting a pari-mutuel tax credit to tracks and off-track betting licensees.

The IRB also had to bring back and ratify its 2022 dates order from last month because the way it had been voted in didn't comply with the state's open meetings act. This required commissioners to electronically sign the related documentation, and the meeting stalled briefly when several commissioners couldn't figure out how to do it.

The IRB also spent time during Thursday's public meeting congratulating a staffer for running a marathon, and discussed the upcoming move to new office space, which was described as a more modernized “new playground.”

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Hawthorne, the other Chicago area track, will host six months of Thoroughbred dates next year. In total, the number of Thoroughbred race dates in the Chicago area will decline from 124 in 2021 to 76 in 2022.

The schedule is as follows: January through March will offer harness competition, then Thoroughbred racing in April through June. Harness race will resume July through the middle of September, and the Thoroughbred season resumes Sept. 23 through the end of the year.

“That schedule that was put together has a lot of horsemen frustrated,” trainer and Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association board member Chris Block told DRF. “I know all the negatives, but there's no other way around it to allow both breeds to have some sort of schedule. It's the best we can do right now.”

The other dates assigned at Thursday's IRB meeting include a 61-day meet at Fairmount Park in Collinsville, Ill., recently rebranded Fanduel Sportsbook and Horse Racing.

Read more at the Daily Racing Form.

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In your article, “Arlington Horsemen Beg for Help,” published Aug. 17, it is was stated by President Michael Campbell of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) at the public comment period before the Illinois Racing Board, that Churchill Downs may not sell Arlington Park to the highest bidder in order to avoid competition. Mr. Cambell said, it is “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.”

I offer no opinion whether the facts asserted by Mr. Cambell are true or not. That said, as an attorney, I would be of the opinion that were it true that Churchill Downs would not sell a racetrack to the highest bidder if it were part of a horse racing operation, this would constitute a serious antitrust violation. This smells of a market boycott so as to prevent or extremely hamper a potential competitor from competing. Ordinarily this would be bad, but in a highly regulated industry such as horse racing that inherently limits market entry by government regulation, this is particularly egregious. Bid rigging, refusals to deal, and unfair attempts to deprive competition of the means to compete are common forms of antitrust violation. It is the betting public that would benefit from the competition that gets ripped off. Would-be competitors and horsemen who lose out on opportunities to race would also suffer real, non-theoretical injuries.

I would remind the public that apart from being a civil violation, antitrust violations can be criminal. By way of example, members of the then mighty General Electric Company were sent to jail in the early 60's for antitrust violations committed in the late 50's. Suffice it to say, what I read was sufficiently disturbing (if the facts turn out to be true) that I hope the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice looks into it. The behavior might violate the Illinois Antitrust Act which, among other things, makes it illegal to “Establish, maintain, use, or attempt to acquire monopoly power over any substantial part of trade or commerce of this State for the purpose of excluding competition.”

One of the more complex issues is standing to sue for these antitrust violations. Certainly the would-be gambling industry competitor that offered the highest bid would certainly seem to have standing to sue.

Rinaldo Del Gallo, III

Attorney at Law

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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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