Report: Arlington Employees Receive Layoff Notices

According to a report in Chicago's Daily Herald newspaper, Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI), the owner of Arlington Park, has sent official notices to employees informing them they will be laid off 14 days after the final day of the meet, which is Sept. 25.

CDI has not committed to racing beyond the end of this meet and has put the track up for sale. The layoff notices are a discouraging development after CDI applied for 2022 Illinois racing dates. A date request is not binding and does not have to mean that CDI intends to keep the track open.

The Daily Herald obtained a copy of a memo sent to employees by Arlington President Tony Petrillo, which read: “As it was announced earlier this year the Arlington Park Racecourse, LLC has been placed on the market for sale which will result in the closure of Arlington International Racecourse. Consistent with these plans, employment separations presently are expected to begin on or about Sept. 25, 2021. The entire Racecourse facility is being permanently closed in conjunction with the expectation of the sale.”

Nick Micaletti, the business agent for Teamsters Local 727, which represents 50 Arlington employees, including valets and the starting gate crew, held out hope someone would come in, buy the track and keep it open for racing.

“It's a reality now, whereas before it was, well, hopefully somebody comes in and buys it and does the right things and helps Illinois horse racing,” Micaletti told the Daily Herald.

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CDI Reportedly Asks for ’22 Illinois Dates Application

The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton

Two months before Arlington International Racecourse is scheduled to run what is feared to be the historic track's final race, Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the gaming corporation that owns the up-for-sale landmark, has reportedly requested an application for 2022 race dates from the Illinois Racing Board.

But as columnist Jim O'Donnell of the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago put it in his Friday scoop of this story, “What the carnivorous CDI will do with the application remains to be seen.”

With a July 30 deadline looming to apply for next year's dates, this pull-the-papers move could just end up being a gambit to make sure CDI has various contingencies lined up.

Requesting an application doesn't mean a track owner has to actually file for dates.

Nor does it mean CDI intends to file for dates at Arlington. The corporation could be eyeballing some other still-secret Illinois location.

Nevertheless, this news is likely to kindle hope (perhaps of the false variety) that Arlington could survive the wrecking ball–at least for another few race meets while CDI reaps the benefits of entitlements related to live racing licensure, like off-track betting and advance-deposit wagering.

O'Donnell also notes that CDI could also be using the move as a ploy to replenish its “depleted goodwill” with regulators and elected officials in Illinois. This could come in the form of using another season or two at Arlington as an olive branch while simultaneously pursuing bigger-picture casino endeavors at two lucrative locations where CDI wants to expand its gaming footprint in and near Chicago.

It was last July 30 that Bill Carstanjen, the chief executive officer of CDI, first outlined the corporation's desire to rid itself of Chicago's premier Thoroughbred venue. In February, CDI put the 326-acre property up for sale. It has since attracted four known bidders, only one of whom has publicly disclosed an interest in keeping Arlington operational as a Thoroughbred track.

TDN emailed Arlington's president Tony Petrillo on Saturday to ask if either Arlington or CDI actually intended to file a 2022 dates application. No response was received prior to Sunday's deadline for this column.

Carstanjen also was silent when asked by the Daily Herald to explain what was going on.

For the latest rundown in this ongoing saga, it's best to absorb O'Donnell's full column here.

But the two biggest points that O'Donnell brings up relative to continued racing in Illinois are:

1.) The possibility that CDI could be planning to either run a race meet itself, or partner with and/or enter into some sort of lease arrangement with a new owner (because large-parcel developments such as this take years to happen, such as when CDI sold Hollywood Park in 2006, and racing continued there under different management until 2013).

2.) What will Hawthorne Race Course do? O'Donnell reported that Arlington's rival racetrack 35 miles to the south is “preparing two dates applications predicated upon what Churchill does. If CDI or a nominee request a summer Thoroughbred meet, [Hawthorne] will simply repeat their spring-and-fall Thoroughbreds of 2021, bookending a midyear [Standardbred] season. If CDI completely exits the 2022 Illinois racing frame, Hawthorne will apply to run a summer Thoroughbred season with harness racing in the spring and fall.”

Fundraiser for Fallen Rider

Crooked River Roundup in central Oregon is about as far off the horse racing grid as you can get in America. Yet racegoers there passed the hat to raise a reported $3,500 July 14 upon learning they had witnessed the death of jockey Eduardo Gutierrez-Sosa in the first race of the meet when his mount collided with the inner rail and flipped the 29-year-old rider headfirst into the infield.

According to published reports, racetrackers gave another $16,000 the next night to help Gutierrez-Sosa's widow and three children (ages four, eight and one in high school). The outpouring of aid continued via donation bins in the betting area over the weekend.

The fundraising effort has now gone digital, with this GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral costs having already brought in another $18,000 as of Sunday afternoon.

Gutierrez-Sosa rode both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, primarily on the mixed-meet circuit in the Pacific Northwest. The Mexican native who was a longtime Oregon resident was remembered by friends in this televised KTVZ tribute as an always-smiling family man who was easily identified on horseback for his distinctively pink riding attire.

The Quarter Horse that Gutierrez-Sosa rode in his final race, Godfather Advice (who walked off the track after the accident), was a 2-year-old Quarter Horse maiden trained by his wife, Rosa Rodriguez. According to members of the backstretch community, Rodriguez was standing at trackside after saddling her horse to watch the running of the race.

“She was on the race track when it happened,” Jennifer Abraham told KTVZ. “My heart breaks for Rosa that that's her last time with him. I hope she cherishes the memories they had together.”

Crooked River Roundup (aka Prineville Turf Club) annually hosts a four-date, under-the-lights meet on the four-track Oregon summer fairs circuit. It was questionable whether the racing there would even continue there this year after the track was forced to cancel its meet in 2020 because of the pandemic.

There was also some sentiment about canceling the rest of the meet after Wednesday's accident. But after abandoning the July 14 card following the second race, the decision was made to continue racing as scheduled Thursday through Saturday in honor of Gutierrez-Sosa.

“It's hard for some of us,” Dustie Crystal, one of his backstretch friends, told KTVZ. “Some of us [just wanted] to go home and not have the rest of the race meet. But we all know that, Sosa being the person he is, he'd want us to stay.”

When racing resumed Thursday night, KTVZ reported that the entire jockey colony was wearing some form of pink to honor Gutierrez-Sosa.

“It's hard to describe, but I feel like I lost my brother,” jockey Jose Figueroa told KTVZ. “We're going to ride for him.”

Nebraska the New Wild West?

No fewer than five new racetracks were proposed at last Friday's Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission meeting. According to published reports, no action was taken on any of the applications, which were triggered by the passage of a trio of ballot initiatives last year that authorized casinos at licensed horse race tracks.

The gold rush-like flurry of proposals were tied to new locations in Bellevue, York, Norfolk, North Platte and Gering. According to the Sioux City Journal, the most lucrative sites are considered to be in the eastern part of the state near the Iowa border.

A standing-room crowd at that July 16 meeting generated plenty of opposition from Thoroughbred horsemen, who fear that a sudden glut of racing venues will only water down Nebraska's recently resurgent racing product.

According to the Journal, Lynne McNally, the executive vice president of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protection Association, said that new tracks in places like Bellevue and York “will gut the purse structure.”

The Norfolk Daily News reported that Garald Wollesen, president of the NHBPA, said at the meeting that, “Building up casinos should build up the racing industry, not line the pockets of others.”

Robert Moser Jr., the former president of the NHBPA, testified that if both the Bellevue and York proposals are approved, it would put four tracks within 100 miles of each other on the eastern edge of the state. According to the Journal, he said that the only place in the country where that exists is in New York, in an area with 20 million people.

Nebraska has six racetracks that are currently eligible for racino licensure. Fonner Park in Grand Island races the only extended Thoroughbred season, with other limited Thoroughbred dates at Omaha, Lincoln and Columbus. Quarter Horse mini-meets occur at South Sioux City and Hastings.

Major purse upswing at Timonium

At last Thursday's Maryland Racing Commission meeting, officials from the Maryland State Fair in Timonium told commissioners that purses at the Aug. 27-Sept. 6 race meet would be level with what Thoroughbreds race for at Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course.

The surge in daily average purses from $175,000 last season to a hefty $287,000 in 2021 will represent the highest amounts ever offered at the five-furlong fairgrounds track with the distinctively banked turns.

Although late summer is the most competitive time on the calendar for racing in the mid-Atlantic region, Timonium should benefit from an expected equine population boost this season from the 600 horses that have been stabled on the grounds since late spring because of the closure of the stable area at Laurel, which

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Former Arlington Park President Submits Bid To Purchase Track From Churchill Downs Inc.

The following statement was issued by Endeavor Properties LLC, whose president and CEO, Roy Arnold, served as president of Arlington Park from 2006-10.

Endeavor Properties LLC announced Tuesday that it submitted an offer, on behalf of a consortium, to purchase Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., as part of a plan to continue Thoroughbred racing at the state's flagship track.

The purchaser consortium includes Endeavor and Sterling Bay, a prolific developer of office properties in downtown Chicago. It also includes Ocean Atlantic and GSP Development, as well as high net worth individuals.

Roy Arnold, president and CEO of Endeavor, noted that the group's plan to continue Thoroughbred horse racing at Arlington Park is consistent with the intent of the Illinois General Assembly as expressed by the Illinois Horse Racing Act and Public Act 101-31, the state's 2019 gaming expansion law. The existing track and grandstand would be retained.

The development plan also contemplates the construction of a mid-size arena suitable to host a minor league hockey team as an anchor tenant as part of a 60-acre four-season entertainment district, a low-density housing development with approximately 300 units, and a 60-acre industrial space.

“We are committed to close and continuous alignment with the community to ensure that this development enhances residents' quality of life, creates jobs and economic activity, and benefits the community while improving the tax base of the Village of Arlington Heights and the State of Illinois,” Arnold said.

Arnold said Endeavor, which submitted to Churchill Downs Inc. a letter of intent to purchase Arlington Park, will not comment on the specifics of the offer but that the group is confident that its plan to continue horse racing at Arlington Park is economically viable.

“We have the capital and the passion to make Thoroughbred racing work at Arlington Park,” Arnold said. “We look forward to continuing the legacy that is Arlington.”

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Arlington Heights Trustees Take Steps That Could Impact Sale of Track

The Arlington Heights Board of Trustees has passed an ordinance that would prevent Churchill Downs from placing any restrictions on what a buyer of Arlington Park can and cannot do with the 326-acre property.

It is feared that Churchill will not sell the track to any individual or group that expresses an interest in opening a casino or even to anyone committed to maintaining racing at the historic Illinois track. Churchill may want to limit competition for the nearby Rivers casino that it co-owns in the town of Des Plaines.

There have been groups aligned with the horsemen that have come forward and said they were prepared to buy Arlington in order to keep it as a racetrack and were set to outbid all others for the property. Those same groups have expressed concerns that Churchill would not be willing to sell to anyone who intended to keep the track operating. The ordinance, which was passed unanimously at Monday night's meeting of the village's Board of Trustees, would prevent Churchill from attaching any conditions to the sale which would rule out a continuation of horse racing.

Throughout the meeting, trustees and other officials with the town made it clear that they would like to see racing at Arlington Park preserved.

“The track is so important to our village for many different reasons, including our identity, that I don't want to see the track go away,” said Trustee John Scaletta. “But it's not up to me. It's up to whoever purchases the property. But I think it's important to keep the door open so that it could possibly remain a track because there are so many people that want to see racing continue, not only in the state of Illinois but across the country. Hopefully, somebody will come to Arlington Heights with a desire to continue horse racing.”

Said Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes: “Everything remains on the table. We are taking these actions this evening to ensure that the possibility of horse racing remains on the table. Nothing is excluded, other than certain uses that we don't want to see.”

In a related development, the board took steps to redefine zoning restrictions for the property that would allow it to keep out certain businesses. The example of Amazon building a distribution center on the site was given as a development the town would block.

The Arlington site is also said to be on the radar of the Chicago Bears, which have been contemplating moving to a new stadium.

Churchill Downs is soliciting bids for the property through the commercial real estate firm CBRE Group, Inc. Bids are due by June 15.

According to Arlington Heights Village Manager Randall Recklaus, the nearby towns of Buffalo Grove, Schaumburg and Chicago have used similar procedures that have kept property owners from placing restrictive covenants limiting future uses for the land.

The problems for Arlington began when Churchill failed to apply for a casino license for the racetrack and then announced that racing would not continue after the end of the 2021 meet. Should Arlington, considered one of the most beautiful racetracks in the world, close, the Chicago area would be left with just one track, Hawthorne. Because Hawthorne is also required to run a harness racing meet, the amount of Thoroughbred racing that can be offered there is limited.

The Arlington meet is scheduled to conclude Sept. 25.

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