Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association | Horse Racing Free Tips

After both sides announced they had reached a tentative deal for a 2020 race meet late Wednesday, representatives from Arlington Park and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association agreed Thursday they needed just a little more time to hammer out some more minor points.

At a teleconference meeting of the Illinois Racing Board Thursday, the two groups revealed they have agreed to a total of 30 race dates beginning July 23 and racing Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays with daily post times of 2 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. Sept. 27 through 30 would be considered dark days for Arlington.

According to testimony before the board Thursday, the sticking point is now 2021. Arlington wants a two-year agreement with the horsemen's group, which was initially opposed to making a deal beyond 2020. Now, the two sides have agreed to make a two-year deal but disagree on what to do if their projections for revenue or planned number of race dates assigned turn out to be incorrect. It seemed Thursday as though Arlington was willing to leave the contingencies fairly open with an intent to renegotiate for 2021 if necessary, while the horsemen want everything spelled out before signing a deal.

The board took a 15-minute recess in hopes these last points could be cleared up in that time, but upon return decided to recess the meeting until Friday at 1 p.m. local time. Board executive director Domenic DiCera and commissioner Thomas McCauley are scheduled to conduct a phone meeting with the two sides beforehand to help iron out any further disagreements, with the hope that the 1 p.m. board meeting will result in an allocation of dates and signed agreement for the 2020 meet at Arlington.

All seemed to concur that if a contract could not be agreed upon by Friday, it seemed unlikely the two parties would be able to reach an agreement for 2020 at all.

Two callers in Thursday's meeting expressed concern and confusion that Arlington OTB facilities did not seem to be operating as expected — being closed when they were supposed to be open, lacking the ability to make cash payouts or sell programs. Hawthorne's OTBs have, by contrast, been busy and pulling in considerably more money for horsemen, according to Tony Somone from the Illinois Harness Horsemen's Association. Somone also pointed out that Arlington OTBs were showing only TVG races during a recent visit and did not include a feed from Hawthorne, which is not carried by TVG.

Arlington Park president Tony Petrillo said the OTB's open hours had been submitted to the board and customers should have been able to make in-and-out wagers during that time.

Friday's meeting of the Illinois Racing Board will be livestreamed on the board's website.

The post Down To The Wire: Arlington, Horsemen Still Working On Deal For 2020-21 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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A deal for a 30-date race meet spanning July 23-Sept. 30 at Arlington International Race Course was being finalized on Wednesday with the goal of having a signed contract between the track and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (ITHA) in place prior to Thursday morning’s Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting, during which the late and curtailed 2020 season could be approved.

On Wednesday afternoon, Arlington issued a notice on Twitter that read, in part, “Arlington and the ITHA have reached a tentative agreement for the 2020 and 2021 race meets. Final details of the agreement are being drafted and are expected to be signed later [Wednesday].”

TDN could not immediately reach ITHA spokespersons to confirm the negotiations. But the Daily Herald of suburban Chicago ran a story earlier Wednesday quoting ITHA president Mike Campbell as saying, “At this hour, we have a tentative agreement. The devil could prove to be in the details.”

Campbell said that Arlington’s corporate owner, Churchill Downs Inc., has attorneys “generating the initial draft as we speak, which will then be reviewed by our attorneys and our contract committee. I am hopefully optimistic all will be done in time for tomorrow’s meeting of the IRB.”

The Arlington notice stated the expected racing schedule would be Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays with 2 p.m. (Central) post time. The stable area would open “on or before” July 6.

The Daily Herald story reported that the agreement calls for no stakes program in 2020, including the track’s signature race, the GI Arlington Million.

If the above details are correct, the agreement doesn’t seem noticeably different from the offer that Arlington proposed but the ITHA rejected as recently as June 8, when the two sides last aired their contract differences at a special IRB meeting that had been called to address the stalemate. That meeting was preceded by a weekend-long contract negotiation session mandated and mediated by the IRB.

The only apparent difference in the terms seems to be that the ITHA is now willing to accept what its leadership described 10 days ago as the main sticking point: Arlington wanted a contract signed for both 2020 and 2021, while the ITHA only wanted to ink a one-year deal.

The relationship between Arlington and the ITHA has been contentious for several years now. But the split widened considerably last August when Arlington management stunned Illinois horsemen by intentionally missing a deadline to apply for a racino license after more than a decade of working with horsemen to get the Illinois Gaming Act passed as a way to boost purses via other forms of betting.

Arlington’s decision not to pursue slot machines and table games at the track took on heightened controversy because CDI has an ownership stake in a nearby competing casino and is aiming to open another near Chicago.

Horsemen have stated a belief that CDI doesn’t want Arlington competing with its own (and potentially more lucrative) venues. Last summer, CDI cited the racino law’s requirement of having to contribute gaming revenues to the Thoroughbred purse account as a competitive disadvantage it did not want to undertake.

The Gaming Act also had a new requirement written into it that stated, “A contract with the appropriate Thoroughbred or Standardbred horsemen organization shall be negotiated and signed by the organization licensee before the beginning of each calendar year.”

Despite that law–which has no stated penalty for not complying–the two sides have been deadlocked on a deal since late 2019.

Beyond the issue of no contract being in place, the COVID-19 pandemic also complicated and delayed the meet beyond its planned May 1 opening. The season was originally supposed to run for 68 dates until Sept. 30.

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