Illinois | Horse Racing Free Tips

Canterbury Park Will Offer Incentives To Race-Ready Thoroughbreds When Meet Begins May 18

Canterbury Park racing officials announced Wednesday several incentive programs designed to reward owners of thoroughbreds that arrive in Shakopee, Minn. ready to enter and run when the meet begins May 18. Notably, a $1,000 bonus will be paid to the owner of any horse that races during the month of May. This bonus is in addition to any purse money earned.

The bonuses are made possible with the cooperation of the Minnesota HBPA, the organization which represents race horse owners, trainers and their employees. In addition, a travel loan program will again be offered to assist with the up-front expenses of shipping a stable to Canterbury Park. Both of these programs were successfully offered last season.

“Canterbury Park and the Minnesota HBPA understand the costs associated with shipping horses from across the country to Minnesota,” Sr. Vice President of Racing Operations Andrew Offerman said. “We hope these incentives assist in offsetting the transportation costs that we know can be an impediment to shipping a stable to Minnesota.”

Average field size in May of 2021 exceeded the overall meet average by more than one-half a horse per race and average all-sources daily handle during that time was up more than 15 percent compared to the remainder of the 2021 meet, two factors which encouraged officials to continue the bonus program. The participation incentive will be paid for each start a thoroughbred makes in an overnight race during the month of May and is in addition to their regular purse earnings.

New this season is a bonus program designed to encourage owners who raced horses in Illinois during 2021 or 2022 to race at Canterbury this season. With the closure of Arlington Park in suburban Chicago, a meet which has historically overlapped with Canterbury Park's season, and Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero racing Thoroughbreds only through June 25, Canterbury officials see an opportunity to attract new stables needing a summer venue.

“We understand that owners and trainers who have historically called Arlington home are faced with challenging decisions in 2022,” Offerman said. “We respect that all horsepersons need to make the best decision for their stable and we have a desire to keep these horses within the Midwest. Canterbury Park is a great option for them to consider.”

To encourage participation, Canterbury and the Minnesota HBPA are offering an incentive that will allow owners with horses that have been previously active in Illinois to receive an additional bonus for racing in Minnesota for either the entire summer or following the Hawthorne Spring/Summer Meet. 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 through July 17. Eligible horses need to have recorded at least one start at Arlington Park, Hawthorne Race Course or Fairmont Park from Jan. 1, 2021 through May 17, 2022. This incentive will be in addition to the $1,000 participation bonus offered throughout May.

Shipping Loan Applications will be due with stall applications on April 4. Applications will be reviewed by the stall application committee with up to $25,000 per owner, or a maximum of $1,500 per horse, to assist in covering the cost of horse transportation. The loan will be repaid through an agreement between the successful applicant and Canterbury Park. All information, full conditions and loan applications specific to these programs, as well as the first condition book and stall application, can be found at www.canterburypark.com/horsemen.

Canterbury's 65-day season runs from May 18 through Sept. 17. Racing will be conducted on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 5 p.m. CDT and Sundays at 1 pm.

Source of original post

IL HBPA Withholds Consent for TwinSpires to be in State

Edited Press Release

The organization representing owners and trainers at FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing (formerly known as Fairmount Park) is withholding consent for the TwinSpires betting platform to accept wagers from Illinois residents.

The board of the Illinois Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association cites the closure of suburban Chicago's industry icon Arlington Park by Churchill Downs Inc., TwinSpires' parent corporation, as a prime motivation for withholding consent. With CDI not owning a functioning racetrack in Illinois in 2022, TwinSpires must under state law have a contract with another duly licensed track to conduct business in the state starting Jan. 1. The only remaining Prairie State horse tracks are FanDuel and Chicagoland's Hawthorne Race Course, with CDI seeking approval through the FanDuel track.

Illinois law also gives horsemen consent rights before an advance-deposit wagering (ADW) platform can enter into a relationship with an Illinois track to conduct business in the state.

Illinois HBPA president Jim Watkins said his organization's board believes the issue is of the magnitude that it should go before the Illinois Racing Board. The IRB has scheduled a hearing Dec. 16 at 10 a.m. Central via WebEx. The racing regulators have the power to overrule the horsemen's veto if they believe the horsemen's action was unreasonable, he said.

“That's where we're at now,” Watkins said. “We just felt this was an issue the racing board should be able to weigh in on, whether TwinSpires continues to be allowed to operate in Illinois. That's a big reason we withheld our consent.”

Watkins said the horsemen are upset not just that CDI shut down Arlington Park but then would not sell to ownership wishing to maintain racing at the 94-year-old track. CDI is the majority owner of Rivers Casino Des Plaines, located 10 miles from Arlington Park. The company has an agreement to sell the Arlington Park property to pro football's Chicago Bears for a reported $197 million.

“CDI wants their cake and to eat it, too: 'We're not willing to be involved in the racing, but we want to still utilize our ADW powers in Illinois,'” Watkins said.

Watkins said the Illinois HBPA also “wants to bring light to a flawed system” under which online betting platforms operate. Watkins said that the ADWs make the lion's share of the net proceeds at the expense of horsemen's purse accounts and brick-and-mortar tracks and simulcasting facilities, even as the online technology siphons off the majority of bettors.

“This is where the system is really flawed,” he said. “It's an agreement between three parties. In Illinois, the track and the ADW provider negotiate the contract, and the third–the horsemen–is just the consenter. There are so many questions left unanswered. Obviously with the increased numbers of people using ADWs, the horsemen and the tracks get so much less of that it could spell doom for us. The framers of these ADWs intended for it to basically be a third to the provider, a third to the track and a third to the horsemen. But they take out fees up front, and those fees are unspecified in purpose and amount. What is an ADW fee? What does that mean? The racetracks don't ask the ADW to pay their security payroll and the electric bill. And the horsemen don't ask the ADW company to pay the feed bill and hay bill and straw bill.”

The Illinois HBPA signed a one-year contract with TVG to operate in Illinois, Watkins said. FanDuel, part of the corporate enterprise that operates the TVG racing channel and betting platform, is the southern Illinois track's equity partner to operate the sports book. While the company is not a partner in the racetrack, it received branding and naming rights as part of a contract that includes the long-term sponsorship of the St. Louis Derby, worth $250,000 in 2021.

Click here for previous TDN story on CDI's request for IRB approval.

The post IL HBPA Withholds Consent for TwinSpires to be in State appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

CDI Doesn’t File for ’22 Dates for Arlington

The July 30 deadline for applying for Illinois 2022 race dates came and went with no surprise move that might have buoyed the near-future fate of Arlington International Racecourse.

If anything, suburban Chicago's landmark Thoroughbred track inched closer to permanent closure Friday, because Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the gaming corporation that owns the up-for-sale landmark, failed to file even a placeholder application to race next year that could have been transferred to a buyer willing to keep the sport afloat.

Nor did CDI ask the Illinois Racing Board for race dates at any other location in the state, which corporate officials had hinted at doing as far back as a year ago.

If granted, such an application to race elsewhere could have given Illinois horsemen another venue at which to race while CDI reaped entitlements related to live racing licensure, like off-track-betting and advance-deposit wagering.

CDI had sparked a glimmer of hope within the racing community earlier this month when it was revealed that the gaming corporation had requested a 2022 dates application from the IRB.

But requesting a blank application never meant a track owner had to actually fill it out with requested dates and file it.

CDI continues to pursue what company officials believe are bigger-picture casino endeavors at two lucrative locations where CDI wants to expand its gaming footprint in and near Chicago.

Arlington and any associated gaming endevaors there by another operator would be viewed as a competitive threat to CDI's casino ventures, and CDI officials disclosed earlier this year that the corporation's preference is to sell the valuable 326-acre parcel to a dveloper who won't keep the property as a rcetrack, which it has been since 1927.

Hawthorne Race Course, the Chicago area's lone remaining Thoroughbred venue, also runs Standardbred meets, so tranferring all of the Thoroughbred dates to Hawthorne's work-in-progress racino is not currently workable.

Pretty much as expected, Hawthorne's management filed blanket Jan 1-Dec. 31 applications for both breeds, with the understanding that the details will be worked out later, largely contingent on what happens with the Arlington sale

CDI's sale process which is believed to have finished its bidding period with four known offers. Only one of them proposes keeping the track operational for racing.

A likely scenario for 2022 could call for Hawthorne to essentially flip its exisitng schedule of running Thoroughbreds in the spring and fall, instead picking up the warmer weather dates Arlington used to have while switching harness racing to the autumn through spring months.

The post CDI Doesn’t File for ’22 Dates for Arlington appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

ITHA: Refusal To Apply For 2022 Arlington Race Dates ‘Disappointing But Not Surprising’

The Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association issued the following press release on Thursday:

Continuing their campaign to sabotage future gaming opportunities at Arlington Park, track executives are refusing to apply with the Illinois Racing Board for race dates in 2022.

Arlington officials are well aware of interest from other parties in continuing racing at the state's flagship racing facility, as at least one group of investors has publicly disclosed its plan to purchase Arlington and continue live racing there. But if Arlington does not apply for 2022 dates by tomorrow, thereby preserving an avenue for a future owner of the track to pursue racing, then any new owner of the track will not have the option of racing there next year.

Under Illinois law, a dates application for the next year must be filed by Aug. 1. With Aug. 1 falling on a Sunday this year, the deadline moves up to Friday, July 30 – the last IRB business day before Aug. 1.

“Churchill Downs is writing the book on bad faith, so this latest move is disappointing but not surprising,” said Mike Campbell, president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

Since 2018, when it announced its intent to purchase its ownership interest in Rivers Casino, Arlington owner Churchill has devoted itself to eliminating the threat of competition that gaming at Arlington might pose to nearby Rivers. Churchill refused to apply for a license to develop Arlington as a racino, even though its lobbyists had spent two decades lobbying Illinois lawmakers for that privilege, and then insisted it would sell the track to another entity that would use the property for a purpose “higher and better” than horse racing.

In February, Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas Hayes told ABC7/WLS-TV in Chicago: “I think it's clear why [Churchill] did not choose to open a casino at the racetrack property – because it would directly compete with their majority interest in the Rivers Casino.”

ITHA President Campbell added: “Churchill's commitment to stopping any gaming at Arlington from competing with Rivers is the worst kept secret in Illinois. Company executives have practically contorted themselves to explain and justify their anti-competitive behavior while carefully avoiding any acknowledgment that their true motive appears to be eliminating the threat of competition from Arlington.”

With at least one group of reputable and credible investors poised to purchase Arlington to continue horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering – the highest and best purpose, without question, for one of the finest racing venues in North America – Arlington President Tony Petrillo told a local media outlet that Arlington has a racing dates application in its possession but probably will not file it.

“It's clear that Churchill Downs cares exclusively about corporate profit and that all other considerations are incidental,” Campbell said. “All we can do in this case is hope that Churchill will recognize the utility, for the sake of its interest in selling Arlington Park to the most capable bidder, of filing the dates application to preserve the possibility of future racing at the track.”

The post ITHA: Refusal To Apply For 2022 Arlington Race Dates ‘Disappointing But Not Surprising’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post