One increase at the current Thoroughbred meet at Hawthorne Race Course that will be effective June 15-July 15 involves an 18% across-the-board purse bump derived from a claw-back of funds related to the closure of Arlington International Racecourse.

A separate initiative required passage of a bill in the Illinois Legislature on its final day of the session last month. That action transferred $5.1 million of a surplus in the state's Horse Racing Fund to purses at both the Thoroughbred and Standardbred meets at Hawthorne, plus the Thoroughbred meet at FanDuel Racing (more commonly known as Fairmount Park).

David McCaffrey, the ITHA's executive director, told commissioners at Thursday's Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting that while horsemen are grateful for any help they can get, the influxes will only provide temporary financial relief.

“This is a terrific band-aid,” McCaffrey said, speaking specifically about the money from the Horse Racing Fund. “Make no mistake, it's a band-aid on a gushing wound that is Illinois racing, because things are at their all-time worst right now.”

According to an explanation posted in the ITHA's website, After Arlington closed in September 2021, that track's corporate management “attempted to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars from the horsemen's purse account. Arlington eventually folded in its attempt to keep the money after ITHA pursued litigation against Arlington, compelling the track to release the money. ITHA is now directing the remaining settlement funds to Hawthorne purses, which will account for the purse increase from June 15 to July 15.”

The separate $5.1-million transfer comes from the Horse Racing Fund, which McCaffrey said is largely derived from a 1.5% tax on all bets placed on Illinois racing. Traditionally, that fund accumulates and operates at surplus, and it had grown to “about $10 million” by the beginning of 2023, McCaffrey said.

Starting back in January, McCaffrey said, The ITHA, the IRB, and other stakeholders had lobbied for the passage of a law that would direct about half of the surplus toward Thoroughbred and Standardbred purses.

The ITHA's website noted that the Hawthorne share for the Thoroughbred purse account will be $2.295 million, and that the increase from the fund will go into effect “possibly starting in mid-July, upon the expiration of the [separate] purse increase beginning June 15.”

Racinos became legal in Illinois in 2019, but they aren't up and running yet at Hawthorne or FanDuel.

“Hopefully, it gives us a bridge to get to racinos when they start producing some revenue,” McCaffrey said.

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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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Ian Russell, who worked for many years as travelling head lad to David Simcock, has also joined the trainers' services team as Max Pimlott moves across to racecourse services, working alongside Adrian Beaumont. 

Rob Hartley, Ian Russell and Barbie Hurrell will look after all European countries bar Scandinavia, which will be overseen by Max Pimlott, who also is the point of contact for runners in Hong Kong. Adrian Beaumont and Pimlott will also look after America, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

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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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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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According to executive director Domenic DiCera, the Illinois Governor and Senate are working to appoint replacement members, and McCauley will be missed “tremendously” by the IRB.

“Tom has been a huge support mechanism for the management team, both because of his depth of knowledge and history but because of the person he is,” DiCera told bloodhorse.com. “His racing knowledge and his character is off the charts.

“He was a source to go to when we needed any type of interpretation or background.”

Read more at bloodhorse.com.

The post Commissioner McCauley Resigns From Illinois Racing Board; Quorum No Longer In Place appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Thursday morning’s IRB meeting went into recess 43 minutes after it started after both sides stated that they are close, but not in total agreement over a contract that would cover both 2020 and 2021 racing at Arlington.

The recess is designed to give commissioners time to decide how to handle the situation. The IRB has repeatedly stated it will not grant race dates without a signed contract in place.

Arlington president Tony Petrillo testified that a deal could get done today within 30 to 60 minutes if the IRB mediates a last-ditch attempt to reach an agreement. He expressed doubt that a contract would get signed without the IRB’s involvement.

David McCaffrey, the ITHA’s executive director, testified that the new sticking point is what would happen to the contract’s terms if Arlington gets granted a different dates structure or simulcasting host status in the future after the deal is inked.

The meeting is set to resume at noon Eastern. This story will be updated.

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