Now that Arlington International Racecourse has closed, horse racing in Illinois enters a new fight for survival Saturday, as the thoroughbred season opens at Hawthorne Race Course.
The new season brings some optimism, as race winners will get more money, and more horses have consolidated at Hawthorne in west suburban Stickney. But the shortened, splintered season, which will alternates between thoroughbred and harness racing, means some owners will leave for out of state and may not come back.
“It’s surreal,” said Mike Campbell, who stepped down this winter as longtime president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “All of us are stunned and disappointed. The racing calendar is totally dysfunctional. In June, the thoroughbred people have to go somewhere else.”
One positive, Campbell said, is that the Carey family, which runs Hawthorne, cares about the racing industry in Illinois. That is in contrast, he said, to Churchill Downs Inc., which closed Arlington after announcing a preliminary deal to sell the site to the Chicago Bears for a potential new football stadium.
The thoroughbred season will run only two or three days a week, from April through June. Then, Hawthorne will switch to harness racing from July to September, with thoroughbreds returning for the fall.
For each switch, workers must change the track, from the crushed limestone used for the harnesses to 8 inches of dirt for riders on horseback. Hawthorne is believed to be the only track in the country to make such a transformation, which takes several days and costs six figures.
The season also opens with fans who are still waiting for a long-promised casino at the track.
In June 2019, when Illinois lawmakers voted to allow six new casinos in the state, they also gave approval for horse racing tracks to add casinos to create “racinos.” Nearly three years later, there is still no casino at Hawthorne, and no word on when one may open.
Track officials have promised a $400 million redevelopment to transform the nearly 130-year-old track, but it’s been held up with little information about when or how it will get done.
Jim Miller, a spokesman for the track, remained hopeful construction would start this year. He described this as a transitional year.
“It’s a big change for the industry as a whole,” he said. “It’s a juggling act. Our goal, especially this year, is to make sure the industry survives and everyone can make money.”
Since Hawthorne no longer has to share off-track betting revenues with Arlington, its purses will be 30% to 40% larger, or in some cases twice as much as in the past, Miller said. Despite concerns over a lack of horses, there are more than 700 available at the track, and each race should get an extra horse to bring the average field to about eight.
Twenty years ago, the Chicago area also was home to Balmoral, Maywood and Sportsman’s horse tracks, all of which have since closed, largely due to competition from casinos and video gaming. Now the only other remaining track in the state is Fairmount Park near St. Louis, rebranded as FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing, where live racing was scheduled to return April 19.
The chairman of the Illinois Racing Board, Daniel Beiser, said he’s excited about the upcoming season.
“Obviously with the loss of Arlington’s race dates we were concerned, but with the increase in purse sizes at Fairmount and Hawthorne we are very optimistic about a strong future of horse racing in Illinois,” he said. “I believe we will see that Illinois horsemen will continue to race here not only this year but also in the future.”
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