Arlington Postpones Upcoming Meet Due to COVID-19

Arlington International Racecourse has joined the growing list of racetracks that have postponed upcoming race meets because of COVID-19.

The Chicago-area oval, which had been scheduled to open May 1 for a season lasting until Sept. 26, tweeted April 3 that "taking into consideration the continued public health crisis posed by the Coronavirus pandemic and the specific impact the virus has had on Illinois, we have postponed racing. We hope to have a revised race meet schedule later this spring."

The announcement comes approximately two weeks after Arlington notified the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association that it did not expect to open its backstretch as scheduled April 10. 

There is no horse racing currently underway in Illinois. Fairmount Park suspended Thoroughbred racing last month and Hawthorne Race Course halted harness racing under a COVID-19 "stay-at-home" order from Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker that limited public gatherings and closed nonessential businesses.

"We're not able to open our backstretch at this time, so a lot of this is in the hands of the government and what they are going to do in the near future and the far future," Arlington president Tony Petrillo said. "We're now quarantined, or sheltered in place, until April 30. So a lot of these things are going to be filtered out over the next few weeks. We hope to be able to give the horsemen a place to be able to stable and race here as soon as we understand what the environment is going to be and what conditions are imposed on us."