IRB Sets June 18 Deadline for Arlington Contract

The Illinois Racing Board has set June 18, its next regularly scheduled meeting, as a final deadline for a contract agreement between Arlington International Racecourse and horsemen, with the 2020 racing season at the showplace track hanging in the balance.

"It won't go beyond June 18, in my mind," commissioner Thomas McCauley said at the conclusion of a special IRB meeting that lapped over from June 5 to June 8. "And I'm sorry it will have gone that long. But it can't possibly go farther than that. There won't be any horses left." 

"I agree," said board chairman Daniel Beiser. "Come the 18th, it's gotta be decided one way or the other. It has to be that way."

McCauley presided over more than seven hours of face-to-face weekend contract negotiations involving Arlington president Tony Petrillo and Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen Association executive director David McCaffrey. He said several outstanding issues were resolved, but the parties remained at odds over a formula for allocation of purse money between stakes and overnights in the second year of a contract.

The issue "has a few prongs to it," McCauley admitted, but basically comes down to whether overnights or Arlington's signature grade 1 races, the Arlington Million and the Beverly D., would get precedence in funding in 2021. Neither race will be contested this year.

Lacking a contract, Arlington cannot open its backstretch, rehire furloughed workers, or set a starting date for the 30-day meeting it has proposed.

McCauley, McCaffrey, and Petrillo all expressed frustration at the breakdown of negotiations, but the reconvened special meeting ended without acrimony or accusations.

Looking forward to June 18, Beiser said, "Hopefully, there will be an agreement prior to that."

McCauley emphasized the urgency.

"Everybody should be aware that Illinois is bleeding its horse population right now," he said. "Horsemen just don't know what's happening and one of the reasons—the main reason—that we wanted the special meeting was to get some certainty before the regularly scheduled meeting.

"We feel that every day the uncertainty remains is a hardship to Illinois horsemen and to everyone who depends on the industry in Illinois for livelihoods," McCauley continued. "So I'd urge us all to keep that in mind as a backdrop to these critically urgent negotiations and the dire need for a conclusion one way or the other." 

If no agreement is reached and Arlington does not set a starting date for racing, the option on the table is to restructure the 2020 schedule in favor of Hawthorne Race Course, which is set to resume its Thoroughbred schedule in the fall.

The ITHA has urged the IRB that, in absence of a commitment from Arlington, "dark day" simulcast earnings currently earmarked for Arlington be shifted to Hawthorne—an action that could have far-reaching consequences for Arlington's future.

Hawthorne has been stabling several hundred Thoroughbreds while waiting for Arlington to open its backstretch and also has agreed to forego taking several million dollars in "recapture" funds from its purse account to support the late-season meet.