Amid Gloomy Forecast, Illinois Sets Dates

The Illinois Racing Board Sept. 27 approved a coordinated racing schedule for 2017 after hearing gloomy predictions about the industry's future absent an infusion of alternative revenue.

 

The schedule, for the second straight year, was put together and presented as a joint offering by Arlington International Racecourse, Hawthorne Race Course, and downstate Fairmount Park.

 

Hawthorne will open the Thoroughbred season March 3 and run through April 29. Arlington will run 71 programs between April 30 and Sept. 30 and Hawthorne will finish the Thoroughbred season Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, running a combined total of 59 race dates.

 

Hawthorne also will stage a Standardbred meeting, running 80 programs between May 11 and Sept. 24.

 

The only new twist to the schedule is a plan for Arlington to offer three "twilight" racing dates, coordinating marketing and meshing scheduling and simulcasting with harness races at Hawthorne. The tracks said they are working on details, including the exact dates.

 

There were no objections to the schedule, which was approved by a 9-0 commission vote.

 

Before the vote, however, the tracks and horsemen's groups sounded the alarm that steep declines in purse structure over the past three years are driving down the horse population, shortening field size, and escalating reductions in wagering on the Illinois product.

 

Chris Block, a board member of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said his anecdotal evidence leads him to fear there will be fewer than 1,000 horses on the Arlington backstretch during the summer of 2017, down from about 1,300 this year and as many as 1,800 just three or four years ago.

 

"I've talked to a lot of trainers about next year and, personally, I'm scared to death a lot of the big trainers are not coming back or will be bringing a lot fewer horses," he said.

 

He also said state budget cuts and reduced racing opportunities have seriously impacted the Illinois breeding industry. He estimated fewer than 200 foals will be registered in Illinois in 2017, while Indiana, where the state-bred program is fueled by gaming revenue, could see as many as 1,000 foal registrations. The 2015 Illinois foal crop was 300, down from more than 1,000 as recently as 2001.

 

"Who could have imagined, even a few years ago, that we'd be in this position?" he asked.

 

The Illinois racing industry has struggled for years to win legislative approval of a gaming expansion that would permit casinos at tracks. Former Gov. Pat Quinn twice vetoed gaming bills but his successor, Gov. Bruce Rauner, has expressed general approval for the concept. Gaming legislation, however, joins a long list of programs stalled in the Capitol while Rauner and the legislative leaders engage in a years-long standoff that has prevented the passage of even a state budget.

 

Block said horsemen are urging everyone involved in racing to "pull out all the stops, reach out to all their contacts, to pursue passage of some sort of legislation that would increase purses.

 

"We're literally hanging on for a gaming bill," he added.

 

While there has been discord within the industry for many years, Arlington Chairman Richard L. Duchossois noted that two years of harmony should send a message to lawmakers.

 

"We all have to be together and work as one unit," Duchossois said. "The first steps have been taken. All the tracks are together."

 

Hawthorne president Tim Carey said the coordinated schedule has worked as a stopgap measure. "We kept people working. We kept races running," he said.

 

IRB Chairman Jeffrey Brincat noted that during last year's dates allocation hearing, the status of Illinois racing was described as "at death's door" and asked if a gaming bill is the only viable solution to the downward spiral. No one offered an alternative.

 

The most likely timetable for legislative action is after the November election in the so-called "veto session" or in the so-called "lame duck" session in January just before departing legislators leave office. Industry lobbyists have teed up several options, depending on the lay of the land after the election.