Illinois Board Has Tough Call on 2015 Dates

The future of Illinois racing hangs in the balance as the Illinois Racing Board ponders a 2015 racing schedule for the Chicago area. But the embattled Thoroughbred tracks have diametrically opposed views about what that future should be.

 

Illinois racing, said Arlington International Racecourse chairman Richard L. Duchossois, "is just about ready to collapse. If we go on for the next two years in the way we have for the last 10 or 11 years, we won't have any industry."

 

 Arlington wants all the revenue generated by simulcasting during days when there is no live racing in the Chicago area in 2015--about  $6.5 million, according to undisputed estimates by Arlington officials. Without that revenue, said general manager Tony Petrillo, overnight purses during a 79-day 2015 meeting would have to be cut from this year's $186,000 a day to about $100,000 at a time when Arlington tries to compete with Churchill Downs, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course.

 

But to give that money to Arlington, the IRB would have to strip Hawthorne Race Course of "dark day" simulcast revenue and drastically curtail its spring and fall meetings. In that event, Hawthorne Race Course president Tim Carey said, his track might have to close after 105 years of operation. "If Arlington's schedule were adopted, we'd have to look at it," he said of closing. "But we cannot make those decisions today."

 

Carey said he envisions some form of alternative revenue becoming available to relieve the industry's severe economic pinch—authorization for slot machines at tracks, other gaming or a renewal of a tax on the state's high-grossing casinos. "I'm confident that something's going to be done," he said.

 

The crisis, however, has come to pass because nothing has been done for the past several years within state government. Revenue from a now-expired casino tax—which provided Arlington alone with some $7.9 million in purse money this year—has dried up. And two gaming expansion bills that would have authorized slots at tracks were vetoed by Gov. Pat Quinn.

 

Several commissioners questioned whether Arlington could run a successful summertime meeting without having a viable spring season at Hawthorne to keep horses in the area during the early months of the year.

 

Under questioning by commissioner Kathy Byrne, Petrillo said Arlington could be "winterized" to run year-round, although that is not part of the track's planning. And downstate Fairmount Park presented an optional schedule that would beef up its dates and purses during the first few months of the year if Hawthorne does not run in the spring. However, that would require that Fairmount find substantial new revenue either from within the industry or from new sources.

 

The Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association's board of directors has voted 11-1 that it would "like to see a comparable award of dates for 2015 as was awarded in 2014," executive director Glen Berman testified. Asked if that means the organization favors Hawthorne's request, he said, "That's another way of saying it."

 

Asked how the tracks could fund an extension of the current schedule, Berman said, "Cutting stakes probably will be necessary to support the overnight schedule."

 

Petrillo, however, said Arlington already is planning to cut up to $1.7 million from stakes purses to help keep overnights at this year's level--even if it gets the dark-day revenue it has requested.

 

Hawthorne has asked to conduct live racing from Jan. 1 through April 27, then from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. Arlington's request is for live racing from April 20 through Sept. 30. But the Arlington request for "dark day" revenue if approved as requested would limit Hawthorne's live racing to the periods between March 15 and April 20 and between Oct. 1 and Nov. 15.

 

The Illinois General Assembly may consider gaming expansion at its fall veto session, which is held after the Nov. 4 general election. The IRB, however, is mandated to approve a schedule at its Sept. 30 meeting.