Arlington Opens State-Bred Races to Louisiana, Arkansas

Facing a virtual collapse of the state breeding industry, Arlington International Racecourse is converting its "state-bred" races to "states-bred" affairs, including not only Illinois-bred horses but those hailing from Louisiana and Arkansas.

In addition to providing additional horses for races that have seen dwindling fields, racing secretary Chris Polzin said the newly carded events will be considered "open-company" races, offering owners of actual Illinois-breds a chance at supplementary earnings.

Polzin expects the innovation to improve field sizes for affected races from around six horses to eight or nine.

Trainer Chris Block, whose family has been a staunch supporter of the state breeding and racing industry, praised the idea.

"I fully support it. It's an excellent idea for a breed that is struggling right now for numbers. Our foal crops are less and less each year, and I think Chris Polzin came up with an excellent idea," said Block, a director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

The number of registered Illinois foals has plummeted from 1,104 in 2001 to 178 in 2018, and the number of registered stallions standing in Illinois has dropped from 194 in 2000 to 41 in 2018, according to the Illinois Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Foundation.

Block said the move also should benefit Arkansas- and Louisiana-breds and their owners and trainers.

"After that meet in Arkansas in the winter, the Arkansas-bred horses really have nowhere to go. Now I think with this program we will start to get a lot more trainers shipping their Arkansas-bred horses here, and it's comparable competition," Block said.

And for Louisiana-breds, he added, "(Trainers) who don't want to run at Delta (Downs have) to ship and go run against Florida- or Kentucky-breds in open races, (but they can now) come here as well and have the benefit of running against comparable competition as well."

While there are many causes for the precipitous decline in Illinois breeding, including financial chaos in Illinois government the past four years, horsemen point to two major factors that have affected purse levels.

Purses, especially relative to neighboring states, have declined as the state has refused alternative revenue sources such as slot machines or casinos. Those sources substantially bolster purses in all racing states bordering Illinois—Iowa, Indiana, and Kentucky—drawing horses away from Arlington, Hawthorne Race Course, and Fairmount Park.

Illinois purse accounts also are reduced by "recapture," the program that lets the state's tracks recover from purse accounts the amount of revenue lost by the switch in wagering from live races to out-of-state programs after the advent of full-card simulcasting.

The Illinois General Assembly is expected to consider gaming expansion during the session scheduled to end May 31, but the state's racing industry is not united behind any one proposal, dimming prospects.