Hawthorne Race Course is counting on opportunistic scheduling, extended spring and summer race dates, and a dramatic reduction in takeout rate for win, place, and show bets to make a success of the Thoroughbred race meeting that opens Sunday, March 5.
The Illinois Racing Board approved the adjusted schedule at its January meeting and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association is all-in with the track's approach.
Hawthorne, the only remaining track in the Chicago area, this year has the benefit of six straight months of racing through the summer, maximizing the use of its acclaimed turf course. But that schedule also puts the track up against some of the strongest competition in the country. The track has factored both halves of that equation in its scheduling.
"We recognize who we are and where we are in the national picture," said Hawthorne director of racing Jim Miller.
Seeking a niche in that picture, Hawthorne has adjusted to offer racing on Thursdays and Sundays for the first half of the season, with a 2:30 p.m. post time—moving away from Saturday racing.
"We could see, even from this first weekend, on Saturday we'd have been up against Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita Park, and Aqueduct, all with Kentucky Derby (G1) preps," Miller said. "We'd have been invisible. And that would happen all the way through the Triple Crown. There's a lot less racing on Thursday, and with the later post time, we'll be the featured traffic after the Florida tracks are finished."
The move from Saturday also prevents any conflict with racing at downstate FanDuel Sportsbook & Horse Racing, the former Fairmount Park, Illinois' only other operating track.
The expectation of greater exposure works with another key element of planning for the season—a reduction of takeout on win, place, and show bets to a national low of 12%—in hopes of driving a big bump in handle. In recent years horseplayers and other experts, including several at the University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program's Symposium in 2019, have called for lower takeout on racing's most basic wagers (win, place, show).
"We hope to double the handle on Thursday from what we'd get on a Saturday," Miller said. "That can make up for the reduction in takeout."
Additional attractions are stacked Thursday programs, especially after the likely advent of turf racing in May, and five stakes races, including the return of the Hawthorne Derby June 25.
Hawthorne expects to have enough horses to provide big fields thanks to the decision to keep the track open for training during the winter. Several stalwart trainers have taken advantage of the opportunity to have horses ready to run from the start of the meeting and 69 entries were dropped for the nine-race opening day program.
The Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, which supports the schedule change, also strongly backs the reduction in takeout.
"We're ecstatic about it," said ITHA executive director David McCaffrey. "Today's gamblers are much more sophisticated than ever before; don't think they're not out there takeout-shopping.
"We applaud everything Hawthorne management is doing to try to drive handle. Whatever is better for the bettor. Anything that gives Hawthorne relevance in the overall market is to the good."
McCaffrey noted, however, that beyond driving national interest in Hawthorne's signal through the low takeout, it will be important to boost on-track handle, which sees a higher percentage go to purse accounts, and added gaming.
To put Illinois racing back on firm footing, he said, will require completion of the racinos conditionally approved for both Hawthorne and FanDuel, where percentages of gaming revenues would be earmarked to go directly to purse accounts. Neither facility is currently under construction although Hawthorne quickly took advantage of authorization to conduct sports wagering, which does not benefit purses.
"Until slots start producing money, we're dead," McCaffrey said.
A second critical issue facing Illinois racing is development of a harness track in the south Chicago suburbs. The gaming expansion bill signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in June of 2019 included both the racinos and the harness track but Pritzker later nixed the sale of state land for development of a Standardbred facility and the issue has been on hold since.
This issue impacts Thoroughbred racing. To accommodate horsemen from both breeds, Hawthorne in 2022 split its schedule into four segments, switching back and forth and devoting July, August, and much of September to harness racing.
For many years before it was shuttered in 2021, Arlington International Racecourse raced during the summer months while Hawthorne hosted harness.
