Hawthorne Financial Woes Imperil Chicago-Area Racing

Chicago-area horse racing faces a potential life-or-death deadline in mid-February as Hawthorne Race Course officials struggle to overcome a financial crisis that has left horsemen and others unable to collect money owned by the track. John Walsh, assistant general manager of Hawthorne, acknowledged to the Illinois Racing Board Jan. 28 the track currently is unable to pay its bills or honor checks that have been returned unpaid to horsemen. But he offered hope for a fix. Hawthorne's fiscal woes have snowballed since 2019, when the track won approval from the state to build a casino at the suburban Chicago location. After demolishing much of its grandstand in preparation for construction, financing fell through and despite annual promises by president and general manager Tim Carey that a deal was nearly done, nothing has happened. The situation reached a crisis at the start of the year when the IRB, citing Hawthorne's failure to meet financial requirements, canceled the track's harness racing. The IRB followed that Jan. 25 by suspending the license of Suburban Downs, which operates the Standardbred meeting. Walsh admitted Hawthorne's limited income currently is being used solely to make payroll and to pay for selected simulcast signals, leaving horsemen, vendors, and others in the lurch. But he said Carey has shifted focus in seeking a financial bailout and remains optimistic. "We have gone in a different direction in the last month and a half as far as getting the racino up and running," Walsh testified. "We're working with a new partner, someone nearby, someone that's trusted in Illinois and in racing, who really wants all of this to succeed. "So it's not going to be the same old, same old. We're actually working on something that is going to happen. I've never been so optimistic in the last four years." Board members and horsemen remained skeptical and Chris Block and David McCaffrey, respectively president and executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said time is of the essence as Hawthorne's Thoroughbred meeting is slated to start March 29. "We want to race this year at Hawthorne," Block said. "But to be clear, our greatest fear at this time would be to start the Thoroughbred meeting at Hawthorne on Sunday, March 29, only for Hawthorne then to abruptly end the meeting because it cannot pay the purses. That would be catastrophic for our members. "Thoroughbred owners, trainers, and breeders are business owners. They make business decisions. The business decision they're making right now is where to race this spring, summer, and fall. We absolutely must avoid a circumstance where our members commit to race at Hawthorne, move their horses there only to be stranded because the meeting had a premature ending. Our members would have nowhere to go then." He urged the IRB to take action if Hawthorne does not. "If Hawthorne is not forthcoming with financial information, we respectfully urge this board to gather that information and make it available so that owners, trainers, and breeders have reassurance that committing to Hawthorne this year is a sound business decision," Block said. "Above all, we need clarity. We need truth." Hawthorne's harness meeting, if it does get going, is slated to end Feb. 15 and the track in the normal course of business would "turn over" the racing surface for Thoroughbred training immediately thereafter. "We will not turn the track over to Thoroughbred if nothing happens" to fix the finances, Walsh said. McCaffrey said failure to stabilize Hawthorne's finances could be a death knell for Chicago-area racing. "John Walsh is a great guy and I'm hoping John's right because the alternative is not good," McCaffrey said. "There is a very good chance that the last race in the Chicago area has been raced. Imagine that. Washington Park, Arlington, Maywood. There's a very good chance that it could be over."