John Walsh, Hawthorne’s assistant general manager, acknowledged to the Illinois Racing Board on Jan. 28 that the track is currently unable to pay its bills or honor checks returned unpaid to riders. But he offered hope for a solution.
Hawthorne’s fiscal problems have increased since 2019, when it won state approval to build a casino in the Chicago suburb. After much of the grandstand was demolished in preparation for construction, financing fell through and despite annual promises from president and general manager Tim Carey that a deal was close, nothing has happened.
The situation reached a crisis early this year when the IRB, citing Hawthorne’s inability to meet financial requirements, canceled the track’s rigging. The IRB followed suit on January 25 by suspending the license of Suburban Downs, which organizes the Standardbred meeting.
Walsh admitted that Hawthorne’s limited income is currently used solely to make payroll and pay for select simulcast signals, leaving riders, vendors and others in the lurch. But he said Carey has shifted focus in seeking a bailout and remains optimistic.
“We’ve gone in a different direction over the last month and a half when it comes to getting the racino up and running,” Walsh testified. “We’re working with a new partner, someone local, someone trusted in Illinois and in racing, who really wants this all to succeed.
“So it’s not going to be the same old same old. We’re actually working on something that’s going to happen. I’ve never been more optimistic in the last four years.”
Board members and riders remained skeptical and Chris Block and David McCaffrey, president and executive director respectively of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, said time is of the essence as Hawthorne’s Thoroughbred meeting is set to begin March 29.
“We want to race at Hawthorne this year,” Block said. “But to be clear, our biggest fear at this point would be to start the Thoroughbred meeting at Hawthorne on Sunday, March 29, only to have Hawthorne abruptly end the meeting due to its inability to fund its wallet. That would be catastrophic for our members.
“Thoroughbred owners, trainers and breeders are business owners. They make business decisions. The business decision they are making now is where to race this spring, summer and fall. We must absolutely avoid a circumstance where our members commit to racing at Hawthorne and move their horses there only to be stranded because the meeting ended prematurely. Our members would then have nowhere to go.”
He urged the IRB to take action if Hawthorne does not.
“If Hawthorne does not provide financial information, we respectfully urge this board to gather that information and make it available so that owners, trainers and breeders have the reassurance that committing to Hawthorne this year is a good business decision,” Block said.
“Above all, we need clarity. We need the truth.”
Hawthorne’s harness meeting, if it does get underway, will end on February 15 and the track, in the normal course of business, would “flip” the racing surface for thoroughbred training immediately afterwards.
“We will not turn the track over to Thoroughbred if nothing is done” to get the finances in order, Walsh said.
McCaffrey said the inability to stabilize Hawthorne’s finances could be the death knell for racing in the Chicago area.
“John Walsh is a great guy and I hope John is right because the alternative is not good,” McCaffrey said.
“There is a very good chance that the last race was held in the Chicago area. Imagine: Washington Park, Arlington, Maywood. There is a very good chance that it is over.”
#Hawthornes #financial #problems #endanger #racing #Chicago #area