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Arlington, Hawthorne granted meet extensions

Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 3:40 PM

by Neil Milbert
 
Arlington Park received a September extension to its summer meeting next season and Hawthorne Race Course received permission to add two weeks in January to its fall/winter meeting when the Illinois Racing Board drafted a compromise 2008 schedule after hearings on Tuesday.
 
Arlington had sought to open on Kentucky Oaks (G1) day, May 2, and race through Columbus Day, October 13.
 
But, fearing that the later dates would have a negative impact on the role of the Hawthorne Gold Cup (G2) as a prep for the Breeders' Cup Classic Powered by Dodge (G1), board chairman Joe Sinopoli's asked his colleagues to approve a schedule calling for Arlington to race May 2 through September 24 and it passed by a 7-to-3 vote.
 
"A slight adjustment is warranted," Sinopoli said. "The board should do all it can to foster Arlington's momentum. But this will enable Hawthorne to run the Gold Cup on September 27.”
 
Arlington's schedule calls for four-day racing weeks from May 2 through June 14 and September 7-24. During the remainder of the meeting, there will be five programs weekly.
 
Hawthorne's 2007 meeting, which runs from September 21 through December 31, was extended to January 13, 2008, on an experimental basis. The rationale behind Hawthorne's request is that the extension will provide an incentive for horsemen to stay at the track during the winter recess in the schedule and prepare for the resumption of racing at Hawthorne on March 7.
 
"This is an experiment," board member Timothy Martin told Hawthorne president Tim Carey. "We're going to revisit it next year. If you don't produce on those days, those days will be dark."
 
Fairmount Park was granted a 30-week, March 4 through September 27, meeting with a condition attached: if there are no legislative changes or court decisions that have a positive impact on purses, the track has permission to reduce the schedule to 20 weeks, from April 18 through September 1. The deadline for excercising the option is December 1.
 
In both cases, the schedule calls for three programs per week.
 
The board also took a step toward resolving a prolonged dispute between Hawthorne and Duchossois Industries Inc., the company controlled by Arlington chairman Dick Duchossois, over the fate of four barns at Hawthorne.
 
With Martin acting as the referee, both sides agreed to submit the matter to binding arbitration.
 
The barns were constructed by the National Jockey Club when it moved from now defunct Sportsman's Park to Hawthorne under a lease agreement.
 
But the National Jockey Club incurred an enormous debt in the unsuccessful attempt to convert Sportsman's into a combination Thoroughbred/auto racing facility.

In 2006, Duchossois Industries Inc. bought the National Jockey Club's $24-million unpaid note from the Harris Bank and foreclosed. The foreclosure put the National Jockey Club out of racing because it could no longer meet the statutory fiscal responsibility requirements.
 
Duchossois Industries took over the barns—which account for 800 of Hawthorne's stalls—and a squabble ensued with neither Duchossois Industries nor Hawthorne able to agree on a rental price or purchase price for the barns.
 
The 2008 Illinois Thoroughbred schedule:
 
Hawthorne Race Course (115 racing programs)—January 1-13; March 7-April 30; September 26-December 31.
 
Arlington Park (97 racing programs)—May 2-September 24.
 
Fairmount Park (90 racing programs)—March 4-September 27. (Fairmount does have until December 1, 2007, to exercise an option that would curtail its meeting to April 18-September 1).

Neil Milbert is an Illinois-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent