NEWS
Illinois Racing Board cuts 2010 live dates
Posted: Thursday, September 24, 2009 6:38 PM
by Neil Milbert
Faced with an enormous budgetary deficit, the Illinois Racing Board took a slice out of the dates at the state’s Thoroughbred and Standardbred tracks when it drafted the 2010 schedule, which was released on Thursday.
“We are experiencing some extreme budget shortfalls,” Chairman Joe Sinopoli said as he opened the annual dates hearing. “The deficit will be $1.4-million if we have the same schedule as this year.
“We won’t have enough money to regulate. We can’t insure the integrity of racing if we don’t have enough money to do it.
Sinopoli listed several factors that contributed to the deficit. Among them were cutting the privilege tax at the tracks, giving tracks the breakage, the loss of a union arbitration case at Fairmount Park, and three years of double-digit declines in handle.
“As a result of this constant revenue stream from us to you, we’re broke,” Sinopoli told the track operators and the Thoroughbred and Standardbred collective bargaining agents.
“That’s kind of the main issue—to come up with enough money to draft a reasonable schedule.”
Fairmount Park took the biggest hit, dropping from 75 programs on the 2009 schedule to 52 programs in 2010, when its meeting is scheduled to run from April 27 through August 24. However, Fairmount did not race all of the days on this year’s schedule, halting the April 7 through September 26 meeting on August 15 because the riverboat casino impact-fee surcharge money for purses that it anticipated has been blocked by two lawsuits lodged by the casinos.
There is a possibility that the 2010 schedule may be curtailed even more dramatically. Running the dates assigned is contingent on persuading the Illinois legislature to increase Fairmount’s privilege tax from 2.5% to 7.5% and reaching an agreement with the track’s field staff (which is paid by the board) by February 5 not to exceed 75 work days.
If either condition is not met, Fairmount will vacate all but three of the live dates—April 27; April 30, when the Kentucky Oaks (G1) is simulcast; and May 1, when the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) is simulcast. Throughout the year, however, the track would continue to conduct off-track wagering and would be open for training.
“We want to have some live racing,” said Fairmount’s president and general manager Brian Zander. “It triggers a lot of other things that produce revenue at no cost to the state. But the live racing revenue for purposes of the [current] privilege tax is less than what the costs are [for the Racing Board]. We are voluntarily asking the legislature to triple the privilege tax we pay from 2.5% to 7.5%.”
Lanny Brooks, executive director of the Illinois Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said his organization concurs with Zander on the need to reduce the number of live racing days and increase the privilege tax.
Arlington Park and Hawthorne Race Course reached an agreement on their respective slimmed down schedules for 2010 and 2011, and, in keeping with the statutory provisions, the board rubber stamped their proposal. However, the 2011 schedule will be subject to review at next fall’s hearings.
Hawthorne has scheduled 109 programs, three fewer than this year. The schedule calls for the track to extend its 2009 fall meeting through January 2; conduct a February 12 through April 27 winter/spring meeting; and conclude the Chicago racing year with an October 1 through December 31 fall/winter meeting.
As a result, the Thoroughbred’s winter dark time on the Chicago circuit will be reduced from 7 ½ weeks in 2009 to 5 ½ weeks in 2010.
Arlington will hold 91 programs, down from 98 this year. Racing will commence on April 28 and continue through September 28.
Neil Milbert is an Illinois-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
