The Illinois Racing Board rejected Hawthorne Race Course’s request for racing dates for 2027, deeming its application “deficient.”
Despite going bankrupt, closing and selling their property this year, track officials filed a request to conduct racing next year, without publicly specifying where or how they could do so.
At the board’s meeting Wednesday, a racing board official said Hawthorne was given a chance to correct its application, but “remained deficient and did not comply with the (state law) act or the rules.”
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In bankruptcy court, Hawthorne previously agreed to sell the track for $90 million to a buyer that The Real Deal identified as Digital Realty, with plans to build a data center on the property. However, the Stickney Village Board put a six-month moratorium on data centers, and officials in neighboring Cicero also expressed opposition, leaving the property’s future uncertain.
As a result of the closure and sale, about 500 residents and an almost equal number of horses were required to move out of the track’s backstretch by the end of August. Most residents found apartments in the area, while some traveled with many of the horses to other racetracks.
Hawthorne had been the last remaining horse track in the Chicago area since Churchill Downs’ surprise closure of Arlington International Racecourse in 2021. State lawmakers gave Hawthorne power to open a casino at its track and in the south suburbs, and Hawthorne President Tim Carey repeatedly assured the racing board that he was on the verge of doing so, but never got financing or investors.
In January, the racing board suspended Hawthorne’s license to conduct harness racing due to its financial troubles and inability to post required surety bonds.
In contrast, the only other track in the state, Fairmount Park Casino & Racing in Collinsville, near St. Louis, was acquired for $35 million by Accel Entertainment in 2024. Accel announced plans to spend $85 million to $95 million to build a casino and make improvements, and has opened a temporary casino in its grandstand.
The racing board awarded Fairmount 73 thoroughbred racing dates for 2027, running two or three days a week from April through November.
Fairmount Park General Manager Vince Gabbert told the board that the track has increased its purses to about $116,000 per race day. Fairmount also plans to open new off-track betting parlors, or OTBs, including in Decatur and Springfield, and would like to open more OTBs in northern Illinois.
Hawthorne had a dozen parlors in northern Illinois, where customers could bet on races at other tracks, but Illinois state law requires a license holder to run live races to operate off-track betting. OTB licenses run through Dec. 31, or until there is action taken against the licenses. The licenses are tied to an organization license, and as of Wednesday, Hawthorne still had one.
If the Hawthorne OTB licenses close, Gabbert said, it would mean the loss of $2.5 million to $3 million in annual revenue.
Fairmount hopes to get state law changed to allow it to take over parlors in northern Illinois, Gabbert said, “once it’s deemed Hawthorne can no longer operate.”
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