Hawthorne’s Carey Absent as Illinois Racing Board, Horsemen Air Concerns About Track’s Future

Instead, it was Assistant General Manager John Walsh who faced the music. And boy, did he sing a tune about the track that saw the IRB suspend its harness racing license earlier this week and has moved at a glacial pace when it comes to building a casino.

As far as I’m concerned, I’ve never been so optimistic.”

Hawthorne Assistant general manager john walsh

Maybe, considering where things stand with the embattled track, Walsh had no choice but to offer that line. Perhaps, after years of promises made by Hawthorne, the money to build a casino will really come through. Surely, this time, Hawthorne will get the hundreds of thousands of dollars it owes horsemen, some of whom have been involuntarily sidelined after committing to a track that has been forced to cancel an entire month’s worth of racing.

“I think everyone will be happy with what’s happening,” Walsh said, but added he had “no actual, real, intricate details” of what he mentioned. “This isn’t three months (from now). It’s not the end of the year. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen in the next two or three weeks. I believe by the February meeting, Hawthorne will have lived up to all the expectations that the state has given us.”

Walsh, by all accounts, seems to be well regarded by Illinois horsemen. Therefore, it seemed unfortunate that he was talking rather than his boss. Because, based on Walsh’s comments, the IRB did not need to hold a meeting Wednesday. It needed to stage an intervention, one that was long overdue.

Carey ‘Working’ Wednesday

While Walsh came offering more promises, Illinois thoroughbred and harness horsemen, along with some IRB commissioners, delivered stone-cold doses of reality for a track that has been forced to cancel its harness racing cards every weekend this month.

Horsemen want to race in Illinois, but we need more than hope. We need accountability, clarity, and a viable path forward.”

Illinois Harness Horseman Association President Jeff Davis

If Hawthorne can get its harness racing license back, the IHHA wants to see the lost dates restored. The inability to race now comes after more than 60 members reported checks totaling more than $582,000 had bounced.

The harness horsemen aren’t the only ones holding cold checks. Chris Black, president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, said his members are due $572,000.

Meanwhile, Walsh said he’s had an expense check returned, but his paycheck hasn’t bounced.

“I’m hoping they don’t,” he said.

Walsh told the IRB that the Carey family is “disgusted” by the “unexpected” turn of events that have happened lately. However, Carey himself was working on it Wednesday.

“Tim, right now, is somewhere downtown, working with professionals to get this solved,” Walsh explained.

New Hawthorne Casino Partner Identified

Just a few years ago, Carey and Hawthorne were considered the good guys of Illinois racing. State lawmakers passed an expanded gaming law in 2019, allowing the tracks to build casinos to supplement their purses and put them on equal footing with other Midwestern tracks.

Churchill Downs declined the chance, citing onerous tax rates that would not make it worthwhile, and eventually closed Arlington International Racecourse. Hawthorne, however, embraced the opportunity, giving both harness and thoroughbred horsemen hope for a brighter future.

Hawthorne received “preliminarily suitable” status for a casino license from the Illinois Gaming Board on July 30, 2020.

The project has been rolling snake eyes ever since.

Hawthorne has been unable to secure financing to move forward, and companies that performed initial work on the project sued for the millions they were owed.

But on Wednesday, almost five-and-a-half years to the date Hawthorne got its first approval, Walsh told the board and the horsemen in attendance there was good news.

“We’re working with a new partner,” he said. “Someone nearby. Someone who is interested in Illinois racing, who really wants all of this to succeed and move quickly.

“So, it’s not going to be the same old, same old; it’s this big picture right around the corner. We’re actually just working on something that is going to happen.”

Horse Racing Over in Chicago?

Color the horsemen, others in the conference room, or watching online, as skeptical.

The odds seem better, unfortunately, for the future ITHA Executive Director David McCaffrey laid out as a possibility a short time later. One that emerged from a conversation he had with an owner Tuesday night.

There’s a very good chance that the last horse race in the Chicago area has been raced. Ever,” he said.  “Imagine that. Washington Park, Arlington. Maywood. There’s a very good chance that it could all be over.”

McCaffrey likened the situation to being diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness. Not that he’s ever faced it, but that’s what it seems like for Illinois horsemen now. Then, you get a doctor who says he may have the answer, but we won’t know if it works for three weeks.

“I’m rooting for Hawthorne, because the alternative – particularly on the thoroughbred side – is really, really bad,” he said. “So, we hope that Dr. Walsh, God bless him, is right, and that we’re in a different spot in three weeks. But, for the time being, I don’t know what we have to lose, other than to hope that he’s right.”

IRB Chair Daniel Beiser had the last word on Wednesday, calling the lengthy discussion “sobering” but necessary. He added that paying the horsemen what they are owed must be the top priority.

And he laid down a challenge on what could very well be Carey’s – and Hawthorne’s – last chance.

“We don’t need empty words,” he said. “We need specifics, we need stuff that’s going to be verified, and we need it in writing.”

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