Fairmount Park

Fairmount Park in Illinois
Trainer Butler, Suspended for Having Employee's Thyro-L in Barn, Sues HISA over Definition of 'Possession'

The Illinois-based trainer Gerald Butler, who is currently suspended 20 months and was fined $10,000 after a Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA)'s arbitration panel for Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program (ADMC) matters ruled in February that he possessed the banned substance levothyroxine (Thyro-L) in his Fairmount Park barn last summer, sued HISA in federal court July 3, seeking a stay of his penalties in a case that challenges the  definition of the word "possession." According to the sequence of events described in the arbitrator's decision, on June 13, 2024,...

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Award Winning Artist Nelly Purchases National Thoroughbred League Team, Moves Base to St. Louis

St. Louis native and multi-diamond, award winning artist Nelly has taken a significant ownership role in a National Thoroughbred League (NTL) team that will move to St. Louis from its original Seattle base, the group announced Monday. Renamed as the "Nellies" in honor of its newest owner, the team is an expansion of the rapper's involvement after having been an early investor in the venture. Nelly will also serve as host of the NTL's Nelly Cup at Fairmount Park Saturday, July 19 for the track's centennial celebration. There will be...

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With Momentum on its Side, National Thoroughbred League Looks to Have Its Biggest Year in 2025

The National Thoroughbred League (NTL), which is looking to bring the team concept to horse racing, has had more than its fair share of growing pains since it started in 2023. The series starts up again on May 10 at Pimlico and league organizers are confident the 2025 version of the NTL will be the biggest and most successful so far. "We definitely have momentum on our side and we're offering good purses," said NTL co-founder Randall Lane. "It's a win-win. The horses will be  running for good purses and...

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One Hundred Years In, the Best May be Yet to Come at Fairmount Park

They've been racing at Fairmount Park, which opened its doors for business on Sept. 26, 1925, now for 100 years. For most of those years, the odds have been stacked against the little track in Collinsville, Illinois. Tracks without revenue from casinos and with a poor racing product usually don't last that long. But for all those years, Fairmount kept grinding away. For horsemen and track owners, it was a battle to survive. But survive they did and now Fairmount has a new lease on life and there are reasons...

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How I Got Hooked On Racing: Rocco Landesman

How did we get hooked on this sport? We all have stories about how our love affair developed and blossomed. The TDN reached out to numerous notable people in the industry to get their stories to find out how they got hooked and stayed hooked on the sport. Rocco Landesman, Broadway Producer and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts I've always been an excitement junkie. I love the risk, love the adrenaline you get from that. I've had a career in the Broadway Theater and there's nothing...

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Still Reeling from Arlington Closure, Illinois Racing Sees Fairmount Evolving as Source of Optimism

Thursday's Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting, at which 2025 race dates were awarded, yielded almost the exact same headline and summation of how the very same commission meeting unfolded last year: Illinois racing is still struggling to recover from the twin blows of the 2021 closure of Arlington International Racecourse and the inability of the state's two surviving Thoroughbred venues--Hawthorne Race Course and Fairmount Park (AKA FanDuel Sportsbook & Horse Racing)--to follow through with building their proposed racinos that were legalized back in 2019. Yet while last year's IRB annual...

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Week In Review: August Trip to Jersey Shore Could Pay Off Come November

A generation ago, the Philip H. Iselin S. used to be the premier race of the summer at Monmouth Park. Even while cycling through several name changes, the then-handicap carried Grade I status between 1976 and 1996 and a purse that swelled to $500,000 for a few years. Its importance as an August fixture for top older routers merited regular broadcasts on national TV, and the race's roster of winners boasted such standouts as Spectacular Bid, Alysheba and Skip Away. In decline ever since, the Iselin had already levelled out...

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Dave Johnson: What a Performance!

Maybe our sport is still capable of bringing together four such people round a dinner table. But you have to doubt it. "They were comparing the theaters that they had played on the Vaudeville circuit," Dave Johnson recalls. "Which had the best backstage dressing rooms? Which had the best eating places, that you could walk to still with your costume and makeup on?" These memories were being shared between Johnson's mother and Fred Astaire. Moreover, both of those who were listening on, fascinated, had remarkable stories of their own: Astaire's...

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With '25 the New Target for Racinos, Optimism Accompanies '24 Illinois Race Dates

Illinois racing is still struggling to recover from the twin blows of the 2021 closure of Arlington International Racecourse and the inability of the state's two surviving Thoroughbred venues--Hawthorne Race Course and FanDuel Sportsbook & Horse Racing--to follow through with building their proposed racinos that were legalized back in 2019. Yet Thursday's Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting was conducted with a noticeably welcome tone of cautious optimism, as commissioners unanimously approved 2024 race dates against the backdrop of revamped racino construction schedules at both venues that could mean gaming revenue...

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The Week in Review: Before Feasting Upon Thanksgiving Fare, Chew On This

Last week's headlines had little to do with on-track action. This coming week though, we awaken from the sport's annual post-Breeders' Cup snooze with an eye toward decent Thanksgiving weekend racing and on-the-horizon stakes that could add a touch of intrigue to the tail end of the 2020 season. But before you feast upon the holiday fare, chew on these side dishes that anchored the last seven days of the news cycle (plus a few other tidbits that didn't land on the front pages): Last Tuesday we learned via federal...

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FanDuel Announces Multimillion Dollar Investment in Fairmount Park

FanDuel Group has announced plans to make a multimillion dollar investment in Fairmount Park Racetrack in Collinsville, IL. Under the terms of the agreement, Fairmount Park Racetrack will be rebranded as FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing. In addition, the company plans a full revitalization of the venue including the opening of a FanDuel Sportsbook retail location. The agreement signifies FanDuel Group's first investment in a race track. FanDuel Group will work with William Stiritz and Associates to revitalize the 95-year-old track including significant upgrades to the facility and the establishment...

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Illinois Grants 2021 Dates Amid Distrust for Arlington's Corporate Ownership

Citing distrust in Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the gaming corporation that owns Arlington International Racecourse, the leadership of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) on Sept. 16 asked the Illinois Racing Board (IRB) to impose a condition on 2021 race dates that would withhold millions of dollars in purse fund "recapture" money from the track if it did not end up racing its applied-for 68 days next year. The IRB, which was meeting with three newly appointed commissioners for the first time on Wednesday, probed Arlington president Tony Petrillo about...

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