IRB

The extent of Hawthorne Race Course's financial troubles, and with it the enormous ramifications for industry stakeholders in the state, were made glaringly clear during Wednesday's Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting. On Monday, the racing board suspended the operating license of Suburban Downs, Inc., which manages Hawthorne's harness meet, for "failure to provide documentation demonstrating its financial integrity, and proof that they can meet the minimum standards" as outlined in state law. According to representatives from the Illinois Harness Horsemen's Association (IHHA) who attended Wednesday's meeting, Hawthorne--which is owned and...

With 2025 drawing to a close and the beleaguered Chicago racing community having gone two months since the last public update from Hawthorne Race Course regarding its long-promised but still unbuilt racino, you'd think the focus of Thursday's Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting might have involved some sort of formal request to know where Hawthorne stood on the oft-delayed project that the state legalized back in 2019 and is considered imperative for the future of racing in Illinois. At the IRB's Sept. 18 meeting, Tim Carey, Hawthorne's president and general...

Hawthorne Race Course and three of the track's key racing executives on Nov. 18 asked a federal judge to dismiss the main claims in a lawsuit brought by a former association veterinarian who recently worked the Chicago-area track's Thoroughbred meets. In a Sept. 12, 2024, legal complaint, Dr. Christine Tuma had alleged that her efforts to scratch over 80 lame or injured Thoroughbreds during 2022-23 were met with a purported conspiracy among track employees, other veterinarians, and state regulators to overturn her actions so unsound horses could be entered to...

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...

Christine Tuma, who formerly worked as an association veterinarian jointly employed by Hawthorne Race Course and the Illinois Racing Board (IRB), on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against those two entities claiming her efforts to scratch over 80 lame or injured Thoroughbreds during the 2022 and 2023 race meets were met with an alleged conspiracy to overturn her actions so the unsound horses could be entered in races. The lawsuit further contended that when Tuma reported this alleged conspiracy to state and federal government regulators, she was fired "in retaliation...

Purses will be on the short-term rise at the tracks in Illinois, thanks to a pair of recent money recovery efforts initiated by the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA). One increase at the current Thoroughbred meet at Hawthorne Race Course that will be effective June 15-July 15 involves an 18% across-the-board purse bump derived from a claw-back of funds related to the closure of Arlington International Racecourse. A separate initiative required passage of a bill in the Illinois Legislature on its final day of the session last month. That action...

Hawthorne Race Course will swap out Saturdays in favor of Thursdays for the upcoming June-through-Labor Day portion of its season, continuing a schedule switch that the Chicago-area track began with the current spring meet. The Illinois Racing Board (IRB) granted the change with a unanimous vote at its Apr. 20 meeting. Right now Hawthorne is racing on a Thursday-and-Sunday schedule. The changes will go into effect starting May 31, when the meet expands to three days: Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Post times are 2:30 p.m. Central. Jim Miller, Hawthorne's racing...

The Illinois Racing Board (IRB) on Thursday deadlocked 5-5 on a vote to allow Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), to retain control over simulcasting in 2022 at inter-track wagering (ITW) outlets that the gaming company currently operates under its expiring Arlington International Racecourse licensure. The tie in the voting meant the measure did not advance, and it did not come up for a re-vote. Several IRB commissioners and executives with the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) expressed sentiments that Illinois racing will be better off in the long run without CDI's...

After 31 years, James Fry is set to take early retirement and will leave the Newmarket-based International Racing Bureau at the end of December. He will be succeeded in his role of director of trainers' services by Rob Hartley.  Ian Russell, who worked for many years as travelling head lad to David Simcock, has also joined the trainers' services team as Max Pimlott moves across to racecourse services, working alongside Adrian Beaumont.  Rob Hartley, Ian Russell and Barbie Hurrell will look after all European countries bar Scandinavia, which will be...

For the fourth consecutive meeting of the Illinois Racing Board in the six months since Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), announced its industry-devastating intention to sell Arlington International Racecourse for "non-horse racing" purposes, the 10-member board on Tuesday remained stunningly silent on the prospect of suburban Chicago's premier Thoroughbred venue going dark forever after Sept. 25. How pronounced was the "elephant in the room" syndrome during the IRB's one-hour Aug. 17 teleconference? After listening to impassioned pleas from the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) and members of Arlington's backstretch community for...

For the third time in two weeks, representatives from Arlington International Racecourse and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) arrived at a crucial Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting without a signed contract for the 2020 meet, again putting in jeopardy the already delayed and curtailed summer racing season at suburban Chicago's premier track. Thursday morning's IRB meeting went into recess 43 minutes after it started after both sides stated that they are close, but not in total agreement over a contract that would cover both 2020 and 2021 racing at...

In a move that seemed to catch some industry stakeholders off guard Friday, the Illinois Racing Board (IRB) deferred voting on approving a long-awaited plan to belatedly start the 2020 race meet at Arlington International Racecourse, citing the lack of a contract between the track and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) as the sole reason. Friday's "special" meeting had been convened primarily for the purpose of getting Arlington back up and running after months of squabbling between the horsemen and the track, plus the COVID-19 pandemic that caused Arlington...