It is morning in Illinois and the horsemen show up, the same way they do every day. No matter the day or the time, the horses need to be taken care of. Buckets are washed and refilled with fresh water, stalls are cleaned and bedded with fresh sawdust and the horsemen prepare for a day of jogging and training. Though the outlook for racing is bleak in the Prairie State, there is still a looming hope that the lights will be turned back on and horses will make their way back behind the gate at Hawthorne Race Course. While the situation at Hawthorne is unique to harness racing history, the stories of the horsemen racing at that mile oval in Cicero, Illinois, should resonate with every person in the harness racing industry, as it mirrors the months of jogging and training with no certainty of a future in racing during the times of COVID-19 in 2020. It's the same -  showing up day-in and day-out, not knowing of when the next race date will be announced, with the only difference being that the horsemen in Illinois don't know if it will ever return at all. When every other track in North America was gearing up for the new season in 2026, Hawthorne Race Course hit the brakes and released news that impacted the lives of hundreds of horsemen based in Illinois. The track is facing a financial crisis and in early February that led to the suspension of the harness racing license by the Illinois Racing Board (IRB) due to unpaid, bounced checks to horsemen and failure to submit required bonds. The fate of racing, both Thoroughbred and harness, hangs in the balance as the situation is worked out. Although early reports of the situation focus on management, owners, politics and law, it's important not to forget the ones on the ground facing the gravity of the situation. Horsemen have homes and lives based near the track, and it is not easy to uproot your whole world to start over somewhere else. It's similar to the story when Pompano Park and Freehold Raceway closed in recent years: either move out or get out. Move away from home and start again at a new track or get out of the business and start over that way. One of the people affected is Wyatt Avenatti, a third-generation horseman rooted in Illinois racing history. "My grandfather started racing back in 1968 and since then, his two sons, Tony and my dad David, both race in the state of Illinois," Avenatti said. "Now the third generation – myself and my three siblings, Autumn, Matthew and Lane – are all actively involved in Illinois racing. Whether that is by owning, training, or driving, we are all impacted by the current situation." Avenatti has been a regular driver at Hawthorne for the last eight years, making his debut on the track in May of 2017. He has routinely found himself in the top 10 performers as a driver. He and his siblings are all married with young kids and face the impact of the bounced checks, in addition to the lack of racing opportunities due to the cancellation of racing. "The last four or five years I have been one of the top drivers in the state and have been fortunate enough to keep improving every year. My stable of horses has continued to grow larger as well, bringing in new owners and investors in our business," Avenatti said. "Even through some trying times, they have all stayed very positive, but the situation with Hawthorne has changed everything. "Most everyone is waiting on different amounts of money and wonder if they should be investing in a different state and jurisdiction." Though Avenatti believes racing at Hawthorne has played its course, he is hopeful for the development of a new track in Illinois. "I personally believe that our time at Hawthorne Race Course is over, but I do not believe racing in Illinois will completely go under," said the 25-year-old driver. "There are a few paths to other options for racetracks that could present themselves, as long as the chips fall the correct way." In the meantime, and as a plan for the future, Avenatti has dipped his toes into racing in Indiana and Kentucky. "I have already been racing in Indiana and Kentucky, and I will steer my investors toward them. I really hope we figure things out here because everyone from my team would really like to continue racing in our home state," Avenatti concluded. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Also with generational ties to Illinois racing is Richard Finn, a fourth-generation Illinois horseman. "Like many, I got my start at the Illinois fairs and Balmoral and Maywood Park," Finn said. "I remember racing at Hawthorne with my dad back in the early 2000s. Illinois is where I consider my roots to be. My father drove the starting car at Hawthorne and my uncle Roy was the starter, so it was very much a family affair, even at Hawthorne. It became a second home." Despite the ongoing situation at Hawthorne, Finn has made the best of what he can with what he has, taking advantage of opportunities at other states. "Luckily, for the situation we're in, I've been blessed with so many friends that train out of state, so although Hawthorne has hampered my ability to train horses, I'm still able to own and watch them race at tracks like Hoosier and Oak Grove. As a driver, I've also gotten my foot in the door in other states," said the 36-year-old trainer and driver. Finn has driven since 2010, with Hawthorne at the heart of several of his over 1,200 starts in the bike and 740 training appearances. A regular driver at the fairs as well, Finn's story carries extra weight as he faced unimaginable circumstances when his daughter, Harper, lost her life at the age of five. The tragedy, which occurred at one of the Illinois fair tracks in 2023 and was caused by the starting gate, led to Finn taking time out of the bike. His return to racing was gradual with a focus on honoring his daughter, prominently displaying her name on his helmet and carrying her with him every start. In 2024, Finn returned to the bike a bit more, but only making half of the starts that he had in 2023. Despite having even fewer starts in 2025, Finn concluded the year with his lines reading Hawthorne across the board. "With what happened with Harper, it allowed me to take time off from racing, take a step back and look at what's important. What I found was how amazing, compassionate, and caring our community of horsemen are. And with that, I found that I don't want to just race horses. I want to be an advocate for the betterment of horse racing – better facilities, safety measures, and care for the horsemen, horses and patrons that come to enjoy our sport," Finn concluded. Hawthorne has had a long and full history, dating back to officially getting harness racing dates in the spring of 1970. The roots of the track, as Kurt Becker iterated, have included overcoming various challenges in the development of the facility and the procession of hosting harness racing. Despite these challenges, the track has always turned the lights back on and the races have gone on, but this time, it is uncertain whether these challenges can be overcome or not. The numbers can be read time and time again. The laws and the politics, the facts and the figures, can be broadcasted and analyzed, but all of those documents and all of that information do not tell the full story. They miss the most important factor: the people. The horsemen and the horses affected as well as their families, the fans, and everyone in between go unnoticed in the whole ordeal, despite being the ones feeling the full weight of the consequences. Whether or not Hawthorne Race Course resumes operations or joins a sad line of tracks lost is only something that time can tell, but no matter what, the impact weighs heavy on the horses and on the industry as a whole.