Hawthorne cancels Saturday card

After losing partial cards (five of eight races Thursday, seven of eight races Friday) because of what were deemed unsafe track conditions, Hawthorne Race Course near Chicago on Friday night cancelled its entire Saturday card.

A winter storm Sunday night and Monday was followed by unseasonably cold air, but warming conditions beginning Thursday created problems with the track surface.

“Rising temperatures started melting the underlying ice on the racetrack, causing uneven footing for the horses,” Hawthorne said in a release.
Training Saturday and Sunday morning also was cancelled.

Hawthorne will bring back the 20 cancelled races on future programs, which will help the difficult task of filling cards with a depleted equine population. Among the cancelled races was the $50,000-added Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante, which will be run Dec. 8, according to a track official.

Racing is scheduled to resume Thursday at Hawthorne. Post time has been moved to 12:55 Central for the remainder of the meeting.