Hawthorne drops plan to add Mondays to racing schedule

Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney, Illinois, will ask the Illinois Racing Board on Thursday for approval to drop the pending addition of Mondays to its live racing schedule, according to horsemen’s officials.

The request will be the third in as many years by the track to amend its live racing schedule midway through the year to remain at two live racing days a week. According to David McCaffrey, the executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, horsemen have signed off on the plan.

“We’re a horsemen’s association, so giving back a day is anathema to us, because we live to race,” McCaffrey said. “Obviously, we are not happy about it, but we’re also realistic. There are not the horses to fill 24 races a week.”

Hawthorne has been running on Saturdays and Sundays since the meet opened in late March. Last year, when dates were awarded, the track asked for approval to add Mondays to the schedule in August, but those plans were always dependent on whether the track made progress on a stalled plan to develop a casino on the site.

McCaffrey said that there are currently 650 horses on the grounds, down from approximately 750 at this time last year.

“We don’t have enough for two days right now,” he said.

Hawthorne officials, who have not returned a phone call, have said that a deal leading to the resumption of construction on the casino is pending, but no concrete plans have materialized. The track began planning for a casino in 2019, shortly after the state legislature authorized casinos at parimutuel facilities.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.