Hawthorne opens with drop in takeout
More than a half-foot of snow could fall Friday in Chicago. By Sunday, for the first of 69 programs at Hawthorne Race Course’s spring-summer 2023 race meet, whatever comes down probably will have melted. Also coming down: Takeout rates at the Hawthorne meet. But not going up: A Hawthorne racino green-lighted almost three years ago.
Hawthorne’s website still touts the racino as “coming soon,” but the project, seen by many as Chicago’s last hope for sustainable Thoroughbred racing, has gone as dark as a late December afternoon in the Windy City.
Local horsemen this year at least can stick around through the summer. In 2022, the first season of Chicago racing since Churchill Downs Inc. shut Arlington Park’s doors forever, Hawthorne ran a spring meet that ended the third week of June. Just as the heart of the natural racing season came around, people had to head out of town. The good news: This race meeting extends all the way through Sept. 4. The bad news: There are only two cards per week during March, April, and May, with race weeks expanding to three days the rest of the season. With such limited opportunities to earn money, Chicago horsemen may have to periodically ship out of Chicago to make ends meet.
Hawthorne, still independently owned by the Carey family, is trying to boost flagging national interest in the racing product by dropping the win-place-show takeout rate to a North American low 12 percent. The track, located in the gritty near-Chicago suburb of Stickney, will continue to offer 15 percent takeout on pick four and pick five bets.
“We are expecting fuller fields, more turf racing, and very competitive racing all summer long,” assistant general manager John Walsh said in a press release. “The reduction in [win, place, show] takeout puts more into the bettors’ pockets and we believe will also increase the pools to benefit racing for horsemen in the state of Illinois.”
Fuller fields and more turf racing are all but ensured compared to the spring 2022 season, which averaged only 6.67 starters per race and featured 45 grass races. The forecast late-week snow aside, this winter has been extremely mild and dry by local standards. Horsemen that wintered at Hawthorne have a jump on readying their stock for early-meet racing, and if the weather holds, Hawthorne could begin carding turf races earlier than standard.
Entries for Sunday’s nine-race program weren’t exactly robust, with 69 horses passing the entry box.
Cards start at 2:30 p.m. Central. Hawthorne, in their release, touted the decision to avoid the crowded Saturday racing scene, where smaller tracks can get lost, by deploying a Sunday and Thursday schedule during the two-day portion of the meet. Yet the third day added to the race week starting in June is – Saturday.
Maiden special weights are going for $30,000 to start the season. The stakes schedule consists of 11 races, each worth $75,000. Hawthorne, the last track standing in the once-vibrant Chicago racing scene, is giving as much money away to horsemen as it can afford. And, a breath of fresh air, they’re trying to help their customers’ bankrolls, too.
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