CHICAGO – The Illinois Racing Board rubber-stamped a 2019 racing schedule previously agreed upon by the state’s three remaining regular racing venues during the board’s annual dates-awards meeting Tuesday in Chicago. By a vote of 9-0, the board approved a schedule very similar to the 2018 racing calendar, with the main change being the absence of a winter harness meeting at Hawthorne, which conducts Standardbred racing under the banner of Suburban Downs. The lack of a winter harness season helps Hawthorne’s winter-spring Thoroughbred meet, which starts March 6 in 2019 after beginning on March 30 this year. More Thoroughbred horsemen figure to remain here during the winter dark period, which begins after a program on Jan. 12. Even with the earlier start to its 2019 Thoroughbred season, Hawthorne’s live racing programs next year will decline to just 52 from 55 this year and 59 in 2017. Hawthorne races just two-day weeks March 6 through April 6 and three days per week during May. Its fall-winter season begins with three-day weeks on Oct. 1 before scaling back to two days per week in December. Arlington has a 71-day meeting in 2019, the same number of days as it races this year. Arlington begins racing the first Friday in May and closes after it’s Sept. 21 program. Fairmount Park outside St. Louis, Mo., was granted a 41-day season with permission to vacate days – as it has done this year – if required by financial constraints. The general state of Illinois racing remains tenuous. Illinois is one of the few racing jurisdictions in North America where purses are funded almost solely through betting handle. Tracks have for more than a decade sought approval to operate as racinos but consistently have been rebuffed by state lawmakers. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s surprise announcement that he won’t seek another mayoral term could complicate the push for statewide gambling expansion that might permit tracks to offer casino gambling. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner hasn’t supported the gambling expansion push, but his Democratic opponent in this fall’s election, J.B. Pritzker, is thought to be more open to such a plan. Hawthorne and Fairmount Park this summer began the process of attempting to bring historic racing machines, sometimes called instant racing, to their racetracks, though there are many hurdles that would have to be cleared for such machines to be permitted. Arlington says it is a neutral party in the push for historic racing. There will be just 71 days of harness racing in Illinois next year with Hawthorne hosting a meet running May 3 through Sept. 22. Dark-host days – days with no live racing during which the so-called host track takes in the majority of revenue from simulcast wagering – are distributed in 2019 exactly the same as this year, with 215 days to Arlington and 150 to Hawthorne. The IRB introduced a new commissioner, Jason Barclay, an attorney who recently was appointed by Gov. Rauner to fill out the nine-member board. Among other positions, Barclay worked with the Indiana Racing Commission under executive director Joe Gorajec. Before the racing dates were awarded, Mindy Coleman, a counsel for the Jockey’s Guild, went before the board to address areas of concern at Fairmount. Coleman said Fairmount had at one point this summer been conducting morning training without an ambulance present, a serious oversight that has been corrected. Coleman also expressed concern about insufficient licensed emergency medical technicians being on hand for racing and training and a lack of assistant starters during racing. Brian Zander, Fairmount’s general manager, told the board the track would work with the guild to address the concerns.