CHICAGO – Two days after the Illinois Racing Board suspended the state-issued license allowing Hawthorne Race Course to conduct an ongoing harness meet, the board held a regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday that provided no resolution to what local horsemen view as nothing less than an existential crisis. The IRB on Monday evening issued a notification that they had suspended the license held by Suburban Downs, the name under which Hawthorne conducts the Standardbred side of the track’s business, after harness horsemen reported that Hawthorne-issued checks were bouncing. That called into question with more urgency than ever before the condition of Hawthorne’s already shaky financial wherewithal. Six harness racing programs this month have been canceled over concerns Hawthorne could not pay out purses. While Hawthorne’s flat-racing meet scheduled to begin in late March operates under a different state license, there will be no Thoroughbred season, either, if Hawthorne can’t stabilize its finances. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. The IRB had requested that Tim Carey, Hawthorne president and CEO since 2005, testify at the Wednesday meeting, but Carey didn’t show up, leaving assistant general manager John Walsh to face a surprisingly docile board. Walsh said Carey didn’t attend because he was working to resolve the financial problems that are close to bringing down the Chicago area’s last racetrack. Hawthorne is paying their employees and entities that provide their most important simulcast signals, but nobody else. “I want all the horsemen to know we’re not happy with any of this. None of us are pleased,” Walsh said. “It is an issue with our bank.” Domenic DiCera, executive director of the IRB, said Hawthorne’s bank – which wasn’t named – had proven difficult to contact and had at times been uncompliant when requested to provide information. In 2019, the Illinois Gaming Board approved Hawthorne’s application for a license to build and operate a casino at the track, and for almost seven years Hawthorne and Illinois horsemen have held out hope that the planned racino could save racing here. Hawthorne began tearing down part of its grandstand in 2020 while announcing plans to open the casino by late 2021, but the project soon stalled, the grandstand partially razed, owing to financial concerns. Thus began a pattern that remains unchanged even now, at this crisis point, with Hawthorne assuring horsemen’s groups and the IRB that it was on the verge of obtaining financing or a partner that would kick-start the project. Track officials testified as much when the IRB awarded 2026 racing dates at its September meeting, and Walsh, offering nearly no details, went to the same playbook again Wednesday. “We have looked at different scenarios for getting the casino up and running. We’re working with a new partner, someone nearby,” Walsh said. “I’ve never been so optimistic the last four years.” Hawthorne has only about 400 stall applications for its upcoming Thoroughbred season, too few to realistically support a meet. Standardbred horsemen with race-ready horses don’t know when they’ll have a chance to run again. Both horsemen’s groups, which depend on the track for funding, are running out of money. Thoroughbred and Standardbred horsemen have money sitting in Hawthorne accounts that they can’t currently access. Jeff Davis, president of the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association, testified that in late December, Churchill Downs Inc. had obtained from a Cook County judge a $1.64 million award from Hawthorne for unpaid fees, though Walsh disputed both the amount and even the existence of that award. “We’ve sat here for months and listened to the broken promises. We’re just about at a breaking point,” Tony Simone, executive director of the IHHA, testified. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports Marc Laino, former executive director of the IRB and now a board member, proposed to DiCera that the board establish an account into which all Hawthorne revenues would be deposited, allowing the board to determine how and to whom the money was paid. DiCera replied that board staff already had begun exploring establishing such an account. “It’s time for this board to act,” Laino said. “If we don’t act now, we won’t ever act.” In the end, however, the board took no real action with regard to Hawthorne other than declining to approve a roster of racing officials for the upcoming Thoroughbred meet before knowing if there would be a meet. Walsh said he believed a resolution would come before February. Hawthorne is scheduled to begin turning over its racing surface Feb. 16 in preparation for the Thoroughbred meet. Time is running out. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.