Illinois releases $3.5 million subsidy for Thoroughbred purses

The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced Friday it will fund a subsidy providing about $3.5 million in purse money to the state’s Thoroughbred racetracks.

The state government did not fund the subsidy, which is meant to aid owners of Illinois-registered horses and the Illinois-bred program, during the two years when the government operated without a budget. A budget finally was approved earlier this year, and the legislature subsequently was lobbied hard by the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association to again fund the subsidy.

The ITHA announced the release of the money at a members meeting Saturday morning at Arlington.

The money will provide a direct benefit to Illinois racing in the form of stakes races for Illinois-bred horses and by paying bonuses to owners of Illinois-registered horses in allowance races and claiming races of at least $10,000. It will indirectly benefit the general overnight purse account because state law requires Illinois owner awards be paid even when not funded by the state. During the time the state didn’t fund the awards, the awards were debited from the overnight purse account.

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The ITHA said Hawthorne already had pledged to add eight to 10 Illinois-bred stakes races to its schedule. Hawthorne also plans to bring back the Hawthorne Gold Cup this fall with a purse of $150,000. The Gold Cup wasn’t run in 2016 for lack of purse money.

Hawthorne’s overnight purses won’t see as great an increase as Arlington’s because Hawthorne’s purse account is overpaid by about $1 million. Arlington will end its meet Saturday with an underpaid purse account, and as a result will retroactively pay $250,000 to owners who participated at the 2017 meet.

Arlington undoubtedly will add Illinois-bred stakes to its early 2018 racing schedule since the money released Friday must be spent by the end of fiscal year 2018, which falls June 30. Arlington’s meet starts in early May, and its overnight purses will be positively affected by the funding of the subsidy, but to what extent the entire 2018 Arlington season benefits depends on whether state government funds the program again next year.

ITHA representatives said they presently had no idea whether this would be a one-time release or annual. Even if the program is funded again, the money made available will most likely cover just one year and thus be roughly half as much as was released Friday.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner temporarily delayed the release of the funds after the state legislature had approved the move. The money also was subject to 5 percent withholding Rauner has placed on all state-funded subsidies.