Plans for new Illinois racino spiked; 2020 race dates amended

The Illinois Racing Board has amended its 2020 racing dates awards after the state of Illinois said it had decided not to sell land in south suburban Chicago to a developer who planned on constructing a new harness racino there.

The IRB during a meeting Tuesday in Chicago approved a new racing schedule that omits Playing in the Park LLC, the company formed by developer Rick Heidner that planned to build a racetrack, hotel, and casino in Tinley Park next year. Tim Carey, president of Hawthorne Racecourse, was partnering with Heidner in the plan, which was to be sited on a former state mental-health facility.

The state’s decision to withhold the land from Playing in the Park came days after the Chicago Tribune published an exhaustive investigative piece on Heidner’s ties to financial services companies linked to reputed organized-crime figures. The story suggested that had the associations been uncovered, Heidner’s company, Gold Rush, could have been denied the license it was issued in 2012 to operate video gambling machines.

Heidner read a statement during Tuesday’s meeting insisting he was innocent of wrongdoing but the board, in the end, didn’t have to act on the Tribune story’s assertions once land for the project became unavailable.

The board, during its dates awards meeting last month, asserted that Playing in the Park had been cleared for licensing as a racetrack. The company still would have required licensure from the Illinois Gaming Board to proceed with the project.

Playing in the Park’s demise leaves Illinois, for now, at least, with only one harness racing venue, Hawthorne Racecourse, which also hosts Thoroughbred racing and could take on a more important role in that regard if Arlington’s parent company, Churchill Downs Inc., holds firm in declining to open a casino at Arlington. Arlington officials have said they’re committed to racing in 2020 and 2021 but there could come a point when Thoroughbred horsemen rely on Hawthorne to host race meets.

“The future of Thoroughbred racing depends on a harness track,” said David McCaffrey, executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “If you look down the road a couple years, if a replacement isn’t found for Playing in the Park, we could be down to one track, which is not a good situation.”