Arlington Park, Horsemen agree to begin racing on July 24

Following weeks of negotiation, Arlington Park and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemens Association have reached an agreement that will allow for the Chicagoland race track to conduct a live racing meet this summer.

Racing will begin at Arlington Park on July 24 without spectators.

Negotiations between the parties have been on-going with both sides close to reaching an agreement on separate occasions over the last two weeks. Regularly scheduled and special meetings of the Illinois Racing board have been postponed and rescheduled during the negotiating process.

An earlier sticking point had been the length of the agreement, with Arlington Park officials insisting on a two-year contract, while the ITHA asked for a single-year agreement. The parties later agreed to a two-year contract.

The agreement was signed by both parties moments before another special meeting of the Illinois Racing Board began on Monday.

“As of about 15 minutes ago, the parties have executed a mutually agreeable contract," said Commissioner Thomas McCauley. “It's very gratifying that there will be racing at Arlington this year and next year.”

While The agreement between Arlington Park and the ITHA calls for no stakes races in the 2020 summer race meet. Hawthorne Race Course assistant general manager John Walsh made a point that his track had incurred costs of about $239,000 per month for the three months its backside was open while Arlington Park’s remained closed.

Walsh suggested Hawthorne should be allocated some of the “dark host days” awarded to Arlington Park in an earlier agreement to offset the costs incurred by Hawthorne.

Dark host days involve revenues collected from off-track betting on days where there is no live racing at the racetrack’s site.

The debate on this issue was intense and eventually required the meeting to go into recess for more than 30 minutes.

Upon the resumption of the meeting, a motion for Hawthorne to be allocated some of Arlington Park’s dark host days was defeated by a 5-1 vote.

The motion for the board to accept the Arlington Park/ITHA agreement passed unanimously.