Illinois board will try to hammer out contentious 2026 schedule
After two months of negotiations, Hawthorne and Fairmount Park still have not come to terms on 2026 Thoroughbred racing dates, so state regulators will be called on Thursday to finish the job.
“We are getting close on agreements but nothing concrete,” said Fairmount Park general manager Vince Gabbert, who also is a senior vice president for track owner Accel. “I think it will get resolved tomorrow.”
The Illinois Racing Board meets Thursday at 11 a.m. EDT in Chicago with next year’s racing calendar being the only new item on its agenda.
One influential trainer said there has been no shortage of dialogue between Hawthorne to the north in Chicagoland and Fairmount to the south near St. Louis.
“We’ve gone through basically 10-plus alterations, and we can’t come to an agreement on what we think is the best schedule,” said Jim Watkins, president of the Illinois Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which covers Fairmount Park.
Watkins and Gabbert represent one side in the talks. Hawthorne president Tim Carey and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association represent the other.
Lacking a compromise, 2026 could be a repeat of 2025. The two tracks’ racing dates have overlapped for most of this year. Hawthorne’s 68-day Thoroughbred meet, run mostly Sundays and Thursdays, began March 27 and ends Nov. 2. Harness racing is run there from November through February. The 56 days at Fairmount, usually Tuesdays and Saturdays, started April 22 and end Nov. 1.
“They want to work their calendar (at Hawthorne) into leaving when Fair Grounds starts (Nov. 20 in New Orleans) and opening up when Fair Grounds ends (March 22) so that they can get those horses from there,” Watkins said. “I’m more concerned about creating a circuit in Illinois.”
The agenda for Thursday’s IRB meeting said only that there will be an “award of 2026 organization licenses and allocation of 2026 race dates.”
Asked if there would be an additional packet of information before the meeting, board spokesperson Bob Denneen texted Horse Racing Nation to say, “The agenda is posted on the website. There will be a press release after the hearing. ... There are no other documents for public distribution.”
A spokesperson for Hawthorne said, “We will see come Thursday morning.”
A midday call to ITHA executive director David McCaffrey was not returned.
Watkins said it has been good that cash-strapped Hawthorne and the ITHA have taken part in the scheduling discussions despite being at odds over a casino that the track has promised but not delivered.
“The biggest positive is that last year at the meeting, there was absolutely no communication or collaboration between north and south,” Watkins said. “The last two months we’ve been in some conference calls.”
At least one member of the IRB agrees that overlapping dates are counterproductive in Illinois.
“Overlapping race dates between tracks is just not efficient. It’s harmful,” Patty Saccone said at a July 17 meeting. “It divides our already strained horse population, forces trainers to choose between venues and dilutes the quality of both racing programs. When Illinois competes with itself, we lose all ground. Race dates must not overlap. We need coordination, not competition between tracks, if we’re serious about rebuilding this industry.”
“We’ve got 1,300 horses housed here in the state of Illinois,” Watkins said. “We’ve just got to figure out a way to use them and not compete for them. That was a biggie. We’re looking to maximize the crowds when we get down there. They’re wanting to maximize the turf course (which Hawthorne has and Fairmount does not). Of course we’re wanting to help Illinois-breds by having more of a link to the overall state calendar. But it just isn’t working out.”