The Illinois strain of pity flu appears less virulent than the New York and Kentucky strains. This might be because Midwesterners, by nature, are easygoing – Second City people – while New Yorkers – “You can Make it Anywhere” creatures - are quick to speak out and Kentuckians – polite Southern gentlemen and ladies - tend to say what they feel by saying the opposite. In any case, the Illinois horse racing industry is threatening its own suicide. This is the same tactic that other jurisdictions have implemented in order to get state governments to help them raise revenues.
Ironically, Robert L. Evans, the CEO of Churchill Downs Inc., parent company of Arlington Park, may be partially responsible for producing the petri dish that incubated the new outbreak. Evans reported to the CDI board of directors at its June 17 meeting that he was confident Calder Race Course and Fair Grounds, two CDI properties with added gaming, could fare well and he noted that Churchill Downs with the Kentucky Derby had the operational bandwidth to prosper. Yet, he wouldn’t promise the same rosy outlook for Arlington.
Evans’s abandonment of horse racing isn’t the first time that Arlington Park has quit in the face of competition. In 1998, before Richard L. Duchossois sold the track to Churchill Downs in a transaction that made him its largest shareholder, Arlington Park shut down completely for two years. And how did that all work out? Not so special.
In a move that proved subsequently damaging, Duchossois told the State that he wouldn’t present racing again until something was done to counteract unfair riverboat casino competition. The State yawned, Arlington closed, and Hawthorne Racecourse, Sportsman’s Park and even Balmoral took up Arlington’s prized summer dates, producing slightly-below comparable handle. Consequently, business at the posh suburban track has never rebounded from its ill-advised sabbatical.
Horse racing fans have to go back decades to recall racing in the Land of Lincoln at its peak. In 1996, Cigar ran his undefeated streak to 16 in the Arlington Citation Challenge. In 1981, Arlington staged the first Million – a pioneer horse race with seven-figure purses. In 1973, Secretariat thrilled a packed house with an easy victory in the Arlington Invitational. Dr. Fager, carrying 134 pounds, ran a mile in 1:32 1/5 in the 1968 Washington Park Handicap. In 1955, Nashua beat Swaps in a match race at Washington Park before 35,262 fans. Chicago racetracks represented the epitome of summer thoroughbred racing before then. How far off the map they have fallen.
Despite its history, Mike Campbell, president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, told FOX Chicago News, “I believe it could all go away if we don’t get help from legislation.” A vote for racinos will come up in the fall, he predicted. But, in the meantime, Campbell is keeping the pressure on by reminding everyone how bad things have gotten. For example, 20 years ago, Illinois purses approached $100 million. Today, they amount to only $73 million.
Alas, racino advocates have projected that installing video poker and slot machines at the tracks will cause a rebirth. They claim the move will allow them to raise purses, add 1500 jobs and contribute as much as $300 million to the state’s annual tax fund. The Illinois budget is facing a $5.8 billion deficit. As for thoroughbred racing, it’s averaged $670 million in handle over the last 20 years. Yet, it’s averaged only $598 million the last five.
Regardless of the promises, Tom Swoik, a representative of the Illinois Casino and Gaming Commission, is leading a well-funded lobbying effort to block the racinos. “The gains will not offset the losses that will occur at casinos,” Swoik warned legislators. He has criticized the horse industry for overstating the facts, pointing specifically to one claim that’s irrefutable. Initially, the horse racing industry claimed that about 15,000 jobs were in jeopardy if horse racing ended. Now their forecast is 40,000 – a total not in the least bit surprising, considering that pity flu gets worse before getting better.
Evans, too, is not wrong in saying that horse tracks will perform better financially with income streams from complementary gaming. But he may be speaking on behalf of only one or two constituencies – his very own and the breeders who can’t sell their products unless there are places to store them.
To the pure fans of horse racing - a group that Churchill Downs seems interested in only tangentially, the placement of casinos on horse racing’s turf seems a little like filling the undercard of a championship boxing bout with mixed martial arts matches so that people will come for the sideshow. Employing a cure such as this may cause pity flu to subside. But a more dangerous, incurable disease might set in.
Join Vic Zast on a daily basis at Facebook.com/viczast and on Twitter.com/viczast. Read the first comment following this column to discover last week's "Comment of the Week."
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04 Jul 2010 at 10:55 pm | #
Jeff Rosen sent in last week’s “Comment of the Week.” His Comment #2 expressed fond memories of New York racing when the season was shorter. He warned readers that a prolonged Saratoga season wouldn’t satisfy them as much as a short Saratoga season. In addition, he provided two links to photos of souvenir copies of the last Morning Telegraph, which, if read closely, reveals that Aqueduct officials expected a crowd of 50,000 fans for the opening day of NYRA’s season on March 1, 1972 – a finding that’s both interesting and revealing.
You can read the entire text of Jeff Rosen’s Comment #2 at Vic Zast’s FastWords found in the Blog section at the right. Register your opinions of this column with other readers by posting your comment below.
05 Jul 2010 at 02:31 am | #
Hey Vic-
The “pure fans of horse racing” are not large enough to combat purse reductions, field reductions etc. that being unable to fairly compete with neighboring racinos in Indiana present.
You know this.
You make a living off the game.
Why do you continually insist on denying Churchill the opportunity to compete on equal footing?
05 Jul 2010 at 06:10 am | #
What is the Illinois Thoroughbred Horse Racing Association? And who is Mike Smith? Perhaps you mean the ITHA rather than the ITHRA, and maybe you mean Mike Campbell rather than Mike Smith?
05 Jul 2010 at 06:39 am | #
Thanks for bringing the mistakes to my attention, marcus hersh. You being an expert at Chicago horse racing will catch these mistakes faster than my editor, who must have had too many Mike’s Hard Lemonades at the fireworks last night before proofing this piece, or the FOX Chicago News staff that made the mistake in the first place.
Back in the day when horse racing meant something in Illinois, mistakes like this wouldn’t happen because the local media outlets would employ full-time turf writers to cover the sport locally. I corrected the inaccuracies.
05 Jul 2010 at 07:06 pm | #
What???!!!
So that the record is clear, I edit no copy before it is posted.
As executive editor, the role I accepted three years ago was to gather a small writing staff, development website features, procure ideas for commentary, coordinate occasional big event coverage, write as many as four columns per week and provide feature race analysis for five days.
I trust our professional staffers to be proficient in reporting and to do their own fact checking.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hersh, your comment is the first I’ve seen posted here in three years. Interesting that in all that time you could find nothing which merited a positive response.
I wonder if you ever saw this post and subsequent handling of the story on your company’s website posted from Gulfstream Park at 1:37:45 p.m. on 02/06/2010. Quoting:
“Some strange doings in the opener. Wondering if the stewards are looking into circumstances behind the winner of today’s first race, Bold Anna, who was eased in her local debut on Jan. 20 then returned 17 days later to post a game victory for owner-trainer Mike De Paulo and jockey Rajiv Maragh. Especially considering all the action this horse took at the windows getting bet down from her 6-1 morning line to be the 5-2 favorite at post time and while showing no published work since that previous performance. One would think this mare would have had to at least worked for the vet before being allowed to run back.”
Below appeared this advisory, apparently posted by one of your editorial staffers. To wit:
“The comments to this entry are closed.”
John Pricci, executive editor
HorseRaceInsider.com
06 Jul 2010 at 03:47 am | #
For the record, I edited my own column. I was the editor, not John Pricci, to whom I referred in my response to Marcus Hersh. I was trying to be clever in blaming myself for the mistakes and it turns out I wasn’t so clever at all, only confusing.
My research included a FOX Chicago News telecast on which Mike Campbell was called Mike Smith and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association was referred to as the Illinois Thoroughbred Horse Racing Association. I transcribed the telecast verbatim, then neglected to change the mistakes in my final manuscript before posting it.
Aside from these slip-ups, I believe that the piece reported everything else correctly. Most importantly, the main point of the column - that the horse racing industry in another state (Illinois) finds itself in need of casino gambling revenues to stay afloat - should have been clear from the start.
These aren’t the first mistakes that I’ve made, but I do hope they will be the last. Thankfully, I have readers that will correct me when I’m wrong; the system enables me to make corrections. Such is the vitality of the Internet.
08 Jul 2010 at 06:37 am | #
Dick Duchossois had nothing to do with the 1981 Million. That race was created by the late Joe Joyce, who guided the track through difficult times after the disastrous fire in 1985. RLD was majority owner of the track when the Miracle Million was staged 25 days after the fire, but it was Joyce and Sheldon Robbins who ran things.
11 Jul 2010 at 04:06 am | #
I am a harness horseman. I’d like to point out the inaccuracy of the statement made by Tom Swoik, the representative of the Illinois Casino and Gaming Commission.
His claim the horseracing only recently claimed the potential loss of 40,000 jobs (up from 15,000) is clearly false.
Previous versions of introduced legislation, including HB1918 (the 3% bill) that was passed in May, 2006 clearly states:"That Illinois agriculture and other businesses that support and supply the horse racing industry, already a sector that employs over 37,000 Illinoisans” from http://ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?name=094-0804&GA=94&SessionId=50&DocTypeId=HB&DocNum=1918&GAID=8&Session;=
Clearly an attempt by the casino lobby to cast aspersions on the horseracing industry, at a time when the true facts, as evidenced by State Law, should be noted.