Horses thaw out as spring meet opens

STICKNEY, Ill. – In race 6 on Friday at Hawthorne, you will find the horses Artic Vortex and Ice Attack, names that adequately describe the way things stand as the Chicago-area track opens its spring meeting.

While December and much of January here were unseasonably mild, bitter cold – call it an arctic vortex or an ice attack – descended in February. It compromised training for the horses wintering at Hawthorne, and with an influx of stock from Louisiana and Texas yet to arrive, the two aptly named horses in race 6 are among a mere 49 entrants on the eightrace first card of the meeting.

“We had problems training in February. It took its toll on the population, and my big outfits, the [Scott] Beckers and the [Steve] Manleys, tell me they’re not ready,” Hawthorne racing secretary Allan Plever said. “We have over 600 horses here now but probably don’t have more than a hundred or 150 ready to run. The good news is I have outfits coming in from Delta, San Houston, and New Orleans the next two weeks.”

They’d better hurry up and get here: Hawthorne’s meet includes just 17 race days. There’s racing Fridays and Saturdays through April 6, after which Thursdays are added through closing day, April 27. First post is 3:10 p.m. Central, and most programs will have eight races, though Plever said he’d use nine at times given adequate entries while remaining within budgetary constraints.

Those constraints remain sharp. There are no stakes races at the meet, and Hawthorne, as it did last fall and spring, will offer only about $100,000 in purses per card. Illinois owners awards bump that number up $8,000 or $10,000 per day, but that’s still insufficient to be considered sustainable in the longer term.

Hawthorne officials know that, and the track – and Illinois racing generally – is hanging on, hoping for a revenue stream beyond mere handle and the relatively small owners-awards subsidy that can meaningfully raise purses.

Hawthorne and downstate Fairmount Park last year began the formal process of obtaining historical-racing machines, but that is a Plan B to be pushed forward only if the Illinois state government doesn’t pass general gambling expansion legislation during 2019. Racing interests here believe a change in the governorship last year and a new Chicago mayor this year increase the chance of that happening, but what form and to what degree gambling expansion would aid racing remains uncertain.

Heading the early-season jockey colony is Jose Valdivia, the Arlington kingpin who doesn’t usually show up in these parts until late April. Valdivia rode briefly at the Fair Grounds meet before shifting to Oaklawn for the bulk of the winter and now is reunited with agent Steve Leving in Chicago. Also based here this meet are veteran riders Chris Emigh, Julio Felix, and Carlos Marquez Jr.

Hawthorne’s first turf races are scheduled for April 11, but to make that date, the track can’t afford any more polar vortices or ice attacks.