Officials said they planned to begin a Thoroughbred meet in the first 10 days of April.
A federal judge in an Illinois bankruptcy court on Wednesday approved motions that will allow Hawthorne Racecourse in Stickney to tap a line of credit to pay back wages to its employees and convert its racing surface from a Standardbred track to a Thoroughbred track, according to officials who attended the hearing.
Judge Timothy Barnes of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved the allocations during the second day of a hearing to consider the opening elements of Hawthorne’s reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. The track filed for bankruptcy on Friday after years of financial struggles.
Though Hawthorne is seeking access to $16 million in debtor-in-possession financing, the judge approved the allocations for wages and the surface conversion so that Hawthorne could begin planning for a live Thoroughbred meet this year, according to David McCaffery, executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.
The judge also approved some allocations for Hawthorne to begin paying its simulcasting debts to other racing companies, but that allocation represented a fraction of what the companies are owed. The trustee who is overseeing the process also received approval for language that would mandate that simulcast companies be paid for any future revenues, McCaffery said.
Most simulcast providers cut off Hawthorne in the past 18 months because of delinquent payments. The largest debt, approximately $7.1 million, is owed to the simulcasting arm of 1/ST Racing and Gaming, which currently operates Santa Anita Park and Gulfstream Park. Other companies are owed anywhere from $1.2 million to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
McCaffery said that Hawthorne officials said during the hearing that they intended to start a live Thoroughbred meet sometime in the first 10 days of April. The track was scheduled to start its 2026 meet on March 29, but that was prior to the bankruptcy filing. Last year, the Illinois Racing Board granted the track a total of 63 live racing days for 2026.
The renovation of the track will take place this weekend, according to McCaffery, and the track should be open for training by Tuesday. Hawthorne began a winter Standardbred meet this year but was forced to abandon the meeting when the IRB revoked its harness license in late January because of unpaid purses.
Hawthorne, which has been operated continuously for 117 years by four generations of the Carey family, is seeking to reorganize so that it can attract a buyer or partner who can take advantage of legislation passed in 2019 that allows the track to operate a casino. The track’s current management has been unable to reach a deal for the past six years as the financial condition of the track deteriorated.
A third hearing has been scheduled for next Tuesday to discuss additional elements of the reorganization, including a motion to free up $3 million in funds in horsemen’s accounts that have been inaccessible since late last year. The funds include those held by both Standardbred and Thoroughbred horsemen.
