An agreement hammered out in a hallway meeting at United States Bankruptcy Court March 4 will authorize Hawthorne Race Course to move forward with conversion of its racing surface for a Thoroughbred meeting slated to start March 29.
The conversion from the wintertime harness season to a cushion for training and racing Thoroughbreds was stalled as Hawthorne ran out of money at the end of 2025. The track and affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy protection Feb. 27.
The emergency order, agreed to by all parties for presentation to Judge Timothy Barnes for his approval, includes authorization to deal with a scattershot of emergency needs, also including payroll for Hawthorne employees due March 5.
It does not extend to broader issues still pending in the bankruptcy petition and another hearing was set for March 10 to start sorting through those. Among arguments presented by Hawthorne President Tim Carey at the initial hearing was the imperative that the spring race meeting go on, even if delayed briefly beyond the scheduled opening day.
Chris Block, president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said Hawthorne was prepared to resume conversion of the track immediately, pending favorable weather. That would require about four days of work before trainers could start working their currently idle horses.
ITHA executive director Dave McCaffrey said about 200 horses are stabled at Hawthorne with others, mainly from locally owned stables, expected to participate in a spring race meeting, pending continued favorable action from the court.
Among the issues yet to be settled is overdue payment of past purse money and other claims by both harness and Thoroughbred horsemen. Track officials and representatives of both horsemen's organizations told the court they won't run without the back debt being cleared.
Judge Barnes indicated he will look favorably on the horsemen's claims but declined to include them in the emergency order.
