Fairmount Park may be pulled into the Hawthorne Race Course bankruptcy proceedings to answer allegations it threatened retaliation against its horsemen if they ship horses to race elsewhere, with Hawthorne a clear target of such a campaign.
Hawthorne president and CEO Tim Carey and a committee representing unsecured creditors asked Judge Timothy Barnes in a joint motion for authority to investigate, including the power to subpoena Fairmount officials and records. The Illinois Department of Agriculture's funding of Illinois-bred purses is also part of the flap.
Carey, in a May 20 filing with the court, said he "became aware of a text message that Fairmount Park circulated to one of its external distribution lists which said in part "(A)ny horse entered at another track when a similar race has recently went or is offered here the horse may not be allowed back on the grounds. If Fairmount Park is your home you need to support and participate in racing here not elsewhere."
He quoted another message as saying, "Unlike other racetracks that are in serious, and possible fatal declines Fairmount Park is on a definite upward swing that will continue to improve!! Come race with us where the future is bright!!"
Asked to verify the communications and to whom they had been circulated, Fairmount general manager Vince Gabbert said in an email to BloodHorse, "We do not comment on pending litigation."
Fairmount is not currently party to the Hawthorne bankruptcy proceedings.
Hawthorne and the committee asked Barnes to grant them power under Bankruptcy Rule 2004 to issue subpoenas for the production of documents and to require sworn depositions from officials of Fairmount and the Agriculture Department.
Rule 2004, sometimes described in legal circles as a "fishing expedition," allows any "party in interest" to conduct broad, pre-litigation discovery of a debtor or third party. It can be used to investigate potential fraud, concealed assets, or questionable financial transactions.
The question at hand is whether Fairmount's alleged effort to keep its horsemen at home might jeopardize Hawthorne's chances of emerging from bankruptcy as a going concern, rather than as a demolition and redevelopment project.
The tracks are 274 miles apart in a straight shot on Interstate 55—an easy ship except during the seemingly endless traffic issues at the Chicago end. Horsemen historically have taken advantage of that relative proximity to move horses back and forth as opportunities and training dictate.
Fairmount's threat to bar its horsemen from traveling to Hawthorne, if true and enforced, would limit those opportunities for its horsemen and restrict the availability of horses to fill twice-a-week cards at Hawthorne—a critical factor in the track's struggle for survival as an operating business.
Offers to buy the track are coming both from potential operators of ongoing racing and from redevelopment interests. In the interim, Hawthorne is racing under a tight budget that relies in several respects on the success of the current meeting. That, in turn, relies in large measure on bettable fields.
The situation is further complicated as the track has preliminary approval to develop a racino—a potential asset that is key to any sale as an operating business. The casino authorization requires the track's owners to conduct racing.
Hawthorne, located in the west Chicago suburb of Stickney, found it difficult to maintain attractive field sizes early in its summer meeting, which was delayed because of financial woes, regulatory concerns, and the Feb. 27 bankruptcy filing.
The track was late in opening the racing surface for training and horsemen were slow to ship in amid uncertainty about the track's future. Field sizes at Hawthorne picked up after the track opened its turf course in mid-May but remain anemic.
Fairmount, located in Collinsville, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, has had an upswing in entries in recent weeks.
The May 23 card at Fairmount drew 60 entries for eight races, all on dirt, an average field size of 7.5.
Hawthorne's May 24 program, by contrast, had 45 entries for seven races but 32 of those were for three turf races, leaving only 22 entries for the four heats on dirt. Without Green Grace, whose last published works and last race were at Fairmount, the first-race field would have shrunk from five to four.
One of the five entries for the second race, Lolita J, trains at Hawthorne but last raced at Fairmount. One of six entered for the sixth, Best Dressed Man, has worked for more than a month at Fairmount and ran his last race there May 16.
In an odd aside, perhaps illustrating the urgent need for runners, Dune a Vetta, a 4-year-old North Dakota-bred colt trained at Fairmount, was entered for a 1-mile maiden event on the grass in the May 24 Hawthorne program.
Dune a Vetta had made two starts and had yet to beat any rival. His previous start came in Illinois' richest race, the $250,000 St. Louis Derby at Fairmount, won by Disco Time last Sept. 19. Dune a Vetta finished last of eight, beaten by 78 3/4 lengths, per Equibase.
He was a race-day scratch when the race was taken off the turf.
The Agriculture Department part of the Rule 2004 request involves a decision to strip state-bred purse funding from Hawthorne's racing. The proposed order names the department, director Jerry F. Costello II and John P. Costello, a lobbyist employed by the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents Fairmount's horsemen. The Costellos are brothers and sons of former Illinois legislator and U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello.
Barnes set a hearing for May 27.
