The site of old Sportsman's Park in Illinois will complete a kind of weird full circle with plans to build a new headquarters for Wirtz Beverage Illinois on the suburban Chicago acreage.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011Duchossois Industries of Illinois has called in a more than $20-million note owed by the National Jockey Club, a move that threatens NJC plans for a 2007 spring meet at Hawthorne Race Course.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006The National Jockey Club is suing its former partner in the ill-fated auto racing track built at Sportsman's Park for failing to pay over $35 million in debt from the project.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004Live racing returns to the Chicago area Friday as the National Jockey Club at Hawthorne opens its spring meet at the track near Cicero, Ill. Opening day features a 10-race card with first post at 1:10 p.m. The 47-day meet runs through May 13
Wednesday, February 25, 2004The Illinois Horse Racing Board is scheduled to meet Jan. 29 to decide on a $13-million "recapture" payment to the state's racetracks that would come from the horsemen's purse account.
Friday, January 23, 2004Tommy Scott, a longtime racing official and a member of the Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame, died Jan. 21.
Friday, January 23, 2004The town of Cicero, Illinois paid $300,000 Tuesday to acquire all of the fixtures, equipment, and other property at Sportsman's Park, the dual purpose car and horse racing track.
Wednesday, July 09, 2003The National Jockey Club at Hawthorne Race Course spring meet posted business gains when compared with the comparable meet held at Sportsman's Park in 2002.
Wednesday, May 07, 2003Consolidation came to Illinois racing with a financial question mark on the first day of March as National Jockey Club opened its winter-spring meet at Hawthorne Race Course.
Monday, March 03, 2003Nearly nine months after the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) that triggered the situation, the case of the $1 million bonus payable to the owners of War Emblem has finally been settled.
Friday, January 24, 2003The Illinois Racing Board Monday turned back an effort by Maywood Park Trotting Association and Balmoral Racing Club to strip the National Jockey Club of its intertrack wagering licenses in Peru, Joliet, and Crestwood.
Monday, December 09, 2002Five months before the Pick Six Scandal began dominating headlines, the Illinois Derby-Kentucky Derby bonus controversy was making news. A hearing to determine just who will collect the cool $1 million payout should be set soon after the New Year.
Wednesday, November 20, 2002After a lot of sound and fury during a 10-hour meeting, the Illinois Racing Board produced a 2003 racing schedule that honors the status quo and enables a semi-merger between Hawthorne Race Course and Sportsman's Park.
Wednesday, September 25, 2002By John McEvoy -- So, it's goodbye to Chicago's "bull ring." After 70 years, Sportsman's Park is finished as a blue-collar, ethnically integrated site of Thoroughbred racing, a track whose configuration changed from a half-miler (1932), to a five-furlong oval (1956), to a seven-furlong strip (1992) with the longest stretch (1,436 feet) in America.
Tuesday, August 13, 2002By John McEvoy -- So, it's goodbye to Chicago's "bull ring." After 70 years, Sportsman's Park is finished as a blue-collar, ethnically integrated site of Thoroughbred racing, a track whose configuration changed from a half-miler (1932), to a five-furlong oval (1956), to a seven-furlong strip (1992) with the longest stretch (1,436 feet) in America.
Tuesday, August 13, 2002Given the consolidation of Sportsman's Park and Hawthorne Race Course, and a bid by Balmoral Park for Thoroughbred dates, the Illinois Racing Board will have a lot to sort through before it slots the 2003 racing schedule in the state.
Thursday, August 01, 2002Sportsman's Park will merge operations with its next-door neighbor, Hawthorne Race Course, and plans to conduct all racing at Hawthorne starting next year, officials of both tracks said July 31.
Wednesday, July 31, 2002Illinois racing took a multimillion-dollar hit as Gov. George Ryan sliced up this year's overall state appropriations bill to deal with a budget crisis. Among the items cut by Ryan was money for the "recapture" of purse money.
Monday, July 01, 2002The dispute over the $1-million Illinois Derby bonus earned by War Emblem appears headed for court. Still unresolved: Which court, and upon whose initiative?
Friday, June 14, 2002Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Salman's The Thoroughbred Corporation, owner of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem, filed a lawsuit June 10 to resolve a dispute over who is entitled to a $1 million bonus for winning the Illinois and Kentucky Derbys --- the prince or the colt's previous owner.
Tuesday, June 11, 2002Fierce partisan warfare over the state budget blocked a last-minute, controversial flurry of racetrack-related legislation in the final hours of the regular spring session of the Illinois General Assembly.
Monday, June 03, 2002No one in Illinois government seems to like the idea of slot machines at racetracks, but the proposal remained on the table as the legislature's spring session went into overtime in an attempt to find new revenue sources to solve a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall.
Wednesday, May 29, 2002The latest unlikely solution for a huge Illinois state budget crisis: Slot machines at racetracks.
Thursday, May 16, 2002An attorney for The Thoroughbred Corp. says his client is not obligated by contract to split the $1 million bonus earned by War Emblem for winning the Illinois Derby (gr. II) and the Kentucky Derby (gr. I).
Tuesday, May 07, 2002Plenty of racetracks besides Churchill Downs have special events this Saturday.
Tuesday, April 30, 2002With Ability sets sail, Emeraldforajudge shines while getting rich victories on the front end.
Sunday, April 28, 2002Illinois Derby (gr. II) winner War Emblem's half-sister Pretty Gale returns from a front-running win in the listed Lady Hallie Handicap two weeks ago to attempt her first graded stakes in Sunday's $300,000 Sixty Sails Handicap at Sportsman's Park.
Friday, April 26, 2002Peter M. Crane's Hail The Chief has found a new life since being switched to dirt racing.
Saturday, April 20, 2002Eight horses passed the entry box Tuesday for Saturday's $200,000 National Jockey Club Handicap (gr. III) for 4-year-olds and up a 1 1/8 miles at Sportsman's Park. Defending champion Chicago Six looks to regain his stature as the best among the locals while Ubiquity is the most prominent of the invaders.
Thursday, April 18, 2002Russell L. Reineman Stable's Pretty Gale, a half-sister of Illinois Derby winner War Emblem, beat Lunar Star by 7 1/4 lengths in the $100,000 Lady Hallie Handicap at Sportsman's Park on Sunday.
Sunday, April 14, 2002Randall Meier, Sportsman's Park's all-time leading rider, will be out of action for at least a couple of weeks following a spill in Thursday's fifth race according to his agent, Penny Fitch-Heyes.
Friday, April 12, 2002By Victor E. Zast -- The "Mud Bug" -- aka Trackside Chicago, the off-track betting facility owned by Arlington Park -- rekindles youthful days spent at Fort Erie.
Tuesday, April 09, 2002Illinois Derby (gr. II) winner War Emblem was shipped to Kentucky by van Sunday, but the son of Our Emblem is still not considered a likely Kentucky Derby (gr. I) starter.
Sunday, April 07, 2002California trainer David La Croix verbalized what most of the entrants were thinking in the days leading up to the April 6 Illinois Derby (gr. II) when he said he was looking for a "back door" to the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) for Fonz's.
Saturday, April 06, 2002"Citgo Racing to the Kentucky Derby," the NTRA-produced series on the ESPN networks, will air a live doubleheader Saturday consisting of the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) and the Illinois Derby (gr. II). The show will air Saturday from 5-6 p.m. (EST) on ESPN.
Wednesday, April 03, 2002A field of 10 headed by Select Stable's Repent has been entered for the $500,000 Illinois Derby at Sportsman's Park April 6. The grade II event offers a $1-million bonus to the connections of the winner if that horse goes on to capture any Triple Crown race.
Tuesday, April 02, 2002Spring meet winners from Sam Houston, Maryland racing shifts to Pimlico, Eddie Perez' After the Races holds benefit for Roy Houghton.
Monday, April 01, 2002Mercedes Stable's Publication put in a six-furlong work at Hawthorne Friday in preparation for a start in the April 6 Illinois Derby (gr. II) at Sportsman's Park. Repent, the likely favorite for the race, will work Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
Friday, March 29, 2002Bob Kieckhefer -- Illinois racing. It's hard to figure out where to start thinking about the current state of affairs. Harder yet to figure out where things are going.
Tuesday, March 19, 2002Sportsman's Park's meager 46-day Thoroughbred racing schedule has been severely eroded by horrible early-March weather.
Tuesday, March 05, 2002Thoroughbred racing at Sportsman's Park was cancelled again Tuesday because of weather-related track conditions.
Tuesday, March 05, 2002Beginning May 5, Thoroughbred racing fans in the Chicago area will be able to tune in to the same channel for nightly replays from local tracks.
Tuesday, March 05, 2002An odd turn of events threatens any chance for construction of a new riverboat casino in Rosemont, Ill., that is designed to pump tens of millions of dollars a year into the state's horse racing industry.
Tuesday, March 05, 2002Citing frigid temperatures, management at Sportsman's Park cancelled live racing Monday. Racing at the Illinois track is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
Monday, March 04, 2002National Jockey Club officials assured the Illinois Racing Board Wednesday that the Sportsman's Park horse racing meet set to begin March 1 is not threatened by financial problems that have closed the organization's Chicago Motor Speedway for the year. In other business, the board began the process of changing some state regulations to facilitate the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Arlington Park this fall.
Wednesday, February 13, 2002The 2002 Sportsman's Park Thoroughbred meet is expected to go on as scheduled even though Chicago Motor Speedway has decided to suspend auto racing this year.
Thursday, February 07, 2002Sportsman's Park, which launches the 2002 Chicago Thoroughbred racing season on Friday, March 1, will bring daily coverage of the sport with the premier of "Post Time at Sportsman's" on FOX Sports Net Chicago.
Wednesday, February 06, 2002H. Eddie Arroyo has resigned his position as general manager of the National Jockey Club at Sportsman's Park to rejoin the Illinois Racing Board as Senior State Steward at all Chicago-area Thoroughbred tracks.
Friday, January 11, 2002Aided by balmy late fall weather, Hawthorne Race Course posted improved numbers for on-site and total handle during its November-December meet. Hawthorne wound up operations on New Year's Day.
Wednesday, January 02, 2002Sportsman's Park will offer a $1-million bonus for any horse that wins next year's $500,000 Illinois Derby and then goes on to win any Triple Crown race in the subsequent months. The Illinois track released its $2.1-million stakes schedule Tuesday.
Tuesday, November 13, 2001
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