The board of directors for the Illinois Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Foundation announced that they have added two restricted stakes races to their Illinois program at $50,000 guaranteed each, thus qualifying as black-type in North American sales catalogues.The stakes series is tied to the ITBOF Stallion Season Auction held in January.Eligibility for these races will be determined by stallion donations to the auction, the season being purchased during the auction, and at least one offspring of that stallion's crop being foaled in Illinois. The entire crop of that sire is then eligible to register for the stakes series.
The races will be held at Hawthorne Racecourse during the fall of the 2-year-old season for that crop at 6 1/2 furlongs on the dirt. The first races are slated to run in 2010, with the series going through at least 2012.The ITBOF also runs restricted races tied with their 2-year-old in training auction held each spring. These purses have been increased to $45,000 guaranteed.