Arlington International Racecourse, built in 1927, the year Charles Lindbergh made the first solo transatlantic flight, has survived the Great Depression, World War II and a 1985 fire that twisted its steel girders and turned its proud pillars to ash.
But it may not be able to survive the arrival of riverboat casino gambling in Illinois and its current owner’s decision to turn out the lights rather than risk losing an estimated $6 million to $10 million next year if racing enthusiasts turn en masse to slot machines and blackjack.
Richard Duchossois privately told two members of the Illinois Racing Board Monday that no horses would run at his track in 1995 because of increasing competition from riverboats, especially the Grand Victoria, the state’s largest floating casino, which opened only 12 miles away in Elgin in October, said board member William Jackson, who was at the meeting.
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Duchossois later issued a statement following through on the threats he made to close the track unless the Illinois General Assembly awarded Arlington a casino and tax breaks. Lawmakers adjourned last week without taking action on his proposal.
“We took our case to the state legislature, and we lost,” Duchossois said.
But the last word has not been written on the fate of the proud track.
Illinois Racing Board Chairman Gary Starkman said there remains one other hope for the track’s 1995 season-the possibility that someone else could lease the track from Duchossois and accept the racing dates that have been tentatively allotted. And another board member, Richard Balog, said there already have been offers made to lease the track.
But that would require one more extension for a deadline that’s been pushed back once. Track owners are supposed to say Tuesday whether they will accept their racing dates. But if somebody was negotiating to lease Arlington, Starkman said, the board might extend the deadline once more.
“If somebody said he would need another week, we might do that,” Starkman said. “We will do everything we can to keep Arlington running. Right now I don’t know if that’s possible.”
Starkman said that during a meeting Friday between Gov. Jim Edgar and Duchossois, the governor offered to immediately appoint a panel to study Duchossois’ concerns in hopes of coming up with proposed solutions before the legislature meets next year. Duchossois declined, Starkman said.
Jackson said that Duchossois told him and Starkman Monday that he was taking a pass on the 1995 season because the competition with casino gambling makes it impossible to get a good return on his investment.
Asked if Duchossois was acting as though he was shutting down the state’s premier racetrack for good, Jackson said: “He only discussed 1995.”
The decision Monday ended months of attempts by the millionaire owner to wrest from the state a guarantee of a riverboat casino and tax concessions.
It also set the stage for a battle at the Dec. 13 racing board meeting over whether Duchossois should be allowed to keep his off-track betting parlors open even though live racing is not going on at his track.
The announcement released by Arlington officials did not mention their three off-track betting parlors-in Arlington Heights, Waukegan and Chicago-which operate year-round and allow people to bet on races run elsewhere in the country.
But at least two members of the board say that they are angry enough at Duchossois’ tactics to at least consider denying him the right to keep the OTBs going while the track is dark for fear that it could hasten the demise of horse racing in Illinois.
“It’s of great concern to me that Arlington and other tracks in Illinois not get the idea that the board will sit idly by while they close their live tracks and continue their off-track betting,” said Lorna Propes, a Chicago attorney who is one of the nine members of the racing board.
“I don’t want to establish that kind of precedent,” Propes said. “I want to set the precedent that off-track betting is linked to live horse racing in Illinois.”
Fellow board member Balog, a St. Charles attorney, said: “I believe if he is not going to race he should not have the OTBs, but you have people dependent on OTBs for their livelihood, so it would not be a decision I would make hastily.”
But board chairman Starkman said that even though he told Duchossois at Monday’s meeting that he might not get his licenses renewed, “The problem with just saying, `Screw you,’ is you are taking away jobs and $500,000 from Waukegan, $500,000 from Lake County and money from every other city and county in which he has an OTB parlor. And you don’t just arbitrarily take those dollars away just to punish someone.”
Balog said that he felt Duchossois’ decision was selfish and “disloyal to the governor and legislature.”
“People rely on his race track for their jobs, and he is totally ignoring them for his own selfish purposes,” Balog said.
In his statement, Duchossois said that suggestions that he race in the 1995 season and wait for the new legislature to make the changes he needs were unrealistic because they would not allow him to offer enough prize money to horse owners to attract good horses.
“The next session of the legislature will come months too late to undertake the complex business of recruiting stables nationwide for a five-month meet that begins in the spring,” Duchossois said.
Owners of other tracks expressed regret that Arlington would not be open in 1995, but predicted that horse racing would survive the defection.
“I think it is a shame if he doesn’t race, but if he doesn’t, I think Illinois racing will survive and survive very nicely,” said Tom Carey, president of Hawthorne Racecourse in Stickney.
When the new, Republican-controlled legislature is seated in January, it is expected that it will be easier to work a deal in which new casino licenses will be granted in exchange for changes in worker compensation laws.
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Meanwhile, speculation continued that Duchossois would shut down the track for a year to save some money and give the new General Assembly time to develop the comprehensive changes in the racing law that he says he needs.
Arlington Heights Village President Arlene Mulder said that she asked Duchossois recently whether if he shut down, he would do it as a temporary move, consider a push for legislative reforms to make racing more competitive and consider reopening in 1996.
“He said, `Absolutely, if the legislature addresses this issue,’ ” Mulder recalled. “It was not a commitment but a definite possibility.”
Sen. Marty Butler (R-Park Ridge), whose district includes part of Arlington Heights, said he would work in the next session to overcome legislators’ anger at Duchossois’ rough tactics and would try to get him a casino license. But he predicted a great deal of competition.
And Balog said that Duchossois had possibly hurt his cause by his ultimatums and by closing the track.
“This isn’t a game where if you have the ball and they don’t let you play third base you take the ball and go home,” Balog said. “They’ll go to the riverboats and buy the ball.”