from the USTA Communications Department

Columbus, OH — In Wednesday’s (Jan. 25) Daily Racing Form story “Illinois Racing Board considers using surplus funds to boost Thoroughbred purses,” by Marcus Hersh, he reports that the IRB certified the annual recapture allocation to Illinois racetracks at their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday (Jan. 24).

The IRB also proposed using surplus funds that have resulted from cost-cutting measures largely due to diminished regulatory responsibilities after a “massive” decline in the number of harness racing dates to boost Thoroughbred purses in the state. The IRB did not specify the amount of their surplus.

Hersh reports that there “were about 200 Standardbred cards in Illinois as recently as 2014 but only 80 were awarded for 2017 following the shuttering of Maywood Park and Balmoral Park.”

Earlier this month, the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association was one of the three horsemen’s organizations in the state to release a statement to Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner asking him to prevent the IRB from certifying 2016 recapture. Illinois is the only racing jurisdiction in North America that has a recapture program, which was instituted in 1995 with the advent of full-card simulcasting, to compensate racetracks for the shift in wagering on their live racing from on-track to off-track where the percentage of revenue from wagering is much lower. During that time, more than $262 million has been taken from purse accounts as compensation to the tracks.

Hersh also reported that legislation that will bring slots to the racetracks in Illinois is “part of a general expansion bill that was introduced during the ongoing legislative session.”

To read the complete DRF story, click here.

To see the Illinois horsemen’s letter to Governor Rauner, click here.