by Tom Kelley for Hawthorne Racecourse

Cicero, IL —After nearly 10 years away, live harness racing action returns to Hawthorne on Friday evening (Jan. 8) with a 10-race card of full fields. With racing returning to Hawthorne, horsemen will see increased purses in Illinois, along with five day a week racing through Saturday, February 6. Live racing will take place every Wednesday through Sunday evening with a 7:20 p.m. post nightly. For the fans, Chicago’s in town track will provide numerous promotions and many great wagering options with lowered betting minimums and reduced takeout rates.

On the racing end, stall applications for nearly 1,000 horses were sent in for the winter meet. Horsemen from Illinois will be joined by those from Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and New York as fields are expected to fill well throughout the entire meet.

Hawthorne welcomes Pete Hanley as the racing secretary for the harness meet. Pete has a long history in the industry, doing nearly every job in harness racing and comes to Hawthorne most recently from his position as racing secretary at Rosecroft Raceway.

While track announcer Peter Galassi recovers from recent stem cell replacement, Mike Bozich from Harrah’s Philadelphia will be in to call races until Galassi’s return. Bozich will be joined nightly by track handicapper Jim Miller to preview races from the Revel Stoke Box at 6:30 p.m. as they will provide insight and preview the racing action. Miller will also have selections nightly on the Hawthorne website, along with on TVG and TVG2 as live coverage of harness racing action in Illinois returns to those networks.

For the bettors, the Hawthorne gimmick lineup will offer $.20 minimums on Trifectas, Superfecta’s, the Jackpot High-5 and all multi-race wagers. Hawthorne will offer two Pick-5 wagers nightly, starting with Race one and the second covering the final five races on the card. Pick-4s will be offered starting on Race two and for the final four races on the card. Both the Pick-5 and Pick-4 will have only a 15% takeout as the Pick-4 takeout has been reduced in 2016. The popular Jackpot High-5 will be offered on the final race nightly as bettors try to cash in on the top five finishers in order in the evening’s final race. Hawthorne is also adding a $.20 Place Pick-10 with a $.20 minimum that begins with race one.

Hawthorne President and General Manager Tim Carey expressed his excitement for the upcoming meet, “We can’t wait to get started! It has been a lot of hours of hard work to prepare the track as quickly as we have as our thoroughbred meet just ended on January 2. We were ready to go for training and qualifiers just four days later. We welcome in the Illinois harness horsemen and look forward to a very successful meet all around.”