Officials at Arlington International Racecourse announced yesterday that the Illinois track will be open next year for a scaled-down 55-day summer meet starting June 23.
A week ago, Dick Duchossois, owner of the lavishly appointed track and site of the Arlington Million turf race, said he was closing the track's doors because it would lose too much money next year when it would have to compete with a recently opened riverboat casino about 20 miles away in Elgin.
Duchossois tried, but failed, to get legislative relief passed that he felt was necessary to stay in business.
However, other Illinois track owners, who feel it is necessary to continue the state's nearly year-round racing circuit, pulled together and have agreed to guarantee Arlington's $190,000 daily average purse structure.
"If necessary," the owners of Sportsman's, Hawthorne, Balmoral and Maywood tracks said in a joint statement, "that money will come from our own pockets, to offset the negative impacts of the Elgin riverboat casino."
Duchossois has agreed to carry operating and administrative losses if they occur during the abbreviated meet. Last year, Arlington raced 131 days.
Sportsman's Park owner Charles "Stormy" Bidwill said: "The threat to racing [from the riverboat casinos] is real. As the leaders of racing in Illinois, we know that the demise of Arlington would be swiftly followed by the demise of Hawthorne, Sportsman's, Balmoral and Maywood."
At stake, the owners added, are 37,000 jobs in a statewide $1 billion industry.
While Arlington faces the immediate threat from the Elgin casino, three additional riverboat casinos planned for Indiana threaten the viability of other track operations, according to the owners.
Thornton rites Friday
Funeral services for jockey Jimmy Thornton will take place at Mount Zion Baptist Church, 520 Lewis St., Havre de Grace, at 1 p.m. Friday.
Friends may view the body at the church starting at 9 a.m.
Burial will be at Holly Hills Memorial Gardens in Middle River.
Thornton, who lived in Edgewood, died Sunday from a severe head injury he sustained during a spill last week at the Charles Town Races in Charles Town, W.Va.