Illinois Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association

Thursday's Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting, at which 2025 race dates were awarded, yielded almost the exact same headline and summation of how the very same commission meeting unfolded last year: Illinois racing is still struggling to recover from the twin blows of the 2021 closure of Arlington International Racecourse and the inability of the state's two surviving Thoroughbred venues--Hawthorne Race Course and Fairmount Park (AKA FanDuel Sportsbook & Horse Racing)--to follow through with building their proposed racinos that were legalized back in 2019. Yet while last year's IRB annual...