Fairmount Park Racetrack avoids reduction of 52-day season; lawmakers send Illinois Racing Board a message

By Alex Fees

KSDK -- Though Fairmount Park Racetrack has been around for 86 years, until today they were scheduled to race just three days this season. But as of Monday they're back to a full 52-day horserace schedule. And southern Illinois legislators are upset about their treatment by the Illinois Racing Board.

The legislators believe there is some confusion among racing board members about who has authority over whom. State senators and representatives were part of a news conference at Fairmount on Monday.

"I just have a message here to the racing board. The racing board is constituted by law to fairly regulate an industry. It is not constituted to put a part of that industry out of business," said State Senator Bill Haine (D-Alton).

Legislators claim racing board members were holding Fairmount Park over a barrel, threatening to reduce Fairmount's racing season to just three days unless five or six union racing board employees who work at Fairmont Park came to a labor agreement. They did, averting the drastically shortened season.

"We were prepared to go to court today to obtain a temporary restraining order indicating that the actions of the racing board were unconstitutional and beyond their statutory authority," said State Representative Jay Hoffman (D-Collinsville).

The legislators also say racing board members gave them until June 15 to raise the tax on Fairmount from 0.25 percent to 0.75 percent.

Haine said Illinois Racing Board members, scheduled to meet on Tuesday, need to understand they are authorized by law to regulate an industry, not put part of an industry out of business.

Haine said, "The second message to the racing board is-- the Senate confirms the Governor's appointment to this board. And I will remember how this track was treated, and how we were treated in the past few months."

Lanny Brooks is director of the Illinois Horseman's Benevolent and Protective Association. Brooks said a season reduced from fifty-two days to three days could have affected the livelihood of as many as one-thousand people.

"Sixty-seven trainers," said Brooks, "all of the owners they represent; all of the grooms that work for them; the sawdust people, the feed people, the hay people. You see how many people are involved."

Haine said both he and Hoffman sponsored a measure two years ago to lower the tax on Fairmount Park to help the track remain solvent.

"The racing board as part of their second condition demanded that we raise the tax," said Haine. "In other words they're whip-sawing us through their employees, holding a literal gun to the head of the employees, saying unless the members of the general assembly increase the tax on the track we're going to destroy you. And so we're going to fulfill that, because that's one of the things Lanny Brooks had to extract to get this thing on track for this year. We're going to do it, but I'm telling you when they come up to be confirmed, we're going to remember that."

Illinois Racing Board Executive Director Marc Laino denies the racing board is holding Fairmount Park hostage, saying that board had no choice but to reduce racing.