June 9, 2006

Ms. Lorna E. Propes, Chairman

Illinois Racing Board

James R. Thompson Center

100 W. Randolph – Suite 11-100

Chicago, IL 60601

Dear Chairman Propes and Members of the Illinois Racing Board:

I have enclosed a copy of a letter I sent to the IRB in September concerning the allocation of race dates. In this letter the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association (IHHA) spelled out its position concerning racing less than 361 days in a year. While Balmoral Racing Club, Inc. is requesting to vacate Mondays for the remainder of the year, the IHHA remains committed to racing a full schedule of seven days a week for the remainder of the year.

Though the Hawthorne meet has shown an increase in handle while only racing six days per week, the IHHA does not attribute the increase to a reduced schedule. The fuller fields attained by shifting horses to other nights does increase interest in our races with the bettors, but this would only account for a minimum amount of the increase. The horses that normally race on Mondays would probably not be racing on Thursday, Friday & Saturdays, but there has been significant increase in handle on these nights. Thus, we feel the increase in handle at Hawthorne compared to Balmoral & Maywood is caused by other factors (which will be discussed later in the year while discussing the allocation of dates for 2007).

This year the Illinois General Assembly and the Governor passed Representative Bob Molaro’s HB 1918 that hopefully will soon give us additional revenues. Many of the legislators relied on our arguments that these additional revenues were needed in order to stave off any layoff of workers at the tracks and to keep up the demand for the number of horses needed to race and the agricultural jobs associated with them. By cutting back race days, after having the General Assembly and the Governor support our industry, is not the thank-you message we want to send to Springfield. We ask that you deny Balmoral Racing Club, Inc.’s request to vacate Mondays.

Sincerely,

Martin Engel

President - IHHA