Sales date, backstretch closing date affirmed by the bankruptcy court.
The backstretch at Hawthorne will officially close on Aug.31. The sales date will either be Sept. 1 or 2. Racing is officially over. Hawthorne has requested another $900,000 loan to get them through the next 5-6 weeks. It was granted but with strict concerns. They will have weekly status hearings to make sure they are spending their remaining dollars according to the plan. The U.S trustee said he was very frustrated by the actions of Hawthorne. Information wasn't coming to him as quickly or efficiently as he expected. He warned that if he was not satisfied with the weekly status updates regarding how the money is spent he could file a motion to convert this case immediately into a Chapter 7. The Illinois Racing Board is now faced with making unprecedented decisions. Determining when exactly Hawthorne will lose their license and what specifically it will mean to the Hawthorne's OTB's are just a few of the pending questions.
Court Finalizes Sale of Hawthorne to Allimac 2023
On Monday, July 20, the Hawthorne bankruptcy sales hearing took place. It was finalized and agreed to that Allimac 2023 was the lone bidder and they would acquire Hawthorne racetrack for $90 million. There were no objections to that. The disagreements on the specifics of the deal were in regards to the unpaid purses for thoroughbred horsemen from three race dates in July and how to facilitate the move of the backstretch community. The ITHA represented that approximately 500 people were living on the backstretch, including 150 children and 450 horses. As it stands now, the backstretch will remain open until at least August 31. Whether Hawthorne will pay purses still owed from three days of racing in July remains to be seen. Whether there will be any more live racing this year remains to be seen. Right now there doesn’t appear to be adequate funding for this. We will learn more at the next scheduled hearing, which is set for Wednesday, July 22 at 1pm.