State horse racing regulator brandishes the riding crop over sale of Arlington Park: ‘That is a really bad look’

A top Illinois horse racing regulator dug into the corporate owner of Arlington International Racecourse on Tuesday over plans to sell the iconic suburban track, arguing Churchill Downs Inc. will be digging its own grave if it undertakes a deal to bury the storied oval’s 93-year-old racing tradition.

Illinois Racing Board member Alan Henry called on Churchill Downs — the corporate namesake of the home of the Kentucky Derby, and a national gambling giant — to find a buyer “bound to your company’s roots” who will keep the ponies running.

Not only would that help keep the state’s struggling racing industry from going under, it would be in the company’s best financial interest “not to diminish the brand,” according to Henry.

Aynsley Floyd/AP file

“While [Churchill Downs’] stock is currently riding high, the corporate graveyard is full of companies whose leaders lost sight of their brand, and in doing so, lost the loyalty of their customers,” Henry said during a virtual Racing Board meeting. “The corporate graveyard is full of companies whose leaders lost sight of their brand.”

Henry is a former editor for the Chicago Sun-Times and aide to then state Comptroller Dan Hynes. He was appointed to the Racing Board last month by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, two weeks before Churchill Downs put Arlington Park on the block and pitched its 326 acres as a “redevelopment opportunity.” The new board member called that “a short-sighted and self-defeating posture.”

Illinois Racing Board

“The facts here are clear: on its current trajectory, [Churchill Downs] intends to shut down for good what is generally viewed as the most beautiful racing facility in the country, produce massive collateral damage across the thoroughbred and standardbred industry statewide, and continue to generate a rising tide of the ill will among horse players nationwide,” Henry said. “That is a really bad look when the foundation of your brand is horse racing.”

Instead, Henry said, the company should “facilitate a seamless, graceful transition of racetrack ownership.”

Other members of the panel were conspicuously mum on the potential sale of Arlington, one of Illinois’ three surviving racetracks.

Representatives for Churchill Downs did not return messages seeking comment.

The company has drawn the ire of horse owners and trainers since passing on new state legislation two years ago that would allow them to open a casino at the track — a provision they had sought for years as a means of supplementing shrinking purses.

Jeff Roberson/AP file

Instead, they’ve complained of prohibitively high taxes on such a “racino” investment while doubling down on their more lucrative Illinois gambling asset: Rivers Casino in nearby Des Plaines.

“We expect to see robust interest in the site and look forward to working with potential buyers, in collaboration with the Village of Arlington Heights, to transition this storied location to its next phase,” Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen said last month.

Arlington’s potentially final season hits the starting gate April 30.