The synthetic surface sucks. How hard is it to maintain a dirt track in the summer and fall?

I was never a big fan of synthetic tracks myself. But I've come around on that. My best ROI over the past two season has been at Woodbine. As a rule, the CAW groups stay away from the synthetic tracks, so not having to bet into them and their huge rebates is an advantage for the small player.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

I see. Hopefully as vaccines roll out, that number increases a bit. I'd like to make it out there sometime in July.

I think it was open the last month or so of the meet. No bring in coolers, limited drink options.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Was it? Maybe just the last weekend.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

All of September? https://abc7chicago.com/arlington-race- ... s/6405620/

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Yeah, now that you linked that I remember. They were charging a lot too. And guys were paying it.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

And guys were idiots. Although I suppose this idiot will pony up a few times this year, especially if there is an Arlington 10 reunion

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

If there is we'll get in for free.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

If it's open there will be an Arlington 10 reunion. Guaranteed. Well, I guess I can't guarantee everyone will be there but we will do it again

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Reports on Twitter that -By a 9-0 vote, Village of Arlington Heights votes to prohibit "restrictive covenants." In short, @ChurchillDowns cannot put restriction on what next owner can do with land (eg, it can pursue horse racing if desired). #Illinois #GamblingTwitter

Very interesting.

It's something, I suppose. But I'm guessing CDI already has a basic understanding with a buyer that will develop the property.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

I'll be there July 17th. Cannot wait.

I'd like to get out if I can or if I'm allowed.

Not sure I follow this, are you saying CDI already knows to whom it is selling? My understanding was that CDI was doing everything they could (including punting on a casino license at AP) so as not to disrupt the money printing factory 11.7 miles away. (Rivers).

I secretly hoped that the final intervention would come through political pressure, particularly from Springfield. But this is a start.

As I've mentioned, it is a beautiful, clean park that I first shared with my dad, took my sons to see thrilling races (including the legendary Cigar), and grandchildren to the back stretch and barns.

I'm going to hold onto this shred of hope if you don't mind.

I suspect that's the case. CDI wants out of the racing business. That isn't a secret. The track has been for sale for a long time at the right price. So it raises the question why there is suddenly this finality that racing is done at Arlington. If they don't have a buyer, I don't see why they wouldn't run dates next year. It's obviously better than just having it sit there or they wouldn't be running now. So yeah, I think they have a buyer and it obviously isn't someone who is going to compete with their casino down the street.

The thing that's so frustrating is that none of this is in the best interests of the State of Illinois or its residents. Our governor and legislature are failing us here just as they have in so many other instances. There are so many other problems that saving horse racing in the state seems small. But for many people, it's their livelihoods.

And government could save Arlington and racing if they had the mind to. It isn't the divine right of CDI to operate casinos in our state. The license is what has value. And who gets the licenses is all political.

There are many ways CDI could be "forced" to keep Arlington operating. Right off the bat, closing AP should disqualify them from receiving the Waukegan license. That might make them rethink the decision. Or maybe advise Bill Carstanjen that if CDI closes AP, there's going to be a casino license issued to Rosemont. You think Brad Stephens wouldn't like 3000 positions right on Devon & River? I wonder what that would do to business at Rivers.

CDI operates racetracks when government puts them in a position where they have to. They just purchased Turfway. Not because they like horse racing, but because that's what it took to control the casino. That's the same reason they built Oak Grove- not for the joy of running a shitty harness meet, but in order to grab the casino profits of Kentucky Downs. Kentucky Downs is the best racing operator in the state, but obviously CDI has all the clout. The question is, why do they have clout in Illinois?

I don't blame CDI for their stance. Why would they want to open a casino at AP and share profits with horsemen when they have a casino a few miles away where they don't have to share with anyone? You'd have to be insane to make that decision without being forced to.

The Racing Board and Gaming Board should have been consolidated. The decisions they make affect all aspects. Most guys on these boards are just political hacks being rewarded by the governor. Very few of them have any clue about the specifics of what they're controlling. You could make a better Racing Board by grabbing eight guys out of the Gold Room. At the meeting where they were discussing the fate of AP- I was there- the goof from Oak Park actually asked Tony Petrillo if Arlington was considering running another Breeders Cup? Dude, this meeting is about the end of AP. Are you awake?

The only two guys on the board at the time who had any clue- and they're both gone now- were Bill McCauley and Greg Sronce. At that meeting one of them actually asked why CDI is making the opposite argument in Florence, Kentucky that it is in Arlington Heights, Illinois. CDI's expensive lawyer didn't have a good answer for that one.

Anyway, the bottom line is that CDI has clout in Illinois it shouldn't have. Someone should ask why. Here's a good question: Is Hyatt in the casino business?

Jim O'Donnell is trying, but nobody is paying attention to him.
https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/2021 ... -bet-on-it

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

It's a fair point. If Pritzker wants to govern Illinois as his personal principality, here's the place to do it -- to keep some out-of-towners from wrecking the local economy in the name of "shareholder value." He can create a five-phase plan for putting their balls in a vise.

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Laws regarding gambling and particularly racing have been very dumb my entire life. Similar shit happened here with some Rooney members having to get out of racing and Steelers for the Rivers here.

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I understand having the appearance of separation between gambling and the NFL. Nothing matters anymore, though. Life is presented by draftkings.com.

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I sure am going to miss those Wednesday afternoon races that list six horses, but two get scratched, so my show bet has a 3/4 chance of coming in.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Hoping to be there tomorrow to see my girl Fate Factor run, in person.

She should get a really good set up in there.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.

Have you ever heard of Santa Anita?

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

Anybody gone yet? I checked out the website tonight. Looks like Saturday tickets sell out fairly quickly. I guess there's no such thing as general admission tickets. You can buy apron bench seats but you have to sit at your assigned bench number. Kind of lame. I assume if you buy bench seats, you can walk over to the beer garden -- buy beer, play some cornhole, mingle. Maybe not.

I was there late several weeks ago...stunned at the size of the crowd (larger than i anticipated) and there was very little supervision regarding seating...but it was the 2nd to last race.

That makes sense. They sell these tickets this way for optics. Hopefully they raise the capacity limits by mid-July when I go.

Fridays are no good for my wife and Saturdays are no good for either of us. Sunday racing starts up in July so we'll probably go a couple times then. But not a BIGFAN of the no-cooler policy.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Went last Saturday and it was strange to see it half full, especially with nobody wearing masks. Hit $2 trifecta box in final race, so walked away ahead, usually go at least once per year and will definitely miss it when it's gone.

Talked to quite a few employees and they are hearing that Churchill Downs is trying to buy the place.

Parkins and Spiegal had AH mayor on today. He said there is some deadline today or soon for some decisions. The Bears acknowledged receiving their RFP letter as well as some racing firm not Churchill Downs. Racing it’s seems might not be dead. Also he slammed CD pretty well.

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Looking back through this thread, I was pretty wrong about this. It now seems the land is probably more valuable than ever.

I still think there's a buyer (not the Bears) and a basic deal is already in place. They're not going to sell it to anyone who will compete with their gaming operations. If they're forced to do so in order to operate in Illinois- doubtful at this point, but Jim Edgar is in Pritzker's ear- they'll just keep the track going themselves and maybe sell off some of the surrounding land, i.e. the training track. But we'll find out soon enough.

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His mind is not for rent to any God or government.