An advocacy group within Illinois’s horse-racing industry is fighting to save live racing at the financially struggling Maywood Park track for the rest of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Illinois Harness Horseman’s Association is fighting a court battle against racetrack officials, who are proposing to cancel harness horse races after Oct. 3, arguing that the closure would unfairly force “an immediate eviction” of more than 100 horses and about 50 people who live in dorms at the track in Chicago’s Melrose Park suburb. In court papers, Maywood Park officials told a bankruptcy judge that closing early would save $165,000 in track maintenance costs, manure removal, security and other operating costs. Displaced horsemen and their families, they added, could move to a nearby sister race track, Balmoral Racing Club, which has stables for more than 1,000 horses.
