Did not see that coming...

https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20200617/odonnell-arlington-park-horsemen-have-tentative-deal-track-targets-july-opening-

of course not a done deal and it's Illinois, so plenty of opportunity to f*ck this up

First paragraph

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

I heard the place went up for grabs at the IRB meeting yesterday. It was described to me as a "donnybrook". CDI and the horsemen were trying to negotiate at the meeting. There's still no actual deal. They were told to figure it out and a decision on the dates will be made today one way or another. I'd say it's about 80% that they will get it done, but who knows what might happen. It's not much different than MLB.

https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/2020 ... -to-reopen

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Can you bet the pony's at the The Rivers new sports book?

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No.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Why not?

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I'm not 100% sure, but probably because of the way the OTB legislation was written. In the original bill each track was entitled to X number of OTBs, I think it was 4. The split of money was favorable for the racetracks. When an expansion was passed each track could open, I think 8 more OTBs. But the split from those second generation parlors was more favorable to the horsemen.

CDI isn't going to cannabalize their business at an OTB where they get 10% with an OTB where they get only 5%. That's also why they won't open an Arlington casino to compete with Rivers where they don't have to share with horsemen.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

This is precisely why it won't re-open. Rivers (CDI) doesn't want AP to cut in on the profits. And they won't sell to anyone that will continue it as a racecourse. So hello Chilli's and Walmart.

It is very sad for me as I have plenty of memories there with my father, sons..even took my granddaughter to the barns to see a horse of ours. Greed sucks.

The state could force the issue but it seems like CDI has a lot of clout. I'm not sure why we're bending over for an out of state operation. The gaming board could make the Waukegan license and the sports book licenses contigent upon AP remaining open.

Also, the economic crash that is coming makes AP staying around longer than two years a possibility. No way they can sell that land for what they could have gotten a year ago.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Just received a text that there is a signed agreement between the two groups. We'll see what details follow. That's good Monday morning news.

I just got three different texts saying the same thing.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Petrillo trying to fuck up the deal by arguing about the dark host designation from now until AP starts racing. These fucking CDI guys are unbelievable.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Evidently, you hang around with three times as many degenerates as I do.

I was wondering if your number was one of the one's I didn't recognize in the group texts.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I am from Arlington Heights and it was not till today that I realized the city logo is a li'l horsey! All my life, I thought it was just a poorly drawn Olde English A.


See, look, there's his eye and his mane, got some ears at the top there.

Anyway, it sounds like there will be racing this summer. I'd better try to go.

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I have lived in AH for 30 years. It appears to me they are trying to move away from the horsey logo. For example I don't see it included on new Village entrance signage or police cars. The Village Facebook page has it faded and I don't see it on the VAH website.

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

Might as well stick with it at this point, even if Arlington Park gets redeveloped into even more condos with hair salons on the ground floor. Still, can't believe I never saw the horse head. Now, like the FedEx arrow, it's all I'll see.

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Never noticed the arrow, or the AH horse, or the Toblerone bear until now...

I wasn't sure if you not seeing it was a 'bit' or not. You seem very perceptive. To me that horse head is so obvious to the point of being, well, too obvious.

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

To me too. Oddly though, I'm completely unfamiliar with that logo. Is it on any street signs or just websites and correspondence? I don't believe I've ever seen it.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

It's on some welcome signs and banners and stuff in addition to all the usual places you'd see a city seal. It's not on street signs, though.


Nope, no bit, I had genuinely never looked closely enough at it to see the eye. I thought it was supposed to look like the 'A' the Oakland Athletics use, but that it was a copy of a copy of some ancient design and so it wasn't rendered terribly well in updates. Nope, it's a geometric drawing of a horse. Probably only dates back to 1985, not 1885.

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Any news locally on what's going on this summer? It's a go right? Shortened summer schedule though? I'd like to make it out there one last time.

Friday, April 30th, the death beat starts. Grrrrr

I'm glad AP will still be around.

I'm not a horse guy but I am when I go there. Which is about 10 times a year. It's a fun time. Sometimes I go by myself for the last 3 races when I get off work early. A lot of times I'll strike up a conversation with some 80 year old guy who is there alone. Just for advice on who to pick. Cuz I know that guy has been studying it all day.

Does Howard Sudberry still run Arlington Park?

He never did. He just ran their public relations department.

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Did Howard tell you he ran Arlington?

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Ok. Sorry. I didn't know he was just the PR guy.

I just heard him on the radio through the years promoting AR. I thought he ran it. Like I said, I'm not into hoarse racing. Just go there for a good time.

I was last there in 2019. Such a beautiful Chicago summer day. Drinking beers, playing bags, walking around. Everyone was just hanging out and having fun.

We eventually went up to the empty box seats to catch our last race and ran into an older employee. Very nice man. Talked about the history of the track, shared stories of he bringing his kids back in the day and my dad bringing me. Looking forward to coming out there this summer for one last day at Arlington.

Yeah. Last year I went with my nephews. They had a band playing between races. We sat right by the rail. Had a couple of beers. It was fun.

One of my earliest memories as a kid is going there with my grandfather.

It's an underrated place. You don't even have to know about horse racing to have a good time.

Sorry to see that they will eventually go out of business.