Churchill Downs Inc., the powerful Kentucky-based racing and casino company, intends to put its Arlington Park property in the Northwest Chicago suburbs up for sale, calling it a “unique redevelopment opportunity,” the company announced on Tuesday afternoon. Although not unexpected, the announcement of the sale comes as an additional blow to the Illinois racing industry, where Arlington stands out as a striking monument to the live-racing experience despite its product suffering deeply in recent years from short fields and continual feuding between Churchill and the region’s horsemen. The company, which merged with Arlington in 2000, said in the Tuesday announcement that it was “committed to running Arlington’s 2021 race dates,” which are scheduled this year from April 30 to Sept. 25, but after that, the company remains committed only to its attempt to sell the property for redevelopment. The 326-acre property could fetch anywhere between $200-$300 million, according to officials. “The company does not expect any sale of the Arlington site to close prior to the conclusion of Arlington’s 2021 race meet or that the conduct of the sale process will impact Arlington’s racing operations this year,” the statement said. The statement also said that Churchill would look to “relocate” Arlington’s racing license “to another community in the Chicagoland area or elsewhere in the state,” although it was unclear on Wednesday morning what that would entail. “We are committed to the Illinois Thoroughbred racing industry and will consider all options in working toward opportunities for it to continue in the future,” said Bill Castanjen, the company’s chief executive officer. In a statement, the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association called Churchill’s contention that it could move the license “disingenuous,” and it criticized the company for failing to bid on a casino license for the track in 2019 despite lobbying for legislation that would allow licenses at racing facilities. “The notion that a seasoned gaming operator would relocate a racing license away from a state-of-the-art, modern racing facility near the heart of the Chicago metropolitan area to some yet-to-be-determined location is absurd,” said Mike Campbell, the president of the ITHA, in the statement. “Churchill is just trying to obfuscate from the fact that it cares only about maximizing profit and will gladly sacrifice the spirit of Illinois law and the livelihood of working Illinoisians to serve its greed.” When Churchill merged with Arlington in 2000, the company expected to get the right to operate slot machines or a casino at the track in the future. Illinois eventually legalized casinos and awarded licenses for 11 standalone locations, but a bill providing for casinos at tracks did not pass until 2019. In the summer of 2019, Churchill bought a majority stake in the Rivers Casino Des Plaines in the Chicago metro area, just 10 miles from Arlington. The company then passed on an opportunity to bid for a casino license at Arlington, saying the state’s tax regulations and requirements for purse subsidies would make a casino there “financially untenable,” according to comments made at the time by Carstanjen. The 2019 law allowing for tracks to bid on casino licenses included a requirement that the racetrack had conducted live racing in 2017 in order to qualify for a casino bid. That would seem to tie the physical racetrack property to the ability to operate a casino, limiting the revenue potential for any new racetrack operating under the license. Although Illinois racing officials noted that laws can be changed, one racing official who did not want to be identified criticizing Churchill said that “the point of the gaming bill wasn’t to create a new racetrack named Arlington Park in some cornfield in DeKalb,” well outside the Chicago metro area. “It was to create what could have arguably been the greatest racino in the world,” said the official. Officials of the Illinois Racing Board referred questions to the office of the state’s governor, J.B. Pritzker. The governor’s office provided Chicago media outlets with a statement saying that it would “work with all stakeholders to develop an appropriate solution” to the loss of Arlington. “We remain committed to ensuring a strong racing industry in our state,” the statement said. Last week, Churchill and its co-owners in the Des Plaines casino announced an $87 million expansion that would give the location 2,000 “gaming positions,” the maximum allotment under the casino’s license. The casino is already the highest-grossing gambling facility in the state. The Tuesday release makes it clear that Churchill does not believe that it will find a deep-pocketed buyer interested in running the racetrack, which was rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1985 by the track’s owner, Dick Duchossois, at a cost of $100 million. Any bidder expecting to operate a track at the site would certainly be outbid by a development company, given the poor financial returns from the track. “Arlington’s ideal location in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, together with direct access to downtown Chicago via an on-site Metra rail station, presents a unique redevelopment opportunity,” the release said. “We expect to see robust interest in the site.” The Duchossois family was made a major shareholder of Churchill after the 2000 merger, and the company in recent years has negotiated three separate transactions to buy back the family’s shares, at a total cost of $490.1 million. The family still has two million shares of the company.