The judge handling the Hawthorne Race Course bankruptcy case has ordered the immediate release of $800,000 in unpaid purse money while establishing a process to determine a final administrative claim of up to $1.1 million.Together with a separate $200,000 payment made Aug. 4, the total corresponds to the approximately $1.3 million the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA) told the court its members are owed.The Chicago-area track, owned by Chicago's Carey family for the last 117 years, is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure between $100 and $500 million in debt. The racecourse is on a court-ordered schedule to be sold for $90 million to a non-racing entity in early September.The Aug. 6 order grants a motion filed last week by the ITHA to compel payment of “postpetition purse obligations” by treating that money as “administrative expenses.”In bankruptcy, “postpetition” debts mean financial obligation incurred after the filing (which in Hawthorne's case was Feb. 27). These sorts of claims are often given special priority because they arise from operating a business during its bankruptcy.“The Postpetition Purse Obligations shall be agreed upon and finalized between the Debtors and ITHA in an allowed amount of not less than $800,000 and not to exceed $1,100,000,” stated the order out of United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois (Eastern Division).“The Final Purse Claim shall be memorialized by further order of the Court,” the order stated. “Any further order shall recognize the $200,000 paid to the horsemen on Aug. 4, 2026, that is not included in the unpaid Postpetition Purse Obligations or Final Purse Claim.”The order continued: “Hawthorne is directed to pay the $800,000 in Professional Funds to the Horsemen's Bookkeeper Account [for] the benefit of the horsemen immediately upon entry of this Order, and all checks for the horsemen in the aggregate amount of $800,000 shall be signed and available for pick-up no later than 4:00 p.m. prevailing Central Time on Monday, Aug.10, 2026, or as agreed to in writing by both parties.”According to the order, the money to pay purses will come from the debtor's existing bankruptcy “carve out,” which means funds that Hawthorne had set aside to pay for things like lawyers, financial advisors and other court-approved bankruptcy-process professionals.The order stated that those professionals agreed to release $800,000 from that fund.In return, the professionals were granted liens against certain remaining assets of the debtor, subject to existing senior liens.The order stated that any amount above $800,000 that the ITHA is owed after this disbursement will still be recognized as a high-priority administrative expense claim.The order explained that Hawthorne can use money generated from its off-track betting (OTB) locations to reimburse the professionals for the $800,000 they released.But until those professional funds are repaid, the horsemen agree not to collect from those replenishment funds.According to the order, if the horsemen later receive purse money from the Illinois Department of Agriculture, they agree to apply those proceeds first toward any remaining final purse claim or ITHA administrative claim, estimated at about $150,000, before assigning any remaining funds to Hawthorne to reimburse the professionals.The roughly $1.3 million that ITHA is seeking to recover was outlined in the organization's July 29 court filing as $711,554 for unpaid purses from three race dates in July, plus $603,069 for purses that had been previously earned but not withdrawn from the horsemen's bookkeeper account maintained by Hawthorne.The post Hawthorne Bankruptcy Judge Orders Immediate Release of $800,000 in Unpaid Purses appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.