The court-approved $90-million bankruptcy sale of Hawthorne Race Course to a non-racing entity edged closer to a proposed closing after a Friday hearing that got continued to a later date, with humans and horses now increasingly likely to face an Aug. 31 deadline to vacate the property.Although no final sale order was posted to the court's online docket as of 5 p.m. Central Time July 24, published reports indicated that the third day of hearings this week resulted in a verbal direction from the judge for Hawthorne, the property's buyer (a Delaware shell company), and creditors to prepare a draft for his approval based on that vacancy deadline.The Blood-Horse quoted Ross Fiedler, an attorney for the buyer, who said at the hearing that it will be an absolute condition of closing on the deal Aug. 31 that the backstretch be cleared.Horse Racing Nation additionally reported that the work-in-progress proposed draft order “called for $1 million to be paid out of the sale money from the Carey family to the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA). Another $900,000 was earmarked from settlements with an architect and a construction company for backside charities.”ITHA president Chris Block told Horse Racing Nation, “That's going to help us not rush our horsemen out of here. They're going to have a chance to train for another 30 days, and it's also going to help our backstretch employees not get rushed out of here. They'll have a better chance of trying to find accommodations outside of the racetrack.”Hawthorne, controlled by the Chicago-area Carey family for the last 117 years, has been seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since Feb. 27 in an attempt to restructure between $100 and $500 million in debt.The post Hawthorne Backstretch Facing Aug. 31 Clear-Out Date In Bankruptcy Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.