With a bid deadline extended to this Friday, July 10, and a court-approved auction now set for Monday, July 13, the big unknowns in the pending sale of the in-bankruptcy Hawthorne Race Course remain the price and whether the winning bidder wants to continue horse racing and pursue the Chicago-area track's never-realized plans for building a racino.The federal bankruptcy judge in charge of the case went on the record last week as stating that he would prefer the sale to be a “going concern” transaction that keeps racing alive at the 135-year-old Hawthorne.But he also said that the $90-million “stalking horse” bid from a Delaware-incorporated shell company seemed surprisingly low.A low starting price point prior to an auction isn't necessarily a bad thing in a bankruptcy sale. But in Hawthorne's case, it will likely entice bidders who want the real estate for development to compete with entities who see better value in racing and gaming.Because parcels of 100-plus acres that are zoned for industrial usage in proximity to a major airport are rare finds near any major city these days, the auction should draw plenty of interest.The stalking horse bidder has already indicated that it doesn't want to be a racino operator.Stalking horse bids are routine in sales of distressed assets. The term refers to a buyer who agrees to make the first formal, binding offer to purchase. A stalking horse bid must be court-approved in a bankruptcy sale, and it establishes a minimum that other bidders must beat.If no one offers more, the stalking horse bidder buys the assets.If the stalking horse bidder gets outbid, their contract contains provisions that allow for payments to cover the due-diligence work they performed and to hedge against the risks they undertook in establishing that price point.There has been no shortage of racetracks that have slid off the Thoroughbred grid and been sold over the past decade.But you can't use those sales prices as apples-to-apples comparisons for what Hawthorne might bring, because values vary tremendously based on geographic location, total acreage, zoning, and projected uses for the land.Still, it's worth marking the market to see what some of these tracks sold for. Here are a few publicly reported prices of American racetracks that have changed hands over the past 10 years.In 2017, Suffolk Downs in Boston was sold for $155 million to developers. Full-season racing had been phased out there after 2014, but “festival” meets over several weekends each summer were conducted between 2015 and 2019. Seven years later, construction has been repeatedly delayed, with only a small fraction of the full mixed-use master plan (business, housing, retail) currently complete.In 2019, Portland Meadows in Oregon got sold for $48.8 million. The racetrack was quickly demolished and redeveloped into an industrial and warehouse site.In 2022, Ellis Park got sold to Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI) for $79 million, with racing continuing there during the summer on the Kentucky circuit.In 2023, Arlington International Racecourse sold for $197 million. The suburban Chicago racetrack has since been razed, but not yet redeveloped. It was bought by the Chicago Bears football team as a prospective site for a new stadium. But to a certain extent, the Bears have largely used ownership of the parcel as a bargaining chip to try and leverage a more lucrative deal for a stadium that the state might fund in a different location.From a racing perspective, the demise of Arlington–also under the stewardship of CDI–turned out to be the major factor in the erosion of the overall Chicago racing circuit. Hawthorne was never able to bear the burden of being the region's sole Thoroughbred venue after Arlington ran its last race in 2021.In October 2025, Sunland Park in New Mexico sold for $301 million. The real estate assets went for $183.7 million, and $117.3 million was paid for the racing and gaming privileges, which have continued.Golden Gate Fields ceased racing in 2024, and the non-profit Trust for Public Land recently secured a $175-million agreement to acquire the 161-acre site for conversion to a waterfront park. The deal is expected to close in early 2027.Just this past week, Maryland's Board of Public Works approved the $48.5-million purchase of Laurel Park.Unlike the other sales referenced above, this unique deal calls for an existing racetrack to be converted to a state-owned Thoroughbred training center.As part of the $400-million “Pimlico Plus” rebuild of Maryland's racing infrastructure, the state initially purchased Shamrock Farm in Carroll County to serve as an 800-horse training center. When that 328-acre farm was bought for $5 million in December 2024, state officials envisioned Shamrock would eventually come to fruition as “one of the great equine training centers in the world.”Just over a year later, in January 2026, Maryland abandoned the Shamrock plan, citing higher-than-expected conversion costs for a property that was deemed to be environmentally problematic. Shamrock is now expected to go back on the market this fall.With Pimlico Race Course now demolished and ambitiously projected to be rebuilt in time for the 2027 GI Preakness Stakes, Laurel will continue to host the bulk of the state's racing (except for Timonium Fair). Once Pimlico opens for 120 days of racing annually, Laurel will transition to training only.The news site Maryland Matters reported July 1 that one member of the Board of Public Works, Dereck Davis–who also happens to be the state treasurer–raised concerns about whether the escalating costs to try and preserve racing in Maryland were worth it.“We've got to take a hard look at this, and [figure out if Maryland racing can] work on its own, or is this something that we permanently have to prop up?” Davis said.“I mean, the numbers are just sort of staggering to me, [and] this is not monopoly money. These are real dollars that can help real citizens and do real things for the state of Maryland that will help it move forward, as opposed to trying to keep, you know, a dream, an industry, afloat,” Davis said.This coming week prospective bidders for Hawthorne Race Course will be asking themselves essentially the same question as they try to determine if the price is right to save racing in Chicago.The post The Week in Review: Will Price be Right to Save Racing at Hawthorne? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.