Hawthorne Race Course is facing closure after a reported sale appears to be going through to a Delaware-incorporated shell company that last month submitted a $90-million “stalking horse” offer that had set the minimum price for a July 14 bankruptcy auction of the 135-year-old track.According to a story published Tuesday evening by Chelsea Hackbarth of the Paulick Report, when no other entities stepped forward to submit a bid that would have kept racing alive at the last remaining track on Chicago's Thoroughbred circuit, a recently formed corporate entity named Allimac 2023, LLC became the winning bidder by default.The Paulick Report quoted David McCaffrey, the executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (ITHA), as saying that he arrived for Tuesday's auction only to be informed that the stalking horse bid was the only offer submitted.Stalking horse bids are common in bankruptcy sales. The term refers to a first buyer to make a formal, binding offer to purchase the assets of a distressed company. This initial bid establishes a “floor.” Other interested buyers can then submit higher bids. If no one offers more, the stalking horse bidder buys the assets. If another entity outbids them, the stalking horse bidder receives certain payments that cover time and money put into conducting due diligence and marking the market.The Paulick Report also cited a text message sent out by the ITHA to members that stated: “Attention horsemen: Hawthorne Race Course has been sold to a non-racing entity. At this time, all training and racing will continue as scheduled until further notice. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.”The results of the auction were not posted to the bankruptcy court's online docket by 9 p.m. ET Tuesday.Hawthorne's bankruptcy lawyers must file notice of the auction results by July 15. The court has set a July 17 date as the “sale objection deadline,” and the judge in charge of the case must approve the deal at a July 20 sale hearing.In a separate legal filing on Tuesday, Hawthorne moved for the court's permission to receive money from the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDA), which has “agreed to promptly pay $1,125,000 in statutory purse-related funds from the Horse Racing Purse Equity Fund for the benefit of Hawthorne's future purses, in particular, the July 19 and July 26 races.”Hawthorne's legal filing continued: “ITHA and Hawthorne bring the Motion to ensure that the Purse Funds may be received promptly by Hawthorne for the benefit the horsemen, deposited into Hawthorne's Bookkeeper Account and disbursed only for the intended future purses following the July (and possibly August) races at Hawthorne.”Hawthorne Race Course, Inc., controlled by the Carey family for decades, has been seeking federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since Feb. 27 in an attempt to restructure between $100 and $500 million in debt.The post Report: No One Bids to Save Racing at Hawthorne Bankruptcy Auction appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.