Posted on 12/25/2014 4:52:46 PM PST by Libloather
Illinois' only two harness horse racing tracks kept their promise to the Illinois Racing Board as they filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday to continue operations into 2015 and protect themselves against property seizure.
Balmoral Racing Club Inc. and Maywood Park Trotting Association Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a state court handed down a $78 million lawsuit judgment earlier this month for the tracks' ownership's role in an extortion scandal involving former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
**SNIP**
The ruling stems from a federal racketeering suit that claims that John Johnston acquiesced to Blagojevich's request for a $100,000 campaign contribution in return for signing 2008 legislation to benefit Balmoral, Maywood and the state's three thoroughbred tracks.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Blago was sent to Springfield to be the Machine patsy of his father-in-law Alderman Dick Mell, who was Daley’s political enforcer in the city council.
Blake went rogue, and Illinois will be paying for it for a long, long time.
Blake = Blago.
It was the egg nog, but I’m blaming auto-correct.
I used to go to harness races at Maywood, to me they were mostly fixed. You could see the jockey’s manipulate the horses down the stretch, was pretty obvious.
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