Balmoral, Maywood Park Race Tracks To Auction Off Assets
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Today you could get an in-person look-see, but tomorrow at Balmoral Park and Thursday at Maywood Park, everything is up for auction online.
Grandstand seats, televisions, starter cars, and sulkies are among thousands of items up for auction at Maywood Park in Melrose Park and Balmoral Park in Crete.
Owner Duke Johnston said "there'll be some great deals."
"Everything from tractors, starting gates, restaurant equipment, the pool table right there, escalators. Everything's going to be up for sale to the highest bidder," he said.
Johnston said people from the Horseracing Hall of Fame in Goshen, New York, visited to check out some items. He said they were looking at bidding on a 1952 starting gate from Balmoral.
Horseracing began at Balmoral Park 90 years ago, when it was called Lincoln Fields, and 70 years ago at Maywood Park.
"KiddieLand came and went across the street. We came and ran our course and went but we just can't compete anymore. We were losing serious money," Johnston said.
Johnston said Maywood Park will be torn down this summer. Balmoral Park is for sale.
"If a slot bill ever passes, I think you'd find someone to buy it, develop it into a casino and you get some horse back, some jobs back, but no one is willing to take a flyer on the state of Illinois right now," he said.
Johnston believes his tracks were doomed when Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed legislation that would have allowed slot machines at horse tracks.
The auction is online at LoebWinternitz.com