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Originally Posted by Midsouth Jeff
I always try to visit thoroughbred tracks whenever I travel on business or pleasure. This past week I was in Chicago for Christmas and decided to visit Hawthorne Race Course on the south side. I have been to Arlington Park in north Chicago numerous times and enjoyed it each visit. Last week, Hawthorne offered live racing, so I spent half a day at the track.
Hawthorne is decent track. It was clean, well-lit, and laid out fairly well. Most of the employees I encountered were polite and helpful as is usually the case at thoroughbred tracks in my experiences. However, I encountered two of the rudest, impolite, impatient, and unprofessional pari-mutuel tellers in my life. Each was rude to me on more than one occasion and I just brushed it off until my wife commented to me that while she was placing some wagers with one of them that one of the tellers was rude to her. While she was telling me her story, I was distracted by raised voices and profanity nearby.
Surprise!!! One the two tellers was in an argument with an elderly gentleman who was there enjoying the live racing as we were. I heard both employee and patron engage in name calling including the use of profanity. I don't know exactly what happened, but after my experiences with those two tellers, it was a safe assumption that the employee was probably to blame. I was shocked at the exchange taking place between the two to the point that we left the facility shortly after that. I made a complaint to the management about their employees and told them that I had never experienced such behavior before.
I have been to 17 thoroughbred tracks in my life and this was the first time I ever left a track upset due to how I or someone in my party was treated by track employees. For the record, management was very apologetic and offered to make it up to me on my next visit to the track. They seemed sincere and if I'm ever in the south Chicago area again, I will make it a point to visit Hawthorne again.
Has anyone ever been treated unprofessionally by track employees to the point where you left the track? Maybe its common and I have just been lucky. I was curious enough to post this and find out.
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Are you sure you were at Hawthorne?
There is one lady at Arlington that has some sort of management position. She doesn't show up all year until Million Day where she tries and changes all this crazy stuff in the Gold Room. This year, she REMOVED my dad and I's programs from our seats in the gold room, which essentially means someone is sitting there. Supposedly the seat was dormant for more then 15 minutes and her excuse was "There are tons of people that want seats" yadda yadda. She is just a real bitch of a person, just ignore her now