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Neighbors upset with horse races at McHenry County farm

It's a Sunday afternoon and nearly 2,000 people are gathered on a horse farm in Union in McHenry County.

Music flows from some of the parked cars and trucks, as family and friends mingle, some buying Mexican food from vendors lined up in tents.

All of a sudden a sense of expectation rises in the crowd.

People start moving toward the event that drew them to this farm field off the edge of suburbia: A makeshift horse race.

The crowd gathers at a fence that separates them from a 350-yard straightaway, where a sandy track with a center divider runs between a closed starting gate and the finish line. Two horses and their jockeys are ready and waiting behind the gate.

Children press against the fence as their parents and older siblings stand over them. With a bang, the metal gates unlock and the horses bolt. The crowd, calm and quiet just minutes before, jumps and cheers as the animals race by. Just 14 seconds later, it's over.

The cheers subside, the crowd goes back to mingling, as some settle friendly wagers. It will be another 30 minutes before people start moving toward the fence again.

Luís Méndez Jr. and his family own the horse farm in Union. It's called Poker de Ases Ranch and Training Center. Ever since Méndez, his father and a family friend bought it a year ago, they've held three horsing events, all on Sunday afternoons. They're not official races, but training exercises where quarter horse owners can see how their animals perform.

“It's like a minor league kind of thing,” said Méndez, who charges $25 admission to men while women and children get in free. “The owners want to see how good their horse is. If the horse is good enough, then they go to the racetrack.”

For the crowd, it's an excuse for a family outing. As the only Latino training center around, Spanish-speaking people come from across the Midwest for the chance to watch the horses and revel in a shared way of life.

“Horse racing is a culture,” Méndez said. “It has its own set of rules and traditions in the way you set up a race. It's something that is very, very prominent, especially in the northern part of Mexico.”

Yet as tranquil as the afternoons are for some, many neighbors in Union and several members of the McHenry County Board do not share in the joy of the events.

Neighbors point to traffic congestion, noise and litter as nuisances they shouldn't have to deal with; county board members wonder if they should be able to tax the profits.

Valerie Ksiazek has lived on Dunham Road, bordering the racetrack side of Méndez's property, for 15 years. Ever since the land was first used for racing by previous owners about four years ago, Ksiazek has mourned the loss of quiet in her country home.

“We didn't purchase our property to have all these hundreds and hundreds of people here,” she said.

Another neighbor, Steve Frazier, thought the problem was over when the previous owners moved out. He had complained to county board members and the planning and development committee about past events that some say ran more like carnivals than horse races, with live bands and activities for children. But the events were stopped when the board refused to issue any more conditional use permits. The ranch was uninhabited for three years before Méndez and his family took over.

Now, with a new family, the racing events are back thanks to temporary use permits, and Frazier doesn't like it. He has complained about beer cans and food wrappers in the ditches along his property and said he has seen people stop their cars to vomit or urinate before driving away. He is glad the live bands have ended but said a southwest wind still brings noise from the event right to his door.

“What they do, if it stays on their property, is their business,” Frazier said. “When the noise and the event and the people leave that property, then it affects me and that's what I care about.”

Méndez said he can't control every individual who comes to his events, but he has done his best to reach out to neighbors and better the poor reputation that preceded him.

He said he doesn't have a live band, his events end early – 8 p.m. instead of the 10 or 11 p.m. closings he heard about before – and he hires people to clean up garbage along the roadways.

From a legal perspective, the McHenry County Planning and Development Office said Méndez has done everything required of him. He submitted approved food service permits from food vendors, a security plan approved by the sheriff's office and a sanitation plan approved by the health department to get his temporary use permit.

After the latest event, held on Oct. 3, there were no complaints from officials – the health department said everything was up to standards, and the officers from the sheriff's department who did security had no problems.

But some board members still object to the event itself.

Tina Hill, chairwoman of the county board's planning and development committee, said she's not sure the racing events are an appropriate use of the land but the planning and development office had to grant the permits.

“They knew that people didn't like the use of the land that way, they looked at the application and talked to the attorney and they said the way your ordinance is written, we have to grant it,” Hill said.

Méndez and his family run the events with a temporary use permit, outlined in the zoning ordinance as outdoor entertainment events.

Mary Donner, vice chairman of the planning and development committee, said some board members think the county should benefit from taxing the event – either the food sold at the event or the admission charged to get in.

“If there are going to be such events out there, we should be able to get something from it,” Donnor said.

Amid the barrage of complaints, Méndez said he has tried to follow the rules as the ordinances define them and recreate a tradition from his parent's hometown.

In the northern Mexico town of Santa Maria del Oro, named for a gold mine there, a community racetrack is home to regular events. The track owners have an agreement with the local government to donate part of their profits to the church. Méndez said he plans to initiate similar donations here.

He said he donated $1,000 to the Union Lion's Club from the Oct. 3 event and is looking forward to sponsoring a youth sports league when the season starts again in the spring.

“We get big crowds for those types of things and we get money back for the ranch but we don't want to be perceived as people that come in and make their own money,” Méndez said. “If we're in Union doing those things, we've got to give back to them as well.”

On Oct. 3 there were 15 races spaced throughout the 8-hour event. Families came from throughout Illinois and Wisconsin but even as far away as California.

Soledad Hernández was there from Round Lake with her family, including three children and four nieces and nephews. Her sister had been to a previous event but it was her first.

“It's leisure time for the family,” Hernández said. “It's fun.”

Méndez and his family are planning an event on Nov. 14 the last before it gets too cold. He hopes there aren't problems with the permitting and he can keep up the Mexican tradition on the Poker de Ases ranch. But neighbors like Frazier hope just as strongly he can't.

Jockeys race their horses to the finish line on a recent Sunday during a race at the Poker de Ases Ranch and Training Center in Union. The races can attract a couple thousand people. Benjamin Hernández
José Rivera and his daughter Starlight, of Crystal Lake, take a break between races at a horse training center in Union on Oct. 3. Each race lasts only about 14 seconds with 30 minutes in between races _ time for family and friends to mingle and enjoy a picnic. TARA GARCIA MATHEWSON
Racing fans wait along the rail for the next race to begin. TARA GARCIA MATHEWSON