New plan calls for state-created nonprofit to run Preakness, operate Maryland’s racing industry

After years of stalled plans and impeded progress, a report filed Friday proposes sweeping changes and a new path forward for Maryland’s racing industry.

The 16-page document — the product of a legislature-mandated report by the recently formed Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority — recommends to the General Assembly that a nonprofit created by the state take over day-to-day racing operations from The Stronach Group, the Canadian company that owns Baltimore’s Pimlico racetrack, the Preakness, and currently operates racing. Stronach, doing business as 1/ST Racing, would also donate to the state Pimlico, which would become the hub of Maryland racing.

Stronach would retain ownership of the Preakness, one of Baltimore’s most prized annual events, while licensing the rights to the event to the state-created nonprofit.

A joint statement from Stronach and Gov. Wes Moore’s office Friday stated the parties “have reached the framework of an agreement in principle to preserve and enhance the Thoroughbred racing industry in Maryland.”

As part of the proposal, Pimlico would be renovated with roughly $400 million in state funds allocated by a 2020 bill for racetrack improvement. An improved Pimlico would greet racing fans in the coming years.

Greg Cross, the racing authority’s chairman, said the current expectation, subject to the timing of approvals, is for Pimlico to be renovated by the 2027 Preakness. As Old Hilltop is upgraded, day-to-day racing and the Preakness would move to Anne Arundel County’s Laurel Park in 2025 and 2026. After that, it is expected that Laurel Park, which is owned by Stronach, would no longer host racing, but it is not yet known what would become of the track.

“We don’t have specific plans for it, so that will remain to be seen,” Stronach CEO Craig Fravel told The Baltimore Sun.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said in a statement: “We look forward to engaging the community in the process of envisioning the future of the track. It’s a valuable site that could generate important community benefits.”

The plan comes four years after a 2020 bill sought to renovate both of Maryland’s aging mile-long racing ovals: Pimlico and Laurel. However, a slew of logistical issues, rising costs and a changing vision stopped those plans before they began.

This plan — billed as the Pimlico Plus model in the report — hopes to provide a beacon to the Maryland horse racing industry — one that has been blighted by declining interest and deteriorating facilities.

“This is the first time in 40 years [that] there’s a path,” racing authority chairman Greg Cross told The Sun.

The framework — which still requires formal approval, including from the General Assembly — proposes that Pimlico be “rebuilt as a best-in-class facility to serve as the hub of the Maryland racing industry and as a source of year-round economic activity that includes a hotel, event space, development parcels and parking that can be shared with the neighboring community,” according to the report.

A few pieces of the 2020 plan remain. Pimlico will be renovated, it will continue to regularly host the Preakness, and development of the area is expected to benefit the nearby Park Heights neighborhood.

However, the new proposal differs in key ways. Laurel had been contemplated as the primary host of day-to-day Maryland thoroughbred racing (with Pimlico still hosting the Preakness), but fixing up both tracks proved far too costly. That plan quickly became hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.

Maryland would no longer have two operating mile-long racing ovals, under the proposal, as Pimlico, would serve as the hub of racing. Once upgraded, Pimlico would host 140 to 160 racing days a year, a slight decrease from the state’s total in recent years but far more than the 80 or 90 Stronach had previously pitched.

To support racing at Pimlico, a training facility would be built elsewhere — either at Bowie Racetrack, Mitchell Farm in Aberdeen or Shamrock Farm in Woodbine. That facility would include a track, dormitory housing and barns for about 650 horses.

The proposed nonprofit model is similar to the one that New York employs. Members of the nonprofit would be industry professionals hired by the racing authority.

“This is a very, very positive step for the racing industry and the Pimlico community,” Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a Democrat who represents the Pimlico area, told The Sun.

Under the framework, Stronach would continue to own the Preakness, but the state-created nonprofit would pay Stronach a licensing fee for the right to operate the second jewel of the Triple Crown, Cross said. Neither Cross nor Fravel said, however, how much that fee would be. The nonprofit would, in turn, retain revenue from the meet.

This story will be updated.