The measure, launched Thursday with lower than a month to go in the session, would use $400 million in state bonds to rebuild the home of the second jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A new plan to rebuild Baltimore’s storied however deteriorating Pimlico Race Course and switch the observe to state management is making a late cost down the stretch of Maryland’s legislative session.
The measure, launched Thursday with lower than a month to go in the session, would use $400 million in state bonds to rebuild the home of the second jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.
The plan requires transferring Pimlico from the Stronach Group, which is the present proprietor of Pimlico and close by Laurel Park, to a newly shaped nonprofit that will function underneath the state.
Greg Cross, chairman of the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, mentioned in an announcement Thursday that the authority supported the plan “that may assist safe the future of horse racing right here in Maryland.”
Cross thanked Belinda Stronach and the Stronach Group for the “professionalism and good religion they introduced to this course of with the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority.”
“We know the state is raring to see the lengthy overdue enhancements to Pimlico and investments in the Park Heights neighborhood come to fruition, and the governor appears to be like ahead to working with the General Assembly to finalize this deal and cross the authorizing laws to make it a actuality,” Cross mentioned in the assertion.
Craig Fravel, govt vice chairman of 1/ST Racing, the Stronach Group’s racing and wagering enterprise, mentioned in depth negotiations have taken place since an announcement in early January outlined a framework for an settlement between the Stronach Group, the Maryland Jockey Club and the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority.
“That settlement goals to safe a sustainable future for the Maryland Thoroughbred racing trade and guarantee the profitable operation of Pimlico Race Course and the Preakness in Baltimore,” Fravel mentioned. “We thank Greg Cross and the MTROA board. We look ahead to the legislative consideration course of and collaborating with the MTROA and Maryland stakeholders to usher in a new period for racing in the state.”
Under the plan, the Preakness would relocate to Laurel Park in 2026 whereas the new facility is being constructed, earlier than returning to Pimlico, seemingly in 2027. The momentary transfer would come as the third Triple Crown race, the Belmont Stakes, is scheduled to return to Belmont Park from a two-year hiatus at Saratoga Race Course whereas the New York observe undergoes a $455 million reconstruction.
Maryland lawmakers authorized a plan in 2020 to rebuild the observe, but it surely by no means obtained off the floor. The new plan will increase the quantity of state bonds to be used from $375 million to $400 million. The plan additionally requires a coaching facility, with particulars to be decided.
“It’s at all times been the objective of the authority to put Maryland racing and breeding able the place we generally is a main participant in the sport of Thoroughbred racing once more,” mentioned Tom Rooney, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, who was appointed by Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to serve on the authority. “We are one step nearer to attaining our objective.”
The invoice is being launched late in the General Assembly’s 90-day session, which is scheduled to adjourn April 8, however lawmakers had talked about the chance of a proposal coming earlier than them.
“We knew it was coming,” Democratic Sen. Guy Guzzone, chairman of the Senate’s price range committee, advised reporters Thursday, noting that “there are an entire host of points that we’re going to have to evaluate over the coming days.”
If the invoice will get to the end line, it could characterize the largest step ahead for Pimlico, which has confronted an unsure future for a number of years and gone by way of a number of proposals for updates and modifications.
In 2019, the Maryland Jockey Club closed off almost 7,000 grandstand seats, citing the “security and safety of all friends and workers.” The Preakness has struggled to draw pre-pandemic attendance numbers lately, down to 65,000 individuals in 2023 for Friday and Saturday in contrast to greater than 180,000 for the similar days 4 years earlier.
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.
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