Maryland Reaches Tentative Deal For Pimlico Race Course Overhaul

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and the Pimlico Race Course owners announced Friday that they have established a framework for a deal to design and build a new venue at the historic track to ensure Old Hill Top remains the home of the Preakness Stakes. 

The deal's framework stipulates track owner Stronach Group, which operates in the state as the Maryland Jockey Club, would transfer its ownership of Pimlico Race Course to the state. And it would hand the responsibility of day-to-day thoroughbred horse racing operations to a state-created nonprofit by Jan. 1, 2025, along with a licensing agreement for the Preakness Stakes. 

"I'm delighted that we were able to chart a course forward for Maryland racing that will ensure the industry continues to thrive for decades to come," Greg Cross, chairman of the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, said in a statement. 

Under the tentative pact, in which details are still fluid and require legislative and state agency approval, the Maryland Jockey Club would retain ownership of the Preakness Stakes and Laurel Park in Anne Arundel County. 

"The Stronach Group and the Maryland Jockey Club Remain deeply committed to reinvigorating thoroughbred racing in Maryland, and this framework agreement represents an important first step in that process," The Stronach Group CEO Belinda Stronach said in a statement.

The Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority included the potential deal in a report delivered to the General Assembly on Friday. That report, which was required by a state law passed last year that created the authority, recommends accomplishing the state’s longstanding goal of ensuring the horse racing industry’s future in Maryland by investing heavily in Pimlico Race Course.  

In its report, authority members recommended a model called "Pimlico Plus." The authors said their recommendations, particularly using a nonprofit to transfer ownership of the track and using a licensing agreement for intellectual property, mirrors New York's strategy for its ongoing $455M transformation of Belmont Park, home to the Belmont Stakes. 

"The Authority concluded that, given the level of State investment required to rehabilitate and sustain the industry, a public ownership structure for the tracks and subsequent lease of them to a nonprofit entity led by Maryland industry professionals is the best path forward," the report says. 

Authority members recommend rebuilding Pimlico "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."

The "Pimlico Plus" concept calls for constructing a new track, a state-of-the-art clubhouse, stables for about 700 horses, event space and a hotel built for a private partner. That plan also involves public entities building parking garages and workforce housing in the surrounding Park Heights neighborhood.

Another component of the plan involves purchasing and developing a second training site within a 50-mile radius of Pimlico with barns and stables for about 650 horses. The authority ranked eight potential sites for the training center and recommended Shamrock Farm in Woodbine, Mitchell Farm in Aberdeen and Bowie Race Course in Bowie as the top choices.    

According to projections in the report, it will cost up to $116M to develop a training facility independent of acquisition costs. However, the remaining funds approved as part of the Maryland Racing and Community Development Act of 2020 are sufficient to pay for the new proposal. 

Legislators created the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority last year after soaring interest rates and rising construction costs scuttled plans approved in 2020 to overhaul both Pimlico and Laurel Park in Anne Arundel County. 

Nearly four years ago, the General Assembly passed the Maryland Racing and Community Development Act of 2020, which permitted the state to issue $375M in bonds and provide up to $30M in cash to overhaul Maryland's thoroughbred tracks at Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course.

That law served a dual purpose. It provided funds for upgrading Pimlico Race Course to prevent the Preakness Stakes, the second jewel in horse racing's Triple Crown, moving from Baltimore.

At the same time, the act allowed the Stronach Group and Maryland Jockey Club to transform Laurel Park into a hub for Maryland's $5B horse racing industry with improved racing and training facilities.  

Yet, last spring, representatives of the Maryland Jockey Club and Maryland Stadium Authority said the 2020 plan no longer worked because of inflation, rising interest rates and changes in federal tax law.

"Interest rates are going up, and there is not enough money to do both Pimlico and Laurel. So, consequently, the legislature last year ... said to the industry prioritize Pimlico," Alan Rifkin, the Maryland Jockey Club's attorney, told WBAL 1090 AM in May.

The Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority report released Friday supported earlier assertions that the 2020 plan was no longer financially feasible. Based on an analysis of six different scenarios, its authors projected that the cost to rehab both Pimlico and Laurel exceeded available funds by $126M to $311M.

Plans to revamp Pimlico Race Course have remained central to broader, decades-long efforts to revitalize the Park Heights neighborhood surrounding the track. City, state and community leaders who backed efforts to redevelop the track argued that the investment would spur renewal in the disinvested neighborhood. 

Yet, efforts to redevelop the track slogged on for years while new building and infrastructure work, funded in large part by gambling revenue, started in Park Heights. Now, in a role reversal, some local leaders contend the reinvestment in Park Heights is spurring efforts to breathe new life into the track. 

“We had thought that the racetrack redevelopment would spur the other development in Park Heights,” Del. Samuel "Sandy" Rosenberg said last month. “Well, I think it's fair to say that the other development is going to help bring about the Pimlico racetrack redevelopment.”