Maryland horse racing bill would use $400M to rebuild Pimlico, training facility

With less than a month left in the Maryland General Assembly’s 2024 session, legislators will consider a horse racing bill that aims to install a new nonprofit day-to-day operator, rebuild worn-down Pimlico Race Course and construct a training facility using $400 million in state bonds.

The plan — a much-amended version of a 2020 blueprint — is similar to what the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority recommended to the General Assembly in a January report.

It would require $25 million more than previously anticipated and would slightly decrease the number of racing days as the industry continues to search for economic equilibrium amid a national decline in the popularity of thoroughbred horse racing.

In 2020, Maryland legislators passed a bill to improve both Pimlico in Baltimore, the home of the Preakness Stakes, and Laurel Park in Anne Arundel County. But that plan never got out of the starting gate after a series of pandemic delays and economic issues. Instead, the legislature will now consider the updated proposal: Use that preapproved $375 million, plus $25 million more, to rebuild Pimlico and add a training track elsewhere.

Under the proposal, The Stronach Group — the state’s current operator and the owner of Laurel Park and Pimlico — would give Pimlico to the state but continue to own Laurel Park, which would shut down racing operations in the coming years.

“Every 10 years, the legislature tried to solve the problem and every 10 years they kicked the can down the road with Band-Aids,” racing authority Chair Greg Cross said Thursday. “This is the first time we’re actually doing something new. We’ve tried and tried and we’re finally there, so I certainly hope the legislature passes it.”

Cross previously told legislators that he hoped legislation would be introduced by March 1, but it wasn’t until Thursday that a bill was brought to the House, on behalf of the racing authority. That leaves a little more than three weeks for it to navigate both chambers of the General Assembly before the session adjourns April 8.

There is a “binding commitment” — subject to the necessary government approvals, Cross said — between the racing authority and Stronach to donate Pimlico to the authority. If the bill passes and receives approvals, Stronach and the state would close on their deal June 1, with ownership of Pimlico transferring to the state July 1.

The bill would require more state investment than previously anticipated — $400 million in bonds, to be paid back annually with at least $17 million a year, virtually all of it from state slot machine revenue that is already allocated to the racing industry. That’s a 6% increase as compared with the already-earmarked $375 million.

That’s not a massive budget hit “in the grand scheme of things,” said Sen. Guy Guzzone, a Howard County Democrat who chairs the Budget and Taxation Committee.

“However, I take every dollar seriously, so we’ll give it a good look all around,” Guzzone said.

The state is currently searching for avenues — including a bill that would expand the sales tax and another that would legalize and tax internet gambling — to raise revenue as it faces a budget deficit while still seeking ways to finance the multibillion-dollar Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a statewide education plan.

The new racing plan calls for the Preakness to be run at Pimlico this year and next, the 150th installment. It would then move to Laurel Park for one year, 2026, and return to a revamped Pimlico in 2027. The Maryland Stadium Authority would be tasked with designing and building Pimlico.

“We look forward to the legislative consideration process and collaborating with the MTROA and Maryland stakeholders to usher in a new era for racing in the State,” Stronach CEO Craig Fravel said in a statement.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, a nonprofit would take over day-to-day operation of racing in the state from Stronach, the Canadian company also known as 1/ST Racing. Stronach would continue to operate the Preakness until 2027, when the nonprofit would assume responsibility for the marquee event. Preakness, held the third Saturday in May, is the storied second jewel in racing’s Triple Crown.

Stronach would retain ownership of the Preakness itself, but would license it for an annual fee — a figure yet to be disclosed — to the nonprofit operator. That nonprofit would annually run the meet and, after paying that fee, retain revenues from Preakness weekend.

“We get to bet on ourselves. We’re going to control our own destiny,” Cross said.

Despite state subsidies from slot machine revenue, Stronach’s Fravel said last year that the private operator lost $10 million annually on racing, “with no prospect of turning around.” The nonprofit would seek to do what Stronach could not — operate racing without losing money.

There are traditionally 175 racing days in Maryland, which Stronach had suggested cutting to 80 or 90. Cross said running 140 days of racing annually is the “target.”

Cross has previously said the state will not be required to “subsidize a dollar of operational loss” and noted Thursday potential cost-saving measures — once a new Pimlico is built — that could assist a nonprofit to operate without losing money.

“Stronach was operating two aged facilities,” Cross said. “That’s a substantial difference. And the Preakness, in an aged facility, is very costly to run.”

Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a Democrat whose district includes Pimlico and the Park Heights community in Northwest Baltimore, has introduced a bill, with companion legislation in the Senate from Democratic Sen. Jill P. Carter of Baltimore, that would create a “community development plan” for the neighborhoods near the track. He likened bills introduced this session to a “springboard for redevelopment” of the communities surrounding the racecourse.

Previous timelines have left racing fans skeptical, but this plan calls for the 152nd Preakness, in 2027, to be run at a finally rebuilt Pimlico, which would become the hub of Maryland racing.

The Baltimore track is not big enough, however, to house Maryland’s entire racing industry, so a complementary training facility would be built at one of three sites: Mitchell Farm in Aberdeen, Shamrock Farm in Woodbine, or the currently closed Bowie training center.

Bowie was rated as the third-best training track option in a report from Populous, a consultant, to the racing authority with Mitchell and Shamrock tying as the most viable. The nine-member racing authority will determine this year where the training facility goes.

The Harford County Council passed a resolution in February in support of the Mitchell Farm site, which the report described as “ideal” because it “is relatively flat and has no natural resource challenges.” The Shamrock site — which is owned by the family of authority member Tom Rooney, who recused himself from discussing the matter — “offers an idyllic setting,” the report stated, “where horses can live like horses.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Hannah Gaskill contributed to this article.