Maryland buys Preakness Stakes to keep Triple Crown racing in the state
by Sean Salai · The Washington TimesMaryland has announced plans to buy the Preakness Stakes, keeping the Triple Crown race in the state and quashing concerns that a for-profit company would move it.
Gov. Wes Moore and the Maryland Jockey Club, the state’s nonprofit racing partner, said the offer matches an $85 million bid from Churchill Downs Inc. to acquire the intellectual property rights from 1/ST Racing.
Churchill, the for-profit owner of the Kentucky Derby, has earned a reputation among equestrians for closing tracks nationwide.
“I think the governor just saw that the Preakness really belonged to the state,” Bill Knauf, the jockey club’s president and general manager, said in a Monday phone interview with The Washington Times. “Honestly, I don’t know what Churchill’s long-term plan was, but this is a permanent solution and a good one.”
Mr. Knauf said the purchase makes the race financially “self-sustaining in the future,” ending years of profitability struggles under 1/ST and other owners.
The club assumed management of the Preakness and preliminary Black-Eyed Susan Stakes last year as part of a new private-public partnership.
Under a deal that was nearly finalized, it would have paid Churchill Downs variable fees out of race proceeds to cover the cost of buying it from the Stronach Group, 1/ST’s Canadian parent company.
Maryland’s decision to block Churchill’s purchase means the club will now pay a fixed annual sum of $6 million directly to the state over the next 30 years.
Advertisement Advertisement
The Maryland Economic Development Corp. plans to finance the transaction through a tax-exempt revenue bond, ensuring no general fund tax dollars are used.
“The state of Maryland will secure ownership of these iconic racing assets, ensuring that Maryland remains in firm control of the state’s multibillion-dollar horseracing industry for decades,” Mr. Moore, a Democrat, said Thursday in a statement.
The Preakness generates $52.7 million of economic activity for the Baltimore metro area each year, a 2019 University of Baltimore study found. That’s on top of millions of dollars in wagering and ticketing revenues.
Nevertheless, it has struggled more than similar events to overcome a decades-long slide in the popularity of professional horse racing.
Multiple Kentucky Derby winners have skipped the Preakness in recent years to rest for the higher-profile Belmont Stakes, leading officials to consider moving the date.
Advertisement Advertisement
Meanwhile, the growing legalization of online betting has deepened the pressure on tracks nationwide to close, endangering the sport’s survival.
Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course did not host the Preakness for the first time in 118 years last month. This year’s 151st race moved to Laurel Park, which opened in 1911 and will become a training facility next year as officials consolidate the state’s $2 billion-a-year industry.
Officials are renovating Pimlico into a statewide racing hub called Pimlico Plus, slated to reopen for the 2027 race.
Napoleon Solo, this year’s Preakness winner, brought home $1.2 million of a $2 million purse.
Advertisement Advertisement
Leslie Warder, a lifelong horse enthusiast who attended her first Preakness Stakes last month, said that she’s happy the state is buying the race.
“This decision aligns with the overall goals of ensuring the Preakness remains a central part of the Triple Crown and a Maryland tradition,” said Ms. Warder, 50, an Annapolis resident.
On June 5, the governor tapped Dominion Real Estate CEO Nicole Earle to lead the consolidation as chair of the Maryland Racing Commission.
Ms. Earle pledged in a statement to “contribute to the success of Maryland racing as investments in Pimlico and Laurel shape a sustainable future for this longstanding Maryland tradition.”
Advertisement Advertisement
Organized horse racing in America dates back to before the United States declared independence from Great Britain 250 years ago.
The Maryland Jockey Club, the nation’s oldest sporting organization, was founded in Annapolis in 1743. It launched the Preakness Stakes in 1873, two years before the first Kentucky Derby.
Declining interest consigned Preakness to New York from 1890 to 1908 before it returned to Baltimore.
Mr. Knauf, a lifelong fan of the sport who grew up near Saratoga Race Course in New York, managed New Jersey’s Monmouth Race Track before taking over the jockey club.
Advertisement Advertisement
He touted plans to expand Preakness from a weeklong to a monthlong event and to convert Pimlico into a yearlong activity hub, building on his previous experience.
“Fans are going to see something they’ve never seen in Maryland before,” Mr. Knauf said Monday. “I think you’ll have a different focus with everyone aligned around state goals.”
The Maryland Board of Public Works will hold a final vote to approve Laurel Park as a year-round training center on July 1.
Mr. Knauf said Preakness is on schedule to return to Pimlico next year with renovated barns, paddock, walking ring and “some infrastructure” completed.
“The building itself won’t be ready until 2028, but we’ll work around that with temporary construction for the seating and hospitality areas,” he added.
Contact the author
Sean Salai
Follow author updates Follow Click to follow. Manage followed authors