Pimlico will on a Friday-Sunday schedule from September 8 through September 24 with an anticipated first post of 12:25 p.m. Following the nine-day Pimlico stand, Laurel will host 51 days of live racing through year-end.

“It’s a great brand,” Maryland Jockey Club (MJC) acting president Mike Rogers said of the decision to hold a fall meet at Pimlico. “The public loves it.”

The fall meet at Old Hilltop comes even as the MJC and its parent company, 1/ST Racing, are seeking to close the aged facility to training. Under an agreement with the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association first reported by The Racing Biz, the MJC will be permitted to close Pimlico and move those horses and horsemen to Laurel once the company has received “proper governmental approvals for horses to be stabled in Tent Barns 1, 2, and 3” and worked out a plan with the horsemen to house backstretch employees now living at Pimlico.

Rogers estimated there are currently about 200 horses in training at Pimlico with 15 different trainers. Approximately 40 people are housed at Pimlico, he said.

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“We’re planning on trying to consolidate our training operations to Laurel,” he told the Commission, though he added that he anticipated that the 2024 racing schedule would also include spring and fall meets at Pimlico.

Closing Pimlico has been billed as a cost-saving measure at a time when most in Maryland racing acknowledge the need to reduce expenses Not everyone is on board, however.

Lori Testerman, a longtime local trainer stabled at Pimlico, told the Commission that the idea that Laurel could safely handle the influx of additional horses was “ludicrous.” She added that she thought most people working on the backstretch at Pimlico would not follow the horses to Laurel, creating an additional hardship for horsemen.

“I think the thought of Pimlico closing is devastating,” she said.

And April Smith, an activist with the “Friends of Pimlico” group, which advocates for Pimlico as Maryland’s major track, decried with she called the “selfish, stupid, and harebrained decisions” racing’s leadership has made regarding Pimlico.

Rogers demurred on setting a timeline for Pimlico’s closure to training, given delays the company has already experienced, but it seems likely to be several months. He said he “could see” Tent Barn 3 ready for occupancy by the end of August, but that is one of several steps required before moving horses from Pimlico. Once that barn is ready, horses from Tent Barns 1 and 2 will be moved into it to allow the company to improve sprinkler systems there.

Once that’s done, and after the MJC and horsemen have implemented a housing plan for displaced Pimlico backstretch workers, then the consolidation can take place.

NOTES The Commission also approved commissioner Terry West as the chair of the Maryland Bred Race Fund Advisory Committee and the continuation of bonuses from that fund at the current level… The Commission approved Rosecroft for its fall harness meeting, from September 1 through the end of the year. The track will host 26 days of live racing…