Video edited on Kapwing

Maryland horsemen’s top priorities in the new year are seeing a board of directors seated to govern the new nonprofit Maryland Jockey Club and getting a new training center identified and under construction.

The state’s breeders, meanwhile, are in the market for new incentives to help bolster their end of the industry.

Those were among the takeaways from the Dec. 17 year-end meeting of the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA).

Couple those needs with an entirely new ownership structure for the racetracks and a new state body overseeing racing, and there is, trainer Tim Keefe told the meeting, “a lot of uncertainty” in the industry.

With a knowledgeable, experienced staff in place, the absence of a board of directors is unlikely to matter in the immediate term for the new Maryland Jockey Club. Indeed, MTROA chairman Greg Cross said he expected the transition from Stronach Group management to the nonprofit to be “seamless.”   

But in the longer run, it’s the board that will set the strategic direction and priorities of the new MJC. Not knowing who will be on it – or what level of industry knowledge the members will bring – is an area of concern for many horsemen.

Keefe, also the former president of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (MTHA), chimed in during the Dec. 17 meeting.

“It just seems to me, like, if you’re 14 days away from handing the reins over to a new entity that’s going to run the industry, how come [seating the board] hasn’t happened sooner?” he asked.

“I think that should have been done yesterday. Whatever the impediments are, we need to do whatever we can to get that resolved,” agreed Alan Foreman, who represents horsemen’s interests as a member of the MTROA.

Cross said he expected the seating of the board to take place “in the next couple months.”

“There were some people who want to comment and review, and we haven’t received that feedback yet,” he said at the year-end meeting.

Calling seating the board his “number one priority,” Foreman said that body should be “representative of the industry and its experts” and “take into account the horsemen and the breeders.”

He added, “I think that board should start to engage the conversation… about breeder incentives and everything else related to the racing industry.”

Getting the training center location chosen and its build-out underway is Foreman’s second priority.

It appears that Shamrock Farm in Woodbine is the chosen location for the new training center, though there has been no official announcement. A variety of sources have pointed to Shamrock, one MTROA member mentioned it in the most recent meeting, and a Baltimore Sun story citing “a source with direct knowledge” also flagged Shamrock.

The Pimlico property is too small to house the horse population necessary to support anything like a year-round racing program, making the training center a vital component to the overall project from the horsemen’s perspective.

“It drives the project, and we’ve got to get moving,” Foreman said. “The horsemen need to plan now for where they’re going to be training, and if the training center is not ready, it’s going to delay the entire project.”

Then there’s the matter of breeder incentives. Maryland breeders feel increasingly under the gun, and the number of Maryland-bred and -sired horses is reflecting that. The number of mares bred by Maryland sires has fallen from 930 in 2016 to 572 last year to 442 in 2024. The 584 Maryland-bred foals of 2022 were the fewest in number since 2014.

Cross announced at the most recent MTROA meeting that he had asked Tom Rooney, the breeders’ representative on the MTROA (and also part of the family that owns Shamrock Farm), to head a task force “so that we can come up with recommendations.”

“The breeders have been working on it,” he said. “There was urgency expressed at the last meeting. I totally get it.”

“It’s amazing what you’ve gotten done. We look forward, on behalf of the breeders, to having all this good news help our industry,” Maryland Horse Breeders Association executive director Cricket Goodall told the MTROA. “So we are patiently waiting that good news.”

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