Maryland racing enters its own brave new world Friday with the kickoff of the 2025 racing season. It’s not, of course, just the beginning of a new racing season; it’s the public coming-out party of the new, nonprofit Maryland Jockey Club (TMJC).

The racing – for the time being, at least – will look pretty similar. Purses are unchanged from last year, and Friday’s features are a pair of first-level allowance contests, one for older fillies and mares and the other for newly minted sophomore fillies.

The latter, at 5 ½ furlongs, includes upset Maryland Million Lassie winner Shkhara Fire, for trainer Jose Corrales, facing off against Aqueduct debut winner Prancing Spirit and 2-for-2 Penn National shipper Pocket Sand, a seven-length allowance winner last out in mid-December.

The allowance for older runners features Be Inspired, a $575,000 yearling purchase owned by Repole Stable and LNJ Foxwoods. The Munnings filly, now four, won at first asking in September, easily thrashing a local maiden field. Switched to the turf, she was up the track next out before returning to dirt and finishing third in early December. The top local combo of trainer Brittany Russell and husband/jockey Sheldon Russell lead the charge.

Saturday’s action features four stakes races, two for Maryland-bred or -sired runners. Among the runners to watch: promising four-year-old Quint’s Brew makes his first start since June in the $75,000, one-mile state-restricted Jennings.

By Mosler, Quint’s Brew won his first two starts before finishing a troubled second in the Star de Naskra. He’s switched barns since and will run for trainer Ned Allard. Mychel Sanchez will ride.

But let’s face it: many Marylanders’ eyes will be on what’s different, rather than what’s the same. Here are some things to keep an eye on this weekend and going forward:

• The simulcast feed: Officials at TMJC have talked about freshening the simulcast feed, and that new look will debut Friday. The new Laurel Park logo – leaning heavily into horses and Maryland – is a good start. Cutting down on some of the extraneous (and useless) information – like percentage chance of winning – that populated the old simo feed would also be a plus.
• More emphasis on the betting product: It seems oxymoronic that a business built on betting would need to emphasize that more, but the new “bet on ourselves” model that Maryland’s adopted means that the company will need to find all the loose change in the sofa cushions. It’ll be a positive sign if the company’s website and media outreach efforts head in that direction.
• Giveaways and events: The era of the new Maryland Jockey Club kicks off with a 2025 calendar giveaway, with on-track patrons receiving a free calendar both Friday and Saturday while supplies last. That may (or may not) be a coincidence, but it dovetails nicely with TMJC head Bill Knauf’s experience at Monmouth Park and intentions in Maryland to offer more events to entice people to the track. “I’m a huge subscriber of that, just to get somebody in your facility to introduce them to the racetrack because racetracks are beautiful, and racing is exciting,” he says.
• The stakes program: Over the last decade or so, stalwart Maryland stakes like the General George, Barbara Fritchie, De Francis Dash, and Pimlico Special all have lost luster – and grades. One way for Maryland officials to reconnect the betting public with the local racing product would be to try to rebuild one, two, or a few races into marquee events – the kind that makes players in simo-land pay attention and even draws a few folks to the oval. The stakes sked will look similar to prior years through the Preakness. We’re curious to see what happens after that.

There’s a lot of anxiety about the future among Maryland horsefolks, and, honestly, who can blame them? The good news is that the questions start to have answers now.

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