The project to remake Pimlico Race Course remains “on track” to begin demolition 30 days after the running of the 150^th Preakness Stakes May 17, Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA) chairman Greg Cross told the first quarterly MTROA meeting of 2025 Feb. 7, “with construction to commence sometime in the fall.”

But a lot of balls remain in the air, and much remains to be done if the project is to meet its hoped-for 2027 completion. That would allow the Preakness to return to its traditional home after one running, in 2026, at Laurel Park.

The plan for the public-facing parts of the site – the entryways and clubhouse – remains very much a work in progress. On a site plan presented by the architectural and design firm Populous, those areas are a blank space with the words “Clubhouse, Paddock, Plaza, & Parking Redesign in Progress.”

Those wishing to know what the new clubhouse, grandstand, and public entrance areas will need to wait.

“I would expect that we will get a site plan and schematic design that can start to be shared in the next 60 to 90 days,” Cross said. “[The Maryland Stadium Authority] controls the schedule, so we really react to what they give us and when they give it to us. That’s the window that I understand.”

As the project has developed, the overall site appears likely to be substantially similar to the site as it exists today. The biggest component of that is the decision, first reported in The Racing Biz, not to rotate the racing strip. Instead, the track will remain in its current approximately north-south orientation.

[STORY CONTINUES BELOW]

Cross said there were several reasons for the decision to leave the racing strip intact. Likely the most important: it will save $30 to $35 million, “a big savings on the project, which we will need.”

“Although we have in excess of $500 million, we’ve got to build two facilities,” Cross added. “And to put that in perspective, the Ravens and the Orioles are spending $600 million each just to do renovations of a portion of their facilities. So we have to build two on a much more slim budget.”

Cross also noted that retaining the current configuration of the track cut down on the number of barns located along W. Belvedere Ave. along the south of the property, which had been a concern of neighborhood advocates. Additionally, the current orientation of the clubhouse serves to block the afternoon sun from jockeys in the stretch.

“They did know what they were doing when they built these things,” Cross said. “When the horses are coming down the stretch, the sun is not in the jockeys’ eyes.”

The Pimlico plan, according to Bill Bourne of Populous, will include stabling for around 450 runners. The majority, approximately 264 stalls, will be on the triangle of land bounded by Pimlico Road and W. Belvedere where most of Pimlico’s remaining barns are today.

Another 80 stalls will be located in what is now mostly parking past the end of the six-furlong chute, in addition to a sizable receiving barn. The “Preakness compound,” located similarly to the current Preakness barn, will include 36 stalls for Preakness horses and the like, with another 64-stall barn nearby.

Cross said that the current Preakness barns are “really dilapidated” and not worth saving, but that “historic elements of those barns are intended to be saved.” Those will be repurposed as, in essence, museum pieces available for public viewing, Cross said.

The MTROA also has some work to do on itself. With the choice of his family’s Shamrock Farm as the new training center, Tom Rooney has stepped down from the MTROA and must be replaced. He represented the Maryland Horse Breeders Association on the Authority.

In addition, there has not yet been any announcement on the composition of the board of directors of the nonprofit track operator, the Maryland Jockey Club (TMJC).

LATEST NEWS