Nothing happens by chance – at the legislature or the race track.
The budget analysis for the Maryland Stadium Authority, prepared by our non-partisan professional staff, states, “In March 2016, the Maryland Racing Commission asked MSA to manage a study evaluating Pimlico Race Course’s ability to serve as the permanent home for the Preakness Stakes.”
That’s accurate, but the Racing Commission was not the first player to set foot on the track.
Preakness week 2015, Sal Sinatra, general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club, was quoted in the Sun as saying, “Right now, I’d say Laurel is in the lead [to host the Preakness]. My goal is to try and not let that happen.”
“This building is old, you just can’t add suites to it,” Sinatra said of Pimlico. “It’s almost a rebuild here, where Laurel is a pretty healthy building. Laurel you can renovate, so that plays into it as well. … Obviously, we have more acreage over at Laurel than we do here.”
My district includes Pimlico. I’ve been going there since I was in elementary school, not to bet but to watch the races from Jay Slater’s house – across the street from the top of the stretch.
In light of Sinatra’s statements, I asked myself, “Who is a respected neutral party that can study what it would cost to modernize Pimlico, as well as what it would cost the Baltimore region to lose the Preakness?”
The obvious answer was the Maryland Stadium Authority – highly regarded in Annapolis after building Oriole Park, M&T Bank Stadium, the Hippodrome Theatre, and the Comcast Center at College Park.
Don Hutchinson arranged a lunch meeting for me with Tom Kelso, the chairman of the Authority.
We agreed that a consultant study should be funded by the State, the City of Baltimore, and the Maryland Jockey Club, Pimlico’s owner.
Funding commitments were made, and the Racing Commission asked the Authority to manage the study.
At today’s budget hearing, the Authority indicated that it expected the second and final phase of the study to be completed this December.
At the 2019 legislative session, I won’t depend upon chance to win the race and keep the Preakness at Pimlico.
