“The Preakness isn’t going anywhere. I’m for keeping it here in Baltimore.”

I was quoted extensively in the media this past week, but I’m not the person who said that.

It was Governor Hogan.

He wasn’t the only big name supporter of keeping the Preakness at Pimlico.

“To me, it’s magical in here. There’s something about it. I’ve been watching it since I was 10, 11 years old. You think of Jim McKay. You think of the Preakness. There’s so much history here,” said Bob Baffert, the Hall of Fame trainer of Justify, the Preakness winner.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/horse-racing/bs-sp-bob-baffert-is-still-charmed-by-charm-city-20180516-story.html

Last year, the conversation was about whether the State and City should spend more than $250 million for a one-day per year return on its investment.

Now there are serious discussions about both renovating the track and making the rest of the site a 365-days per year asset of economic and community development.

Our goal is redevelopment that benefits Maryland, the Baltimore region, the track’s neighbors, and the track’s owners.

If that’s our objective, I like the odds.

And I won’t stop working to attain that result until we cross the finish line.