What's the future of the Preakness Stakes? 'I'll be floored if they're up and running at a new Pimlico next year'

The Preakness Stakes will be run for the 151st time on Saturday, but never in its modern history will it seem less like a part of horse racing’s Triple Crown.

Golden Tempo, the Kentucky Derby winner, is bypassing the race. Despite its $2 million purse, the 14-horse field appears to be one of the weakest in recent memory. And for the first time ever, it’s at a racetrack that may be gone soon — Laurel Park, just north of Washington, D.C. — with attendance capped at 4,800.

“It’s still obviously a very historic race,” said trainer Chad Brown, who has won the Preakness twice. “The race still carries a lot of significance in the overall Thoroughbred industry and the breed.”

In the sport’s ideal world, the Preakness would make its triumphant return to Baltimore next year at a sparkling, rebuilt Pimlico that serves as an anchor point for the rebirth of Maryland racing.

But in horse racing’s current reality, where dysfunction and decline have become the norm in all but a handful of places, there is instead deep concern and uncertainty about what the future of the Preakness looks like — particularly in a world where the racetrack is being rebuilt and operated by the state of Maryland.

“I’ll be floored if they’re up and running at a new Pimlico next year,” one industry source told Yahoo Sports.

The future of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course is in question due to a multitude of issues.

(Rob Carr via Getty Images)

A quick internet search makes it easy to understand the concern. Despite promises that running the Preakness at Laurel this year is a one-off, with a state-funded rebuild of Pimlico on the way, aerial photos from late April posted by the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association show little more than a large hole in the ground where the grandstand should be, the beginning of construction on a tunnel to the infield and steel framing of two backstretch barns.

Appearances can be deceiving in the middle of a construction project, but having the site ready to host a world-class sporting event — even in a limited form — would seem an ambitious goal in a relatively short 12-month window.

But beyond the state of Pimlico’s reconstruction lies a deeper problem for the second jewel of the Triple Crown: Can Maryland racing even survive under a government-run regime that several Thoroughbred industry insiders view as a boondoggle full of red flags, always at the mercy of the state’s ever-shifting political winds?

“I get the history of horse racing, but at some point, you know, we have to get to it sink or swim,” Maryland state treasurer Dereck Davis said at a recent Board of Public Works meeting seeking approval for a $3.9 million equipment expense related to Pimlico. “Can it survive? We can’t keep pouring massive amounts of dollars into this industry just for the third weekend in May.”

Messy politics, plumbing and payment problems

Understanding the Preakness’ current predicament requires going back at least a couple decades. While the race regularly drew 100,000 fans to the same historic facility where all the greats once ran, including Seabiscuit and War Admiral in a famous 1938 match race that Hollywood recreated for a 2003 motion picture, Pimlico had become a sadder and more obsolete site with each passing year.

As far back as 2016 — a full 10 years ago — Pimlico was only open for 28 days, with the vast majority of Maryland racing taking place at Laurel, a facility that had been renovated multiple times in the 2000s with more room for horses to be trained and housed year-round. In essence, the company that owned both tracks kept Pimlico open almost exclusively to run the Preakness.

That company — the Stronach Group, more commonly known as 1/ST — understandably did not want to invest tens of millions of dollars to maintain a facility that was only open for a few weeks a year and mostly just for one day. The lack of maintenance led to some notable disasters, including a section of the grandstand being condemned and a massive plumbing breakdown on Preakness Day in 2019 with low water pressure and overflowing toilets.

Speculation grew over the years that 1/ST might seek to eventually move the Preakness to one of its other tracks like Gulfstream Park near Miami or Santa Anita near Pasadena, California, or perhaps even make Laurel the permanent home. The political establishment in Maryland, however, was dead-set against Baltimore losing such a prestigious international sporting event.

The grandstands are pictured before the 150th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on May 17, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland.

(Emilee Chinn via Getty Images)

But who was going to pay for Pimlico to be remade into a suitable venue? For years, a stalemate existed between the key stakeholders as the condition of the facility grew worse and worse. At some point, Pimlico’s future would come to a head.

“It gets tougher every year to give the experience that the customer deserves for an event like this,” 1/ST chief executive Tim Ritvo said in 2019.

The big breakthrough came just before the Preakness two years ago when Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced that ownership of the track was being transferred to the state for $1. With a commitment to rebuild Pimlico and make it the year-round home of Maryland racing, along with other neighborhood improvement initiatives, 1/ST was essentially leaving the scene.

For many who have been skeptical of 1/ST’s future intentions in horse racing — the company has made political moves in Florida suggesting it wants to eventually close Gulfstream Park and redevelop the valuable land it sits on — it was reason to celebrate.

But having a state-run entity operate a racetrack and control one of horse racing’s most visible days may not be a picnic, either.

Since it was originally proposed in 2020, the plan to renovate Pimlico has ballooned from $375 million to more than half a billion, according to the Baltimore Sun, due to cost overruns, tariffs on construction materials and other economic factors like rising yields on the bonds that were issued by the Maryland Stadium Authority to fund the project (i.e. inflation). As a result, some of the plans for Pimlico have been scaled back.

Also last year, Maryland’s stewardship of the project came under question after it bought a $4.5 million farm with the intention of turning it into a new training center.

Only after that expensive process, which of course included millions more spent on consultants and attorneys, was the state forced to give up on it due to an environmental issue discovered last fall: The brown trout population of a nearby stream would be threatened by the rising temperature of water runoff. Fixing it would require the $110 million earmarked for the training facility to become more than $200 million.

That misstep has raised some alarm bells in the state legislature around its plan to purchase Laurel from 1/ST for $48.5 million and repurpose it as the permanent training facility. Last week, a legislative panel hit pause on that announced transaction to take a closer look at the proposed costs and the practicality of horses constantly making a 28-mile journey between the venues on the main interstate that connects Baltimore and Washington D.C.

And because this is horse racing — a sport that has experienced broad declines in gambling dollars, attendance and foal population — it is rightly raising questions among both political parties about whether Maryland is throwing good money after bad during sensitive economic times.

Bill Ferguson, a Democrat who leads the Maryland Senate majority, told Maryland Matters that “every dollar has to be scrutinized even further” and acknowledged “generalized concerns about the long-term stability of the industry.”

Steve Hershey, the Republican minority leader in the state Senate, told the Baltimore Sun the legislature should “be honest about the fact that its success is not guaranteed” and “be prepared to reassess if the expected benefits do not materialize.”

Construction crews work at Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes, on May 1.

(Baltimore Sun via Getty Images)

Churchill Downs’ Preakness rights purchase

Given the growing political noise around the Pimlico project and the fact that very little has actually been constructed on site, many Thoroughbred industry executives were heartened by the news last month that Churchill Downs, Inc., had agreed to purchase the Preakness’ intellectual property rights from 1/ST for $85 million.

Though unclear exactly what that entailed, the broad view was that Churchill would be able to operate the Preakness like an external management company, using its expertise putting on the Kentucky Derby to optimize revenue and create an appropriate fan experience for a world-class sporting event.

Meanwhile, it seems the move is being interpreted in Maryland as a threat. Citing five sources, the Sun reported Wednesday that the state is considering whether to exercise its contractual right to match the $85 million intellectual property deal Churchill signed, the key to which are lease payments of roughly $5 million to run the race at Pimlico. If the state ever defaulted on those payments, the race could be under threat of moving elsewhere, according to the Sun.

Those concerns may not be misplaced. Though Churchill Downs chief executive Bill Carstanjen has framed it as helping the Triple Crown’s second jewel return to its former glory, with the state of Maryland “in control of the destiny of the Preakness,” it seems like an inflection point is coming down the pike.

Some sources have speculated that Churchill could just take over Maryland racing, allowing the state to offload an expensive and politically problematic project. Or, in an alternate scenario where horse racing just dies in Maryland, Churchill is waiting in the wings to revive the Preakness at one of its other properties like Colonial Downs outside of Richmond, Virginia.

Or maybe, despite all the cost overruns and bureaucratic issues, there’s a happy ending where Maryland completes its long-awaited Pimlico renovation and assures the race’s future in Baltimore for decades to come.

Either way, as the 151st Preakness takes place under some of the most unusual circumstances in the history of the Triple Crown, it seems like this long journey to the finish line is in many ways just beginning.