Baltimore City Wire

Gov. Larry Hogan wants to keep the Preakness Stakes at Baltimore's Pimlico race course, an important Maryland horse racing tradition for more than 140 years.

“The Preakness isn’t going anywhere,” Hogan said in an interview with WBAL TV before the second event in horse racing's Triple Crown, which was held on May 19. 

A recent report by the Maryland Stadium Authority estimated that Pimlico needs approximately $300 million in renovations, but it's unlikely that means the race will need to be moved.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan

“Based on our observations, there do not appear to be any situational factors that cannot be overcome with regard to continue hosting the Preakness at Pimlico," the report’s authors said.

Attendance at the Preakness has steadily increased over the past four years, according to a Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce press release, with the event attracting a record crowd of 140,327 attendees in 2017. Moreover, the Preakness generated $18.9 million in direct spending and supported 480 full-time-equivalent jobs in 2015, the chamber said.

“It will take the track owners, the city, the state, private investors, to come in here and say it is not just about the stadium and a couple of race days a year,” Hogan told WBAL. “It is about what we do here with the hospital, surrounding neighborhoods, and it is going to take a redevelopment of the whole region to keep this a place where people want to come and spend money and feel safe. It’s not going to happen overnight but I think it has got great possibilities.”

There has been speculation that Old Hilltop, as Pimlico is also known, would be shut down and the Preakness and all other horse races there would be moved to the newer Laurel Park, which is outside Baltimore city limits. The move, however, would have to be approved by the state legislature. 

“Sixty years ago, a bill for closing Pimlico and transferring the dates to Laurel was defeated by a 15-14 vote in the Maryland legislature,” Mostafa Razzak, Public Affairs and Policy Committee Chairman for the Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce, said in the press release. “If it comes down to another vote, it is the responsibility of every business owner and resident to let our elected officials know that history must repeat itself.”