It’s time for high-stakes racing in Maryland as horse racing shifts from Laurel to Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course on Friday. Pimlico is home to the Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of the Triple Crown, and one of the highest-stakes race in Maryland.
Preakness weekend alone features 16 stakes races for nearly $2.5 million. Preakness, which will be held May 21, has a purse of $1 million alone. Tickets are $40 in advance through Ticketmaster and the Preakness ticket sales office and $50 during Preakness week.
Last year, nearly 96,000 attended Preakness and more than $79 million was wagered throughout the day. Preakness Day’s attendance record is 121,263 people in 2007.
Preakness weekend is a day where the Maryland racing tradition shines — horse racing at its best here. Big hats, lots of booze and tons of people flock to Pimlico just like in the good old days. But as it has been for the last few years, the day will be shrouded in the uncertainty of the state’s horse-racing future.
Most recently, track owners revealed that the money brought in from the Preakness is no longer enough to hold up the state’s beleagured racing industry — a huge blow to the future of the sport here.
Since 2009, the uncertainty revolved around the track owner’s bankruptcy and ensuing sale. This year, the new track owners from Canada, MI Developments, say they can’t run a full racing schedule in the state without a subsidy from taxpayers. A subsidy was granted this year and it’s likely it will be extended to the next three years. But whether racing can survive on its own in Maryland is still not clear.
