Laurel meet opens with new wager, facility upgrades

Following a 19-day break to allow for the state fair meet at Timonium, Laurel Park springs back to life Friday for the three-day-a-week fall season, which runs through the end of the year.

The down time at Laurel allowed for maintenance of the main track and turf course. In and around the grandstand, several capital improvement projects are under way.

Laurel will serve as the wagering hub for the new Stronach 5, which begins Sept. 28. Two new offtrack-betting locations are expected to open in the coming weeks.

And, 45 stakes worth more than $4.4 million are planned, many of which will be held on multi-stakes days throughout the season.

The Laurel turf course was hard-used over the summer and showed signs of strain during the final few weeks of racing. According to Sal Sinatra, president of the Maryland Jockey Club, the turf course has been “disked, seeded, and fertilized” since the Aug. 19 finale.

The main track also was inspected and “some material has been added,” according to Sinatra.

The grandstand renovations include a remodeling of the lower box-seat area.

“The boxes should be completed all the way down the glass by Maryland Million Day in October,” Sinatra said.

Other projects include converting some unused floor space into a “Stronach campus” that will become the headquarters of two Stronach Group companies, AmTote and Xpressbet.

An outdoor concert area will be constructed in what is now the horsemen’s parking lot near the racing office. Laurel’s first concert will be on Maryland Million Day in October when a crowd of 10,000 is expected for the inaugural Clubhouse Festival, which will be headlined by the Electro-house performer Deadmau5.

“The goal in the organization is to utilize our facilities, most of which have a certain amount of dead space,” Sinatra said. “The plan is to build Laurel out and host a Breeders’ Cup and to prepare it for future Preaknesses.”

The Stronach 5 is a $1 minimum pick five wager with a 12 percent takeout – like all pick fives in Maryland – and a full carryover provision if there aren’t any tickets with all five winners. The wager, which will be held every Friday, comprises races from Stronach-owned tracks that will be run within an hour’s time.

The first Stronach 5 on Sept. 28 will include races from Golden Gate Fields, Gulfstream Park, Laurel, and Santa Anita. It will have a $50,000-guaranteed pool.

On Sept. 11, the Maryland Racing Commission will hold a hearing and public comment forum regarding the opening of an already-completed offtrack-betting parlor at the MGM National Harbor casino, which is across the Potomac River from Alexandria, Va., and just southeast of Washington D.C.

“If approved, we plan on opening the next day,” Sinatra said. “It should be a very good OTB for us, five minutes from Washington.”

Another hearing is scheduled for Sept. 20, on the opening of an OTB in a Frederick, Md., hotel complex, 50 miles northeast of Baltimore.

When the two facilities come online, the Stronach Group will have eight offtrack-wagering locations in the state, in addition to Laurel, Pimlico, and Rosecroft Raceway, which is four miles away from MGM National Harbor.

The three biggest race days of the Laurel fall meet are the De Francis Dash program on Sept. 15, the Baltimore-Washington Turf Cup card on Sept. 29, and Maryland Million on Oct. 20.

The Grade 3, $250,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash is the richest of the afternoon’s seven stakes. There are six stakes on Turf Cup Day, including the new $150,000 Bald Eagle, a 1 1/2-mile turf marathon for 3-year-olds. The 11 Maryland Million races have total purses of more than $1 million.

Racing at the fall meet will be held Fridays through Sundays. The opening-day card has 10 races, including six on turf which have a combined 62 betting interests.