Maryland dates, stakes schedule approved

The Maryland Racing Commission on Thursday approved requests for 187 days of racing in 2019. The Maryland Jockey Club also announced its stakes schedule through September.

The MJC tracks of Laurel Park and Pimlico will race 180 days in 2019 - 168 programs at its Laurel Park base and a 12-day Preakness meet at Pimlico. The Maryland State Fair will hold its standard seven-day session from Aug. 23 through Labor Day.

Laurel Park is scheduled to race nine additional days in 2019. The Pimlico meet will be the same length as the past two years.

Racing in Maryland will be held four days a week in January, February, April, May, August, October, and November. There will be three-day weeks in March, June, July, September, and December.

The 144th Preakness is May 18. Preakness tickets are currently on sale at www.preakness.com.

The stakes schedule for the Laurel Park winter/spring meet, which will run from Jan. 1 through May 5, consists of 22 races worth a combined $2.5 million. The highlight of the season is the Feb. 16 Winter Carnival, which is topped by the Grade 3 Barbara Fritchie and Grade 3 General George on Saturday of President's Day weekend.

The Fritchie was downgraded from a Grade 2 this year by the North American Graded Stakes Committee and has had its purse trimmed $50,000 to $250,000. The General George purse remains at $250,000.

All but one of the winter stakes will be consolidated to four bundled-stakes programs.

Four $100,000 stakes will be held Jan. 12. The Fritchie and General George card has three other stakes.

A five-stakes program is scheduled for March 26 and a seven-stakes megacard, topped by the Federico Tesio for 3-year-olds and the Weber City Miss for 3-year-old fillies, will be held April 20.

The Tesio winner will receive a free berth in the Preakness, and the Weber City Miss is a Win and You're In for the Black-Eyed Susan.

Although the full schedule for the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships is yet to be released, the MATCH Series will begin with three stakes on the April 20 card.

The Marshua Stakes, which was run Jan. 27, has been dropped from this year's schedule and has been replaced by a $100,000 race named in honor of 85-year-old Hall of Fame trainer King Leatherbury.

Fittingly, the Leatherbury Stakes is a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint. Leatherbury trained regional legend Ben's Cat, who between 2010 and 2017 won 32 races while excelling in one-turn grass stakes.

In another change to the winter schedule, the $100,000 Frank Whiteley Jr., which had been a seven-furlong race in January for 3-year-olds, has had it conditions changed. The Whiteley will stay at its usual distance, but will now be open to 3-year-olds and up and held April 20.

The combined value of the Laurel winter stakes schedule is $50,000 less than a year ago.

Other highlights include:

** Sixteen stakes worth a combined $3.8 million will be held Preakness weekend at Pimlico. The Friday card will be topped by the Grade 3, $300,000 Pimlico Special and the Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan.

There will be eight supporting stakes on Preakness Day, including the $200,000 Chick Lang, which has been granted Grade 3 status this year. The $100,000 Searching, a new 1 1/2-mile turf stakes for fillies and mares, has been added to the schedule.

** The summer meet runs from May 31 to Aug 18 and will include 13 stakes worth a total of $1.1 million.

With Colonial Downs planning to reopen in August 2019, the eight Virginia-bred stakes that have been held during the Laurel summer meet and the five Virginia stakes that have been part of the fall meet are no longer part of the schedule.

The Prince George's County and Howard County, $100,000 races at 1 1/16 miles on turf for males and females, have been added to the summer season.

** The fall meet begins Sept. 6 and continues through the end of the year. There will be two Super Saturday cards in September.
The Sept. 21 program has eight stakes, topped by the Grade 3, $250,000 De Francis Dash and the Grade 3, $200,000 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup.

The $100,000 Weathervane, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies, is new to the schedule.

The Sept. 28 program has six stakes, including the $150,000 All Along Stakes. The Howard County and Anne Arundel County are newly created 5 1/2-furlong turf sprints for 2-year-olds. They each have a purse of $100,000.