Maryland horsemen, tracks agree to one-year operating extension

The major constituents of Thoroughbred racing in Maryland have reached a one-year extension on a deal to continue live racing in the state through the end of 2024, the parties announced Friday night.

The deal between Maryland’s horsemen, breeders, and sole racetrack operating company will ensure that racing continues at Laurel Park in suburban Maryland and Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore throughout 2024 and that the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, will be held at Pimlico on its usual date, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, according to officials. A previous extension of an operating agreement among the parties was set to expire Dec. 31.

The extension was inked one week before a recently created commission, the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, is set to issue a report to the state legislature outlining recommendations on a restructuring of racing in the state. Horsemen and 1/ST Racing, the company that owns the tracks, disagree on several significant options that are being considered by the commission.

The extension of the deal provides a short-term measure of stability to the Maryland racing industry, according to Alan Foreman, the long-time legal counsel to the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.

“It’s basically an extension of the exact agreement we had through 2023,” Foreman said. “We’ll try to maintain a schedule that is substantially similar to what we ran this year.”

Craig Fravel, executive vice chairman of 1/ST Racing, did not immediately return a phone call, but he said in a prepared statement that 1/ST officials are “pleased to have worked constructively with Maryland stakeholders on this agreement and look forward to continuing to work with the Maryland [Thoroughbred] Racetrack Operating Authority in the best interests of racing in Maryland.”

Horsemen and the predecessor of 1/ST, Magna Entertainment, first reached a long-term operating agreement in 2012, for a term of 10 years. Both sides have become dissatisfied with that agreement, mostly due to the horsemen’s exclusive right to subsidies from casinos in the state and a provision in the agreement that sends a portion of those subsidies to 1/ST for operating funds.

The extension that was reached earlier this year through the end of 2023 guaranteed a minimum of 100 racing days but allowed the number of live racing dates to expand considerably if the Maryland THA sent a portion of its casino subsidies to 1/ST Racing. Combined, Laurel and Pimlico ran approximately 155 days in 2023.

Foreman said that the tracks will be expected to run a similar amount of dates in 2024, though the schedule may be adjusted throughout the year depending on factors affecting the race meets and the report’s recommendations.

Horsemen and 1/ST disagree most significantly on the number of live racing dates that should be held in the state in the future, though both sides agree that racing should be consolidated at a rebuilt Pimlico, preferably through the use of $375 million in bonds that the legislature authorized nearly four years ago. It is unclear if the legislature considers the bonds to still be in play.

Once the report from the Maryland Thoroughbred Racing Operating Authority is issued to the legislature, the two sides are expected to lobby aggressively for their favored versions of the plan to restructure racing.

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