Maryland horsemen will need permission to race out of state beginning with Laurel Park meet

The Maryland Jockey Club will begin requiring horsemen to receive permission from its racing department to run an MJC-stabled horse at a track outside the state in September, the parent company of the track told horsemen on Friday.

The MJC, which owns and operates Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, made the announcement in an “open letter” to horsemen that said that the restriction was being put in place “in order to maximize our field sizes and maintain a healthy purse account.”

“We must put racing in the state of Maryland first,” the letter said.

In the letter, the MJC, which is owned by 1/ST, said that stalls at Laurel Park will be “reserved for horses that race consistently at MJC venues,” and that approval to ship-out from Laurel will be “granted on a case-by-case basis.” Laurel Park is a short van ride from a number of racetracks that hold live racing throughout the year, and many tracks throughout the Northeast and Midlantic are struggling to maintain large field sizes.

1/ST also owns Gulfstream Park in South Florida, one of the primary winter-racing products in the U.S.

While acknowledging that Laurel hasn’t had an explicit policy requiring permission to race elsewhere, trainer Timothy Keefe, the president of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, said that it had been the “expectation” at Laurel in the past that horsemen wouldn’t leave the grounds “just to find a short field somewhere else.”

“I’ve always been of the opinion that you don’t look to jump on a van and go somewhere else,” Keefe said. “So this isn’t anything really new. It might be just more of a focus now.”

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Keefe said he expected the racing office to accommodate horsemen who can’t find races that fit their horses’ conditions, and that Mike Rogers, the acting president and general manager of the MJC, called him to discuss the new policy prior to it being announced.

The MJC only recently finished a project to completely renovate the main track at Laurel Park, a decision that put a strain on horsemen and resulted in racing being moved to Pimlico Race Course for most of the spring and summer.

Although horses have been allowed to resume stabling and training at Laurel Park, live racing is scheduled to continue at Pimlico through Aug. 22, on a Friday-through-Sunday basis. Laurel officially begins its fall meet on Sept. 9, when the new policies will go into effect. The track will race throughout the winter.

In July, field sizes at U.S. tracks dipped to 6.95 horse per race, according to figures distributed by Equibase, down from 7.62 horses per race during the same month last year, when fewer races were being conducted due to the coronavirus pandemic. Field size, which is highly correlated with handle, is generally lowest during winter months for cold-weather tracks.