Live racing has been canceled indefinitely at Laurel Park in Maryland under orders from Gov. Larry Hogan because of the coronavirus, according to the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. News of the cancellation arrived early Friday morning, approximately five hours prior to a scheduled card at the track. The statement put out by the MTHA said simply that racing was canceled “because of orders from Governor Hogan.” The notice said that racing had been canceled “until further notice.” The news came one day after Laurel announced that it had banned shippers from all tracks other than Pimlico in Baltimore, a step several tracks are taking in the midst of the outbreak. Last Sunday around mid-day, Hogan issued an order for all casinos, offtrack betting facilities, and racetracks to close “to the general public.” Laurel Park was readying to run its live card at the time the notice went out, and because the track had barred spectators earlier in the week, the track held the live racing card as scheduled. Later that day, representatives of the racing industry said they would seek clarification about the order issued by Hogan before running Laurel’s next scheduled card, which was the Friday card. Hogan on Friday morning also issued orders for malls to close. The order also led to the closing of Rosecroft Raceway, a harness track owned by Laurel’s parent company, The Stronach Group. With the closing, Laurel Park joined a rapidly growing list of tracks to cancel racing due to the outbreak. On Thursday, Aqueduct suspended racing after a groom on the backstretch tested positive for the virus. Earlier, Parx Racing racing near Philadelphia and Penn National called off racing, while racing was canceled indefinitely at Turf Paradise and Rillito Park last weekend. Also on Friday, Gulfstream Park canceled its card, but the track said that it would resume racing Saturday after putting in place additional protocols to protect against the transmission of coronavirus. In Kentucky, Keeneland chief executive officer Bill Thomason said in an open letter issued on Friday that the track would seek to run additional race dates this year after cancelling its spring meet last week. On Thursday, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission had asked its Race Dates Committee to meet in the upcoming weeks to explore whether racetracks could add dates later in the year.