Pimlico shuts turf course through weekend for maintenance

Turf racing has been suspended at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., in order to perform maintenance on the course, officials for the track announced on Thursday.

The suspension of turf racing comes when Maryland racing has been conducted at Pimlico for an extended period of time due to the renovation of the dirt course at Laurel Park, Pimlico’s sister track. Racing was moved from Laurel to Pimlico in April due to problems with the Laurel dirt track, and the meet at Pimlico was extended even further after the renovation project proved to be more difficult than first envisioned.

Chris Bosley, the track superintendent at both facilities, said that the turf course needed a break in order to do “more aeration and fertilization.”

Racing is currently scheduled to be conducted at Pimlico through Aug. 22. Racing will then shift to the Timonium fairgrounds before returning to Laurel on Sept. 10.

“We want to be able to confidently say the turf course can hold up until we get back to Laurel,” Bosley said, in a release. “I think getting off the turf course this weekend will help us out a lot. It’s a reasonable goal.”

Racing is being conducted on a Friday through Sunday basis at Pimlico. There were four races scheduled for the turf on Friday and two on Saturday. The Sunday card, which was drawn after track officials notified horsemen of the suspension, will have seven dirt races.

The Friday, July 2, card will be drawn on Sunday, and track officials said in the release that they “are hopeful the turf course will be ready” for racing throughout the July 4 holiday weekend.

Pimlico was originally scheduled to hold a brief meet from May 7 to May 31.