In Maryland, Belinda says goodbye
Stronach era ends abruptly with Preakness IP sale
Frank Vespe
April 24, 2026
The severing of the Preakness Stakes and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes intellectual property from the races themselves has turned out to be the financial gift that keeps on giving for Belinda Stronach and 1/ST Racing.
The former owners of Pimlico and Laurel Park lost a combined total of $4.8 million on Preakness weekend in 2022 and 2023, according to the company’s 2023 testimony to the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (remember them?!?).
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But they turned that into a licensing agreement that, to run the races, the new Maryland Jockey Club would pay 1/ST an annual fee of $3 million, which escalates by 2.5% annually, plus two percent of the weekend’s betting handle, which typically in recent years would have meant a total annual haul of $5 to $6 million.
And on April 21, the company turned that into $85 million of Churchill Downs Inc.’s money.
Combine the Preakness deal with the money the company stands to receive from the state for Laurel Park — $48.5 million plus $3.5 million the state already paid to lease Laurel in 2028 – and the company will take in over $135 million as it leaves Maryland.
Nice work if you can get it.
“1/ST,” Stronach said in a statement, “is proud to have served as a steward of the Preakness Stakes.”
The good news about that Preakness stewardship is that during those latter Stronach years wagering handle on Preakness weekend rose: from about $94 million in 2013, according to the company, to right around $130 million in ’22 and ’23. It was nearly $139 million in 2025.
And the bad?
Well, there are those pesky losses, for one thing: $2.9 million in the red in 2022 and $1.9 million in 2023, this a few years after the company made nearly $9 million on Preakness weekend in 2016.
And that’s just on the Preakness. The bigger picture is, well, bigger, and worse. “Over the last 10 years, MJC has been cash flow negative in every year, and all stakeholders have contributed over $260 million to support the racetracks,” the company said in 2023.
Then there is Preakness attendance, which fell from gargantuan in 2019 (over 130,000) to mid-week O’s game last year. Empty seats at Pimlico, even on Preakness day, became commonplace in recent years.
That is to say nothing of the parlous condition of the Pimlico facility itself, which seemed to deteriorate almost by the day.
“The agreement with Churchill Downs… closes our company’s Thoroughbred racing chapter in Maryland,” Stronach said.
Given the sea of red ink, and frequent acrimony among the stakeholders, it’s hard to imagine anyone at 1/ST will lament the company’s exiting Maryland.
Likewise, few in Maryland will shed tears for the end of the Stronach era.
But that’s about to be the past. What matters now is the future, and whether Maryland’s experiment in nonprofit track ownership can turn the tide.
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