Pimlico Plus skeptics growing louder
Brakes pumped on Laurel purchase
Frank Vespe
May 7, 2026
Maryland state Treasurer Dereck Davis had a few things to say Wednesday about the state’s investment in horse racing. And his comments came as skeptical voices in the state are growing louder.
Davis spoke up during the otherwise routine approval, by the state Board of Public Works, of a $3.9 million expenditure on various equipment that will be needed at Pimlico.
“I get the history of horse racing, but at some point, you know, we have to get to it sink or swim,” Davis said. “Can it survive? We can’t keep pouring massive amounts of dollars into this industry, just for the third weekend in May.”
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The state has authorized the Maryland Stadium Authority to issue up to $400 million in bonds to support the so-called Pimlico Plus project, which envisions rebuilding Old Hilltop as the new home of Maryland racing and creating a training center to support it.
Two days prior to the Board of Public Works meeting, Maryland Matters reports, the state’s Legislative Policy Committee pressed the pause button the Maryland Stadium Authority’s proposed $48.5 million purchase of Laurel Park, which is intended to be that training center. Laurel was to replace Shamrock Farm in Woodbine, initially chosen to be the training center.
Now the Legislative Policy Committee will undertake a 45-day review of the proposed purchase to “get a full accounting of the dollars that have gone out and the plan for the dollars ahead,” said Committee chair, and Senate President, Bill Ferguson.
The Legislative Policy Committee is charged with oversight of standing committees, sunset reviews of state bodies, and other tasks. It is comprised of 28 members, evenly split between the House and Senate.
The administration of Gov. Wes Moore has made implementing the Pimlico Plus project a major focus in the last few years, viewing it as a way to keep an important event in Baltimore City and a means to encourage economic growth in the surrounding Park Heights neighborhood. But the project has run into challenges seemingly at every turn.
The Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA), created by the General Assembly to oversee the transition, was abruptly shuttered well before its planned sunset amid charges of mismanagement. The MTROA’s purchase of Shamrock Farm to be the training center supporting the new Pimlico later blew up spectacularly, with the Maryland Stadium Authority claiming that transforming the bucolic farmland into a suitable training center would blow a $100 million hole in the Pimlico Plus budget.
Then shortly before the May 2 Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs Inc. announced plans to purchase the Preakness intellectual property from 1/ST Racing for $85 million. That had the effect both of concerning local horsemen, who fret about what it could mean for the future, and shining a spotlight on the unusual agreement hammered out by the MTROA on the state’s behalf regarding the Preakness.
Under that deal, 1/ST retains ownership of the Preakness intellectual property but must lease it to the state of Maryland each year for a base fee of $3 million, which rises by 2.5% annually, plus two percent of Preakness weekend handle, which in recent years would have meant a total annual payment of between $5 million and $6 million.
Now this.
“Can the state afford the purchase of a second property to mitigate the issues with Shamrock, because it’s not usable,” Ferguson wondered.
Davis clearly is nearing the end of his patience with the state’s Thoroughbred industry.
“If you have to come back here in another year or two, or whatever, with another proposal or another way to bring it along, I think we’re going to have to have a serious conversation about what we’re doing,” he said. “Is this the right approach, or is this a commitment we want to keep on making, despite the fact that maybe we already know what the outcome is going to be.”
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