Laurel Park will race 120 days in 2026 under a schedule okayed by the Racing Commission, with Timonium and Fair Hill slates also approved.
Former Maryland Jockey Club racing secretary Chris Merz will be the new executive director of the Maryland Racing Commission.
The Maryland Jockey Club has announced several national stakes as automatic qualifiers for the Preakness and other May stakes at Pimlico.
Laurel Park’s City of Laurel and Safely Kept Stakes, for 3-year-olds and 3-year-old fillies, are “Win and In” events for a pair of Santa Anita Grade 1s.
Why’s the Pimlico Special distance different this year than previously, and other questions you didn’t know you wanted answered.
Recent Grade 1 winners will have their starting and entry fees waived when running in Maryland Jockey Club stakes in 2019.
In the interests of fuller fields, the Maryland-bred waiver in $40,000 maiden claiming races has been axed for the winter.
The Maryland Jockey Club is expected to seek 180 days of live racing at its facilities in 2019 — up from 171 this year — and to make some tweaks to its stakes schedule.
New Maryland Jockey Club racing secretary Chris Merz has some daunting challenges ahead of him but says he’s focused on the task at hand: making Maryland racing the best it can be.
Maryland Jockey Club VP-Racing Georganne Hale has been named to a new position in the company, with her racing secretary duties to be taken over by Chris Merz.