Preakness’ one big day can’t fix Maryland’s troubled industry

BALTIMORE – For one day a year, all is right with the Maryland racing industry.

More than 100,000 people will gather at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday to watch the Preakness Stakes. They will bet millions of dollars and spend enough money on food and souvenirs to enable the venerable track to survive another year.

“Literally, it’s the one day of the year that we make money,” said Jim Gagliano, executive vice president of Maryland operations for Pimlico’s owner, Magna Entertainment Corp.

“The tickets sales, concessions and percentage that we get on wagering makes up for the other 364 days of the year in which we do not show a profit.”

But the Preakness no longer can be counted upon to support Maryland racing by itself. Magna, which also owns and operates nearby Laurel Park, believes both tracks need slot machines to survive. Without them, customers, trainers and quality horses will continue their exodus to surrounding states.

The Preakness could end up leaving, too. The race could be sold to the highest bidder, or held at another Magna track, such as Gulfstream Park in Florida or Santa Anita Park in California.

“Our corporation has many decisions to make,” Gagliano said.

This month, one of the pressing topics is how best to use limited funds to spruce up 135-year-old Pimlico. Maintenance crews have been applying fresh coats of paint around the grandstand, polishing the floors and positioning live plants around the corporate tents.

It’s the cosmetic equivalent of putting a bow on a pig.

“You could probably spend $2-$3 million at Pimlico and really not even see where it went,” said trainer Tim Ritchey, who will saddle Afleet Alex in the Preakness. “It really needs to have a complete overhaul.”

The tattered roof atop the stakes barn and the dilapidated stables are in dire need of repair, and it will take more than a few hundred gallons of paint to make the grandstand look like it belongs in the 21st century.

“We are under siege,” Gagliano said. “We are clearly at a competitive disadvantage to the states that surround us: Delaware, West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. All these states, either currently or in the immediate future, have used electronic gaming to bolster their profits.”

Gov. Robert Ehrlich, a Republican, won election in Maryland based partly on a platform calling for the legalization of slots. But he hasn’t been able to get the bill through the state legislature.

“The condition of our industry is poor and getting worse daily, weekly, monthly, yearly,” Ehrlich said. “Maryland is horse country, but if present trends continue, it will no longer be horse country in 10 or 15 years.”

Or sooner.

Ritchey, who lives in Maryland, once had 20 horses stabled in Laurel. Now he has none.

“When Delaware initiated the slot machines, the purses went up. At that point, basically all the owners I had in Maryland wanted to be in Delaware,” he said. “I couldn’t blame them, when you’re looking at around an $18,000 difference in purse structure. The fact that Maryland doesn’t have slots affects everybody in this industry.”

When the best 3-year-olds in the world run Saturday in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, many horsemen will speak enthusiastically about the tradition of competing at the second-oldest track in the country (next to Saratoga). But Pimlico is showing its age.

“We’re trying to maintain it the best we can,” Gagliano says. “The Preakness barn needs a new roof, the facilities are old.

“We have lots of infrastructure needs, not to mention the most important part, customer comforts. We’re behind, and we’re going to be behind unless we have a more stable revenue stream coming forward.”

The problem wouldn’t be so profound if surrounding states didn’t have slots, either. But that’s not the case.

“It is apparent,” Gagliano said, “that we are at a distinct disadvantage.”

Not just Pimlico, but the state’s entire racing industry.

“All my mares used to foal in Maryland, so I’d have Maryland-breds,” Ritchey said. “Now I send them to Pennsylvania to foal so they’re Pennsylvania-breds, because they have passed a slots bill.

“Basically, for racing to survive in the state of Maryland, they really and truly need to get something going with the slot machines. What you’re going to see is all those breeding farms end up as housing developments, which would be an absolute crime because of the tradition of racing in the state of Maryland.

“Something has to be done.”