Laurel is dead? Pimlico rebuild?

[JustRalph]

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-rac...ly-in-maryland

Leave it to Maryland to screw this up. Worst most corrupt government…………..

[Parkview_Pirate]

I dunno 'bout that. Illinois can give Maryland a run for its money in terms of corruption, IMHO.

Too bad if Laurel goes away - big track and a better location than the Old Hilltop, but with the crummy building standards in what passes for construction in the U.S., it costs more to maintain and renovate than tear down and start over.

Gonna be a tight race getting funding for anything more than a few tents though, if the economy craters. Politicians are going to be hard pressed to spend money with such a bleak return as racing, especially if money gets tighter....

[Robert Fischer]

The other day at LRL there was reportedly a couple of injuries or breakdowns during the morning works and they cancelled the day's card.

Did not read that as a sign of a dire situation of the dirt track.

All comes a bit of a shock.

[proximity]

"What we have now is the accident that was waiting to happen when the Stronach Group did not get involved in gaming more than 10 years ago," Foreman said.



yes, imo it should have been laurel with the casino and hotel overlooking the track. i called the project triple crown casino at laurel park.

of course a couple rows of desks at horseshoe with pieces of paper saying "reserved" on them is a lot better! good job mr stronach!!

[Aerocraft67]

I guess where you stand depends on where you sit regarding which track is more convenient. But focusing on one proper track and rendering the other to a training center doesn't sound crazy.

I recall from our previous discussions about the fate of Pimlico and the Preakness location that Laurel does not have the capacity for the Preakness, both as a facility, and for vehicular traffic access capacity. Maybe we just take that at face value. The state can't support two tracks, and one can't support the Preakness, without modifications that are logistically implausible and prohibitively expensive.

Even as a Marylander, I'd rather have one healthy track than two half dead ones. Probably doesn't matter that I'll reduce my track attendance from a few times a year to less than once per year.

[Al Gobbi]

Originally Posted by Parkview_Pirate

I dunno 'bout that. Illinois can give Maryland a run for its money in terms of corruption, IMHO.

Too bad if Laurel goes away - big track and a better location than the Old Hilltop, but with the crummy building standards in what passes for construction in the U.S., it costs more to maintain and renovate than tear down and start over.

Gonna be a tight race getting funding for anything more than a few tents though, if the economy craters. Politicians are going to be hard pressed to spend money with such a bleak return as racing, especially if money gets tighter....

would the public need to sign off on any deal by a vote or can they just ram it through the Maryland legislature without any input from the taxpayers?

[JohnGalt1]

Will the surviving track's turf course eventually look like Gulfstream's?

[Tom]

Originally Posted by JohnGalt1

Will the surviving track's turf course eventually look like Gulfstream's?

Yes, and there will be a tapeta course, too!

[classhandicapper]

Economically delusional people eventually face economic reality and reality always wins. Sometimes it just takes a very long time for their delusions to be fully exposed.

This kind of thing sucks for the people employed in the business, but these days I'm not even sure Maryland should have one track, let alone two. This appears to be all about trying to salvage something that used to be great but isn't anymore. They are going to throw a ton of good money after bad and all it will probably do is delay the inevitable. There are probably much better uses of that money for the people of Maryland than Pimlico given where the industry is heading.

[The_Turf_Monster]

Building a new Pimlico was about revitalizing the Park Heights area with horse racing as the impetus. I'm not going to get political, but there are reasons why Baltimore needs to do things like build new commercial areas rather than revitalizing its downtown, see Harbor East or whatever the new name for Port Covington is.

Laurel is a DC suburb and caters to a shrinking horse racing fanbase that won't go north of Columbia, so they both have their place, e.g. a market and a brand.

They will figure out a solution for the Orioles before they figure this one out.

[dilanesp]

Inglewood needed redeveloping too. And much as I loved Hollywood Park, LA could not support two full time racetracks, so one of them had to close. (There was a time in the 1990's when it looked like Santa Anita might close and had that happened we would have ended up at Hollywood Park for longer meets. Same difference.)

I think the attitude of Baltimore has been dumb throughout this process. Yes, absolutely, they need to improve the neighborhood that Pimlico is in. It's actually much easier to do that if you just let Stronach move the race to Laurel or Lone Star or Santa Anita (which, as a property owner, should be his right to do anyway), tear down Pimlico, and develop the property.

[Thomas Roulston]

It already does: It's 142 feet wide. Gulfstream's turf course was originally 170 feet wide; it was narrowed to 110 feet when the Tapeta track was built. It has since been widened back to 124 feet when the "0 feet" position on the turf course was moved in by 14 feet recently.

As for Tapeta at Laurel, I'd say that is an extremely likely outcome.

[IRISHLADSTABLE]

https://www-cbsnews-com.cdn.ampproje...horse-deaths%2

[Aerocraft67]

https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/ne...k-on-saturday/

Not a good look running up to the Preakness.

[PaceAdvantage]

Originally Posted by Aerocraft67

https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/ne...k-on-saturday/

Not a good look running up to the Preakness.

Doing everything they can to satisfy concerns about track safety isn't a good look?