Maryland Racing Is Gaining Ground

PREAKNESS STAKES

Saturday, 3:12 p.m. PDT,

Channel 4, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

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It has been a difficult year or so for horse racing in Maryland, but this week a new Kentucky Derby winner named Barbaro grazed peacefully outside his stall at Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton.

About 60 miles away, on Saturday, undefeated Barbaro will try to take the second leg of what some believe will become the first Triple Crown in 28 years by winning the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

With one of his few challengers, Sweetnorthernsaint, stabled not far away at Laurel Park, these are heady days for Maryland.

It was hardly that way last fall, when a barn fire killed 24 horses at Fair Hill.

It was similarly bleak over the winter, when an outbreak of equine herpes in the state led to the deaths of three horses at Pimlico and one at Laurel and resulted in a Pimlico quarantine and other racing disruptions.

Other issues are ongoing, among them a debate on whether slot machines should be legalized to help support Maryland’s racing industry, though questions at last year’s Preakness about whether the absence of slots might cause the race to be moved from Pimlico have subsided for the moment.

“We went through a rough spring here, with the equine herpes and a few other things” said Chick Lang, the former longtime general manager at Pimlico. “We’ve weathered the storm.”

Barbaro -- who became the first Derby winner with significant ties to Maryland since Spectacular Bid in 1979 -- was at Fair Hill the evening of the barn fire last year but was stabled on the opposite side of the 17-barn facility near the Delaware and Pennsylvania borders that is home to more than 450 horses.

“It’s always the same when a barn burns down and you lose horses. That’s always a tragic time,” said Michael Matz, Barbaro’s trainer.

“Just horrific,” said Sally Goswell, Fair Hill’s general manager. “It was awful. You can’t believe it could happen, but it did.”

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but a replacement barn is nearly complete. Goswell said debate about whether a sprinkler system could avert another such disaster ended with a decision not to install one because of the absence of a water supply, other than wells, and the cost.

“The only time we’ve ever dealt with the press was the fire and then the herpes, so this has been huge,” Goswell said. “It’s nice to have something good happen.”

The Derby also has brought good news to Laurel Park, where Barbaro won one of his first races as a 2-year-old and where Sweetnorthernsaint, the beaten favorite at the Derby, is stabled.

Michael Trombetta, the Baltimore native who trains Sweetnorthernsaint, said the herpes restrictions that included bans on Maryland horses by other states, New York among them, didn’t affect his plan for the gelding, but the outbreak caused him considerable worry.

“The whole time that we were going through this, it was very scary because it’s a very indiscriminate problem,” he said. “You know, nobody knew who was going to get it next, and you go to the barn every day with the worry that there’s a potential problem out there.”

A highly infectious virus, equine herpes can cause respiratory disease and fever, lead pregnant mares to abort their fetuses, and in its most severe form, can attack the nervous system and cause paralysis. It may be spread by something as simple as a horse’s sneeze.

“That’s the mystery of it,” Trombetta said. “I mean, it could be contracted from the starting gate. It could be contracted from the horse van. You know, at that time they were saying that this thing was contractible from up to 30 feet away. So, you know, it’s kind of like the flu. You know, you can try to avoid getting it, but good luck.”

Lang, the former Pimlico general manager, praised state and officials of the Maryland Jockey Club, which operates the Maryland tracks, for their handling of the crisis.

“It was a rough go, but thanks to the state veterinarian and [Maryland Jockey Club President Lou Raffetto] we got through it,” Lang said. “Nobody seemed to lose their cool and they found a way to roll up their sleeves and deal with it. And [racing secretary] Georganne Hale was able to fill the entries day after day.”

The ongoing issue in Maryland has been whether the state should legalize slot machines, in part to support the state’s racing industry, with slots already helping to boost purses at competing tracks in surrounding states.

Despite the support of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the gambling legislation recently died, for the fourth consecutive year.

The concern is that Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns Santa Anita, Gulfstream and several other tracks and bought 51% of Pimlico and Laurel Park in 2002, might want to move the Preakness to a more profitable track, a prospect floated by Joe De Francis, still part owner of the Maryland tracks and chief executive of the Maryland Jockey Club.

“It has been extremely difficult competing with Delaware and West Virginia, that have gone from nonentities 10 years ago to major competitors,” De Francis said. “If the legislature doesn’t add slots, it’s going to have a serious impact on the quality of racing in Maryland.”

Lang dismisses talk of the Preakness leaving as gamesmanship.

“That’s all political,” he said. “The Preakness will always be run at Pimlico. This is the 131st year? It will be here another 131.”

Come Saturday, Maryland racing fans hope Barbaro, owned by Pennsylvanians Gretchen and Roy Jackson, can take another step toward becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978, making memories of Maryland’s recent struggles recede.

“That makes you appreciate when the good times come, like now,” Lang said.

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Diabolical, second to Barbaro by eight lengths in the Laurel Futurity last year, has been added to the field for the Preakness, bringing the field to seven.