Racing Tradition at Stake

The record crowd of 115,318 that was crammed into Pimlico Race Course on Saturday for the 130th running of the Preakness had more than picking winners on its mind. All day long, track officials, state and city politicians and fans were absorbed by the possibility that this might be the last Preakness staged in Baltimore.

A fixture here since 1873 -- except for 15 runnings in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the turn of the 19th century after a fire wiped out the Pimlico grandstand -- the Preakness is as Maryland as a crab cake. The thought that the Preakness could be run somewhere else -- Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., and Santa Anita have been mentioned -- seems hallucinatory, but then so does the idea that there might not be racing at Hollywood Park anymore.

In 2002, Canada-based Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns Pimlico, Santa Anita, Gulfstream and several other tracks, bought 51% of Pimlico and its sister track in Laurel, Md. At the time, Frank Stronach, an auto-parts tycoon who heads Magna, said that the Preakness wouldn’t be leaving Pimlico, but now even Joe De Francis, who with his sister Karin has retained a 49% interest in the two Maryland tracks, openly floats the idea that a move is possible.

“You don’t have to have a Ph.D. at the Wharton Business School to figure this out,” De Francis said in an interview a few days before this year’s Preakness. “Magna lost $200 million last year. Pimlico and Laurel lose money 364 days a year and make money one day, on Preakness day. The real estate is valuable at both tracks, especially at Laurel [close to Washington], where it’s extremely valuable.

“Magna has spent tens of millions of dollars in remodeling Gulfstream, and slot machines have been approved in the county where Gulfstream is. If the Preakness went elsewhere, everybody would be better off. Everybody, that is, except Maryland racing.”

It makes sense for De Francis to be talking like this, within earshot of state legislators, who have been reluctant to legalize slot machines for Pimlico and Laurel. The Magna tracks in Maryland find themselves battling for horses with tracks that have slots in Delaware and West Virginia, and soon the Pennsylvania tracks also will add slots to their gambling menus.

“In 1994,” said De Francis, “Delaware Park was offering about $75,000 a day in purses. Now, with the slots, Delaware Park is up to about $350,000 in purses, close to double what we can offer. And it’s going to get worse. When Pennsylvania -- and New York -- get up and running, it’s going to have the impact of a Mack truck in Maryland.”

Afleet Alex and Scrappy T, the 1-2 finishers in Saturday’s Preakness, both began their careers at Delaware Park. Tim Ritchey, the trainer of Afleet Alex, is now permanently stabled in Delaware.

“I used to stable half of my horses in Maryland and half in Delaware,” Ritchey said. “But I couldn’t stay here anymore. I couldn’t justify it to my [horse] owners, who are trying to see a profit. Maryland racing is treading dangerous water now. It would an absolute shame if the Preakness moved. It’s such a Maryland tradition that it would be like running the Kentucky Derby someplace other than Churchill Downs. Maryland has to do something, and the logical choice is slot machines.”

Pimlico is a broken-down track in a high-crime neighborhood, about 10 miles from downtown Baltimore. Gone are the wistful days when you could walk out of the track and saunter down the street to the Pimlico Hotel, a privately owned neighborhood standby that was known for its big steaks, softball-size crab cakes and strong drinks. Rex Barney, the old Brooklyn Dodger pitcher, tended bar there, regaling customers with self-deprecating stories of his wildness on the mound. The Pimlico Hotel long ago moved, and in its place is a shadowy street that track officials say is not safe to be walked at night.

A few days before the Preakness, only a few hundred hearty bettors occupied the Pimlico grandstand.

Stronach, who won the 2000 Preakness with Red Bullet, a horse he bred, was a no-show at Pimlico on Saturday. There was no explanation for his absence, but the speculation was that he would have been loudly booed had he been here. De Francis, who is the day-to-day operator of Pimlico, said that Magna has spent about $30 million on Laurel and $10 million on Pimlico in the last year, but now the cupboard is bare.

“Magna’s goal and desire is still to make racing a success in Maryland,” De Francis said, “and the money they gave me to spend was a show of good faith. The company hasn’t made one threat about moving the Preakness, but I had to beg Magna to get the money we needed for improvements.”

Chick Lang, general manager of Pimlico when it was run by brothers Ben and Herman Cohen, now covers the Preakness for a Baltimore radio station. Lang is not privy to Magna’s plans, but he says that it looks to him as though the Preakness is headed for Gulfstream. Neither Gulfstream nor Santa Anita is open when the Preakness is run, and either track would need concessions from its state racing commission, and other tracks, to play host to the race.

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the Republican governor of Maryland, favors slot machines and was visible at Pimlico throughout Preakness week. He spoke at the Alibi Breakfast for Preakness owners and trainers, and attended the race. During NBC’s telecast, Bob Costas asked him about Maryland racing.

“The Preakness is never going to leave Maryland,” Ehrlich said. “The State of Maryland has a lot of work to do in the legislature, but I think we’re going to get the job done.”

Nick Zito, a New York-based trainer who ran three horses Saturday and won the Preakness with Louis Quatorze in 1996, was asked about the future of the race.

“I’m not a politician,” Zito said. “But the Preakness is a pretty important thing to this city and this state. It would be a waste, the Preakness leaving Pimlico. It would be something along the lines of Michelangelo choosing to be a bricklayer.”