Preakness Stakes in jeopardy
If you had to be a racetrack, you would not want to be Preakness Stakes because it might just face the gallows. The De facto executioners include the Maryland Racing Commission and the Maryland Jockey Club, both of whom could not
reach an agreement regarding a rescue plan that would lead Preakness back towards life.
As is the case with numerous racetracks all across America, Preakness Stakes has been facing serious financial problems for a long time now and a rescue plan has become necessary in order to make it feasible for live thoroughbred
racing to continue on the racetrack. In the event that this does not happen, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course would both have to wave their final good-byes to the horse racing industry.
This would come as a major blow to the horse racing industry in Maryland because Pimlico is host to the state’s biggest single sporting event in the shape of Triple Crown, which is the second leg of thoroughbred’s racing. The event
brought in an audience of more than 95,000 people this year, and generated about $80 million in bets. This will also put an end to a great history, as Triple Crown traces its origin back to 1873, the year it was first run on the Pimlico Race Course.
Both Laurel Park and Pimlico Racecourse are owned by MI Developments, which is a Canadian real estate company that holds the majority shares of the Jockey Club. The company’s chairman and chief executive, Frank Stronach is urging
everyone to accept the proposed plan as he sees it the only way to save Preakness.
"We alone cannot fix it. We have to fix it together," Stronach said. "The model is broken, not just in Maryland but across America."
Stronach’s proposed plan has given a schedule to host 146 days of live racing in the year 2011, but it comes with a great cost. According to the plan, the horse owners, breeders and trainers should contribute a total sum of $1.7
million. This amount of money would go in the operating expenses of the tracks. Apart from this, they are also asked to give up their rights to broadcast races.
The plan also calls for two legislative changes in the horse racing industry. First is the closing of a training centre in Bowie, an endeavour that should be supported by the stakeholders. Second is to back the increase in price
of betting on races.
Alan Foreman, a lawyer for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association condemned the proposal quite explicitly in the following words,
“This is an insult to Maryland racing. This current ownership has brought Maryland racing to ruin. We need to find out what we're going to do in the short term. The agreement is unacceptable. That means if there is no live racing on Jan. 1, we're sorry
for that, but it's not a mess of our making. We have track owners that do not appear to care if racing continues here."
Governor Martin O’Malley is disappointed by the fact that the meeting on Tuesday between the horsemen and the Jockey Club could not produce desired results. He realizes that the consequences would be grave for everyone involved,
especially for the hundreds of workers at Preakness. O’Malley has urged both the parties to make a last effort in order to come to terms with each other.
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