Why?
I’m not sure what people are envisioning here. It’s a training center. They’re not moving the Preakness there. It’s 30 minutes max from Westminster, if someone needs a hotel, there are options.
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It’s a training center, not a racetrack.
I don’t know what people are imagining happens on the backside every morning, but it’s not the chaos-filled production that is being implied.
Horsemen wake up early and go to work. Then go home.
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I believe they are moving the Preakness there. that is why Pimlico is being demolished. They want the land that Pimlico currently sits on, it’s worth a fortune and is prime real estate. At least that is how I interpreted the article that was written encapsulating the plans following the 150th race
Pimlico Racecourse AND Training Center
You are incorrect.
The Preakness will move to Laurel. Then when Pimlico is finished, Pimlico will be the sole TB racetrack for the state and Laurel will be closed and sold.
Shamrock will be a training center, that is it. Like Bowie was in its later years before it closed permanently. Or like Fair Hill is (although Fair Hill is privately owned/operated).
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This is what I interpreted from the interview I saw on MPT, Pimlico would be refurbished, Shamrock would be a training facility.
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Because horses take a lot of staff, and having your barn staff 30 minutes away is not great. E
This is a good, quick summary of the plan from last year:
Since then, Shamrock was acquired for the location of the training center. And there’s been a concerning move where the state pulled the plug on the newly created Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority and threw the whole project in the stadium authority’s lap. And I guess the Maryland Jockey Club will be reformed as a not-for-profit under the supervision of the stadium authority.
I honestly don’t know what to make of the situation; I have no way of knowing if this is a bad sign or just a procedural reorganization or what. All I know is this is a very ambitious project and I am rooting for it to succeed.
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Have you ever worked on the backside?
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Wouldn’t it make more sense to actually educate yourself about the topic before spouting misinformation that has you all up in arms unnecessarily, because like often is the case about racing you are once again wrong. Pimlico is not leaving the “crappy city” thank God.
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What makes you think the staff will stay in a hotel anywhere let alone 30 minutes away? This is a training center which is sort of akin to a boarding facility where you may have kept a horse at some point. Did you stay in a hotel when you had a horse at a boarding facility assuming you did, or did you stay in your home? If this doesn’t directly apply to you please take it as the rhetorical question it is meant to be.
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From what I was told the idea was that this training facility would attract trainers/staff to the facility from across the country. Like Ocala or Southern Pines in the winter. Not that it’s a purely home base boarding barn operation.
I could be wrong. But that’s what I was told. The facility will have at least 800 stalls. That’s a lot of people to house, even if only half of those people are from out of state.
That is not the idea. Yeah, they want to attract people to MD to boost MD racing overall… but the idea is to have an alternative to Pimlico for horses to live and train that provides a quality of life more in line with 21st century expectations.
Many racetrackers are already incredibly mobile people. When they travel from race meeting to race meeting, they generally don’t utilize hotels (at least not in my experience). Usually there are good leads in short term housing. And for those who can’t afford short term housing, that’s what the dorms are for.
Also, 800 stalls is not big by racetrack standards. Laurel Park currently has about 1000 stalls. When we lose Laurel in a few years, those horses will need somewhere to go.
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Those stalls will go to horses that are already on the grounds of Pimlico and Laurel.
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So, I went to the Shamrock community meeting with our area’s county commissioner last night. The opening line was “it’s a private sale to the state, and they can do whatever they want”. He also pointed out a few uses the state might have envisioned that would be even worse. They say they need to house 1200 horses in MD and there will be room for about 400 at Pimlico. Hence, the 800 stall number (with room for expansion).
There were about 100 people there. The commissioner spoke for about 1/2 hour then turned it over to questions for an hour. There were only two people with questions where I could hear real anger in their voices. No real answers were provided because apparently no details are available. The actual sale of the property hadn’t even happened yet, but there’s no doubt it will happen. Very valid concerns were brought up by everyone, including the county commissioner, whose main desire is for them to create an access road and entrance off of route 26 to mitigate the traffic that will happen on Woodbine and Braddock roads if they’re the only roads used. Those are both narrow roads with no shoulders, and existing traffic problems. Daily loads of horse vans to and from Pimlico would be too much (side note, they had a guy from the MD Horseman’s Association there to give more info, and he very much was downplaying many concerns like that it would be “a couple” of loads of horses moving to/from the track).
Well water was a big concern and there are no answers. Some here have shallow wells that can go dry in a drought, and the huge amounts of water that 800 horses and 200 people will use is concerning. The commissioner said “I hope they do full yield tests” and the MD Horseman guy said “they tell me they’ve solved the water problem” (how? rain dances?)
He did say they would have their own sewage treatment plant. There was a funny moment when someone asked about the manure from 800 horses going through that. The commissioner said something about “rich owners in their BMWs” using the fancy Woodbine Rd. entrance, while he hoped trucks could use a different one. That led to a question about helipads for those same rich owners. There were enough horse people in the crowd to point out that horses and helicopters are not a good mix. Those were really the only two stupid questions.
There is concern about the dorms, which is something that they don’t have at Fair Hill, so no one really knows. No one want our area to turn into Laurel near the track, which is pretty seedy. The commissioner said we have a good sheriff’s department (but it’s small and will this stretch them, and the VFD too thin?). Hopefully they will hold the line on zoning but he didn’t say so.
There were questions about why the county is contributing $1.5 million. He said it was from the economic development fund, but then was unable to give any good examples of return on that investment. He said they earmarked it towards the sewage treatment.
One neighbor who backs right up to the proposed track location asked about buffer plantings/berms (no answer). Another on the other side wondered about smells from the sewage treatment. There was discussion about and opinions on the remaining parcel on the other side of Braddock Rd. The commissioner seemed ill-informed because he first said it was in Ag preservation, then backtracked on that but said it’s got agricultural zoning and he’d hope to get it in ag preservation. I also think there’s a chance it’s actually zoned conservation, which is 3 acres, but I don’t know.
Questions were asked about what happens if this huge investment to prop up the racing industry fails to do so (what might the state do with the land then), and if it would ever become a track for racing. Also what happens when Pimlico goes over budget and there’s not enough money left to finish the job at Shamrock.
The bottom line from the commissioner is that they can’t stop it, they know nothing about it, but he’d like to be able to take our concerns to the state throughout the steps of the process. I didn’t ask any questions but I’m glad I went. There were quite a few horse people in the crowd - maybe even more that I didn’t recognize. The county deputy standing there, ready to break up any fights didn’t have to do anything.
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Thanks for the update.
One thing I can speak to is I really don’t think the traffic and horse vans are going to be an issue. I don’t think the horseman’s association guy was downplaying it.
I’ve worked at Fair Hill, I’ve worked at Kentucky Downs (which was at one time exclusively ship in, not sure it still is). These vans run at such odd hours and are used to navigating narrow roads.
Also, with this being a state-run place, the only places they will be shipping large numbers of horses to and from is Pimlico, and there will be 400 stalls there. Most of the horses actively racing will be already on site at Pimlico.
Water is always a huge concern, though. No matter what they are building.
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I’m about 15 minutes west of you, so different county but in general I have been in favor of the idea of Shamrock as a training center (I mean, I volunteer at a TB rescue that used to be a TB breeding facility). But also I only found out about it when I saw the auction sign on the fence at Shamrock (I don’t drive down Woodbine Rd regularly at all) a couple of months ago.
But from your post, it sounds like there are a lot of valid concerns that are not actually being addressed. And maybe some of them really won’t be a big deal, but them just being shrugged off with no meaningful answers or even is concerning.
I also agree with @Texarkana’s point earlier in the thread about being hopefully everything goes to plan but concerned that it will be more expensive than advertised, so either fail or require a lot more taxpayer money.
Also, in general, as much as I love horses and have enjoyed racing in the past, I am not sure that the state or any county or local governments should be investing tax payer money into thoroughbred racing. If thoroughbred racing in Maryland cannot survive without the state (and taxpayers) underwriting it, maybe it’s time to let it go?
I hope everything works out and I hope the Pimlico renovation and the new training center breathe new life into racing into Maryland. I’m just very very skeptical for so many reasons.
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We invested a crap ton of money into the Maryland 5 star. Now, I don’t think that was a bad thing… but… we have certainly had our share of expensive hiccups with the project and it’s still yet to be seen if it was actually a worthwhile investment. Don’t get me wrong, there is not a bigger rah rah cheerleader for the MD 5 Star than me! But there is also a realistic part of me that wouldn’t be surprised if they called it quits at any time. Re-emphasizing: I don’t want that to happen. But in the current fiscal climate, I feel like if taxpayers were loud enough, they would abandon ship prematurely instead of sticking it out through the growing pains.
I have the same fear for our investments in racing. I am so supportive of it! But the pragmatic side of me knows it is very, very risky for many reasons.
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With it being the last Preakness at my beloved Pimlico as we know it we decided to splurge and get VIP tickets in the Turfside Terrace. They did a wonderful job with the food and drinks in there, it really felt a bit like a wedding reception except you got to skip the wedding. We had a fantastic time on a beautiful day.
The facility itself had gotten it’s annual spruce up of new paint and flowers like always but that is where the effort ended. I was really expecting them to go all out and make this 150th Preakness the best one ever or at least one to remember but instead it felt like “let’s get this shit over with.” The merchandising was abysmal, they didn’t even bother making a post position tshirt this year for the first time since I have been going. They had maybe 5 different versions of blue or black tshirts with 150 on it and a jacket and that’s it.
The lack of merchandising probably didn’t matter because there was hardly anyone there anyway. The entire infield was closed off. Where there would normally be 50,000 or more people spread out there were none. They had all the huge money corporate areas and the Turfside Terrace along the inside of the stretch like always but the only other thing in the infield was something they called the infield zone which included beer and wine with your ticket and relegated you to a tent in the corner by the quarter pole. They had 3000 tickets for that area, not sure how many were sold of those 3000. If you told me attendance for the whole day was 20,000 I would believe it.
I am not sure where the blame for the lack of effort lies because the state of MD now owns Pimlico but 1st/Stronach still has their hand in it for the next couple of years. Whoever is responsible needs to get their act together and do a better job of making it the people’s race again or even a new facility won’t save Maryland racing. Gone are the days of if you build it they will come. Once the novelty of Pimlico 2.0 wears off we need to give people a reason to come back.
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I agree it didn’t feel like anyone tried to market it this year.
Hopefully this year was lackluster due to the transition and not indicative of what’s to come.
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I was paying attention to the background in the racing coverage and was surprised to see so many seats and areas empty.
I hope that once Pimlico is refurbished; they have plans to get an excellent marketing team in place. Without that, I fear it’s doomed. They need a team that is dedicated to making it and keeping it special.
They are building something that has a historic aura about it and will have a blank slate to build something tremendous. Take a page out of Saratoga’s book and create that atmosphere.
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