Was Pimlico in such lousy shape before Stronach took it over?
Pimlico has not been in good shape my entire lifetime. :no:
I was just there back in May, my first time back there in about 15 years. Things looked no worse, no better than they did before. Although I didnât see everywhere.
I forget exactly what year Stronach took over entirely; it was owned by Magna for years, which was Stronachâs original company that dissolved. But for some reason I think Magna had it in partnership or something? Hopefully someone else can provide insight on the business dealings.
Itâs old - the infrastructure (electric, plumbing, structure) are old and deteriorating, and need replacing. There has been fixing and patching and painting and updating, but itâs been added onto and the original systems canât handle the size and demands of huge crowds like BES and Preakness. Itâs not up to current code - most of the stuff has been grandfathered in, so IMHO itâs a catastrophe waiting to happen.
Frank DeFrancis bought Pimlico around 1986, and tried to make it happen as a destination, putting in the Sports Palace. But attendance continued to decline, and MD got behind the 8 ball when the Democrats (especially Pimlico area residents) voted down slots after Republican Bob Ehrlich was elected as governor, who was supportive of slots. Without the slots revenue, MD purses could not compete and MD racing really struggled for a long time. Kind of ironic, if the Demoncrats and Baltimore City residents were not so opposed to slots, MD would probably now be a top tier racing state, and I strongly suspect DeFrancis would have done a good job with Pimlico and maybe it would not be in the condition it is right now. Stronach (Magna Entertainment) bought DeFrancis out, and MD racing continued to struggle somewhat even into today.
So if you are going to blame anyone, blame the people of Baltimore, especially the Democrats. The people of MD elected Bob Ehrlich, who was strongly supportive of slots and racing, and the Democrats fracked it up and now we are paying for it decades later.
Tex I think is too young to remember, but when the slots referendum got defeated by the Democrats, I decided to focus my career on another industry, I saw the writing on the wall. Thatâs pretty much when I realized I would never make a really good living in racing.
I remember slots getting voted down in the early 2000s when Erlich was governor. I was living in SE PA, working at Fair Hill thenâŠ
Things were not good before that, either, from what I remember. I started working in MD racing in the 90s⊠it was in free fall from then until the time I moved away from the area in late 2006.
All I can really say is that the free fall seemed to turn into a flat line while I was gone. :lol: Oh, and Laurel got nicer.
Baltimore is back in the national news in an unfortunate manner due to recent political stuff. I would post links but they are too political. Is the location of Pimlico a good thing for MD racing or a bad thing for MD racing?
If Baltimore can make this work, it would be fantastic. Keep the historical location- and update the antiquated plant. And, I guess it gets Stronach out from under, without being seen as a fiend!
I hate it. Might as well move it to Laurel and build a strip
mall.
I understand, but weâll have to agree to disagree. I think that the facility, as it stands now is completely debilitated, and ready to fall down. However, I also believe that it is hallowed ground. This is probably as good as we were going to get.
What were you hoping for?
I donât give a damn what they do with it as long as they save the track itself. That is the hallowed ground. They could put up a blow up grandstand for all I care. It would be like building a new football stadium but making the field 90 yards and pretending it was the same thing.
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I have no doubt you are correct, but did I overlook this info in the article that was linked? Replacing/redoing the track? I hope notâŠI agree the track is the thing to save at Pimlico. And unless things have changed around there recently, itâs going to take a lot more than a clubhouse and shops to bring that area around. But still, I guess Iâm cautiously optimistic that maybe this will be a good thing for all. <everybody now! KumbayaâŠ>
They are proposing to rotate the track 30 degrees and shorten it to 15/16th of a mile. No stabling or training at all so all the horseman who are there are out of luck. Can you imagine the next AP or Justify standing in a temporary stall?!
Max capacity of 60k, no view of any part of the track from general admission means that prices will be significantly higher for everyone to attend and the people in the infiend might as well watch from home. No infield fest either. And for some bizarre reason they are building a pond?!
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmdhorsemen.com%2FNewsletterArchive%2FRacing%20for%20the%20Future%2F02%20Pimlico%20Concept%20Plans.pdf%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2KA5tAMyIs53De5InIXH08JTo3ovFv075UQCrLhMwOjXuNL68kZe4NIZ8&h=AT2IZyn2M76Fkifc0wElCJZaVeVb52CtKyEoQIauVG-p7c0M_SMSwryde65jt5JfJNcvPwJQ8CXfl3Yw33F9BYwFswUNft7oXagANt_vcJ16OBnqI87qK8UmGJ209e_48JQuzrVRJDXRLeGiAHH3XSIk5fYP0qZ1a3zEzuWZupCKX2QTirs_KJzUMzYdOnIFkl8bJKZg2EFYR4Gx2AC9491HH3G1WHaNB1niloVBZtEBoAQLO-39nEPCjHuBm9ql40Fa3q5x6IeARyYq2JkS6xmL3LkyFXE5TUqNA23xGmjghEJyvzN9rAGplAuOXao_EbRSud0uBcCyZLhNwEmznpVgDsMwvpFrRZR_HaP7LnNhpLlQMCGqGa8bAXEyt9o0HLaoBd54DMR6H2T1wQpzan90TUhVfTRYVcJQ2Eaaq7ubWexewGgMAPO8wkWErsd6kcUXxFAwy9LAJFkpRQTgnYGRGbrI-IG-hD1N6Dprv2xuETDMrFEcQvL4qZ-FRCexFJAkDLmwxPymsb41Ntb7xNhVLKjtv5fntnxFYPKr0TAxk_B_wa1yiaf0OgwOgQ7p05HPv_YBBFuDa9vOR14g9pTZi4dJ6QmMv1nkvG2CyUA8K0US1QqZ3XMz
If theyâre putting a pond in, it is because of the impervious cover that theyâre adding. I dislike the idea of temporary stabling anywhere, but particularly with horses who tend to be a little more fractious. Itâs a recipe for disaster
They won make the track that small. There will be many changes if the ball truly gets rolling.
That would mean completely scrapping the layout and starting over. It has been rotate 30 degrees and make it shorter the entire time they have been talking about doing anything besides bulldozing it and moving to Laurel.
Iâm thrilled that it looks like an agreement will be reached to revamp Pimlico and keep the Preakness in Baltimore.
âŠbut that price tag. :eek:
Investing $375+ million in horse racing just doesnât seem like good economics to me. Then again, I donât have a good concept of what the current numbers are in terms of how much the state is currently investing, how much revenue they are making, etc.
At this point, I trust Steuart Pittmanâs opinion far more than I trust the Stronach Group, MJC, or any city official in Baltimore⊠so him being optimistic about the agreement is promising to me, even if he is looking at it from an AA standpoint.
Itâs mind boggling how much money the state is sinking into horses at the moment. Itâs exciting from a horse owner standpoint, but holy cow we are putting a ton of capital into animals whose sole purpose is to waste peopleâs money and good intentions. :lol:
I agree that Steurtâs approval is good but he is not a race tracker and is seemingly only enthusiastic about the changes at Laurel which will benefit his jurisdiction. I imagine he would gladly support anything that created jobs and revenue for his jurisdiction no matter what it was and rightly so. I am not sure he cares about preserving Pimlicoâs heritage like some of us do.
I know that there have to be major change and it wonât ever and canât ever be the same as it was. I can accept that as long as they leave the track alone. I will never embrace a race run in a bullring as âThe Preaknessâ It will probably be wildly successful and most people will be thrilled with that but not the purists of which I am one.
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I understand Stueart is not a racetracker and that his bias is towards the benefit of AA. However, he is the only person quoted in that article who has yet to jeopardize my trust in this life. :lol:
All the others have given me numerous reasons to mistrust them to varying degrees, which doesnât make me feel warm and fuzzy to know my taxes may be going to a seemingly expensive project that could be a foolâs errand. Gosh, I sound old and crotchety. :lol:
I am not going to link it here directly but if you click on the McDowell Racing Stables link in my signature I posted a video of the horsemanâs meeting in itâs entirety that explains the plan and how it will be paid for etc.
ETA ok this officially talked me off the ledge over the plans for Pimlico. I wonât say I wonât be heartbroken when they rotate the track but it seems that is the only way to make this work and I donât know that it is worth losing the whole thing. The plans they have for Laurel will make it by far the best facility in the US. I also noted that they blamed climate change for the deaths at Santa Anita which is the closest I have heard them admit the track caused the problem.
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I am glad you are feeling better about it. I would be the same way if they screwed around with Devon. I showed horses in that ring when it had grass in the middle, all the way up through it being the Dixon Oval. Yes, it matters.
