Preakness 2024: Maryland leaders bask in ‘celebratory air’ after latest push to save Pimlico
Maryland leaders celebrated the 2024 race day in style after moving earlier this year to pass the latest plan to breathe new life into the struggling Pimlico Race Course and the state's horse racing industry.
In a tradition of mixing the glamour of the Preakness Stakes with a bit of political glad-handing, Maryland leaders celebrated the 2024 race day in style after moving earlier this year to pass the latest plan to breathe new life into the struggling Pimlico Race Course and the state’s horse racing industry.
Cases of champagne and trays of hors d’oeuvres shuffled into two adjacent tents — one sponsored by taxpayers, the other by the Democratic Governor’s Association — as Gov. Wes Moore, Mayor Brandon Scott and others moved between the gatherings inside the track Saturday.
Scott, fresh off his Democratic primary win Tuesday and wearing a full yellow suit to match his fiancee Hana Pugh, arrived at the gathering of politicians to a mob of well-wishers, including former Gov. Parris Glendening and Maryland Democratic Party Chair Ken Ulman.
In an early afternoon interview, Scott said he was pulling for Imagination in the race later in the day.
He also celebrated the completion of the new deal that will provide long-awaited state funds to renovate Pimlico and support the surrounding Park Heights community, where he grew up.
“Now we finally have the master plan going into action, with houses and apartments being built right now, the first new library in the city in 15 years coming right here to Park Heights,” said Scott, who is seeking a second four-year term this year. “That is a great thing.”
Moore, in a fedora and checkered suit jacket over a T-shirt, said while recent years of Preakness had been filled with uncertainty, there was a “celebratory air” this time.
“People know that this time, this administration, we got it right,” Moore said in an interview. “We’ve helped to save not just an industry but do it in a way that honors the business community and do it in a way that actually honors the outlying Park Heights community as well, which is a priority.”
That confidence followed a week in which Moore and two other members of the Maryland Board of Public Works gave final approval to a deal allowing the state to take ownership of the racetrack and invest $400 million into renovations, along with building of a new thoroughbred training center elsewhere. The Stronach Group will now transfer the site to Maryland, which will begin running the Preakness through a new state-run nonprofit in 2027.
The General Assembly ushered through a law setting up the plan in just a few weeks during its annual session this year.
A previous law passed in 2020 would have provided nearly the same amount of money to renovate both Pimlico and Laurel Park, which is not supported under the new law.
That plan, which then-Gov. Larry Hogan let go into law without his signature, never came to fruition. The Republican governor declined to support it then because of the price tag in a year of belt-tightening during the pandemic. Now a candidate to succeed longtime Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, Hogan did not appear to be at the race Saturday and his campaign did not return a request for comment about his attendance.
Moore did not refer to Hogan by name but said the new law was designed to uplift Baltimore when that kind of support was lacking before he entered office.
“The Baltimore renaissance is now, and I think watching the whole state rally around that idea has just been really invigorating and really exciting,” said Moore, who is backing Democratic Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in the Senate race with Hogan. Alsobrooks also did not appear at the race on Saturday.
Taxpayers picked up a $200,000 tab for the state government tent last year and the 2024 costs were not available Saturday as dozens of political and business leaders and their families filtered in and out of the tent.
Attendees included Cardin, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman and several state lawmakers. Glendenning, wearing a giant pink flower on the lapel of his tan suit jacket and blue shirt, shared a moment with other former Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley, who was in a standard dark blue suit.
Both were seen in the state tent and next door in the Democratic Governor’s Association tent, where a fundraiser was taking place. Moore started his day at the race there and was expected to host other governors including Tony Evers, of Wisconsin; Roy Cooper, of North Carolina; Laura Kelly, of Kansas, Janet Mills, of Maine; Phil Murphy, of New Jersey; and Josh Shapiro, of Pennsylvania.