When I read this article, I had a very different impression.
This agreement leaves the Preakness to be run on the same physical ground, but with a different race track (rotated 30 degrees), different grandstand, and no local stabling. Bowie will be divested from the Stronach portfolio resulting undoutedly in its final closure as a thoroughbred center and the short "new pimlico" (small "p") two-week meeting would surely not include a turf course with its expense.
All of this to leave a single two-minutes per year of horse racing focus in Northwest Baltimore?
Why not invest in a site that would have a longer term integrated story with Maryland or mid-Atlantic racing if some $350M is being spent? Honestly, it makes more sense to recast the Triple Crown without the Preakness at Pimlico/pimlico. Why not just allow the naming rights to the "Preakness" go to the highest bidder and move the race to that track?
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