Maryland Racing’s Smokey Future
By Maribeth Kalinich
UPDATED 6/19/2023 4:53 PM ET
In a new twist to what is happening in Maryland horse racing, Racing Commission Chair Michael Algeo has resigned as both chair and from the commission.
Algeo informed me of his resignation in a response to an inquiry regarding the status of the Agreement/Plan/Deal Mike Rogers was/is to present to the Commission. He also confirmed that no commissioner including himself was provided with a copy of the agreement/plan at the June 6 MRC meeting.
Algeo’s resignation took place just 11 days after the Commission’s monthly meeting where the plan to extend the sunsetting 10-year-deal was to be presented.
Editor’s Note:
As a fan and player I thank Mr. Algeo for his time and diligent service; as the founder and co-administrator of Friends of Pimlico I thank him for him patience and fairness at the Commission meetings; and, as a member of the media I thank him for his candor and guidance.
I’m sure Mr. Algeo didn’t make this decision lightly. He had once stepped down as Chair and then agreed to serve again. It was clear he felt a commitment to both the Commission and Maryland Racing.
Mr. Algeo did his very best to improve both the safety and quality of Maryland horse racing. I wish him the very best in the future. We were very lucky to have Mr. Algeo participate in the progress of our sport.
Maribeth Kalinich, Senior Editor, Past The Wire
At the April 4 MRC monthly meeting it was announced two other long-time Commissioners Dr. Tom Bowman, a renowned veterinarian, and David Hayden, were leaving.
Dr. Bowman was the Chairman of the Safety and Welfare Committee that was monitoring injuries that occur on the racetrack, primarily soft tissue injuries.
In May 2022, Commissioner Clarissa Coughlin resigned and Bobby Lillis, former jockey and former head of the Maryland Horsemen’s Assistance Fund who retired last year, was appointed to replace Coughlin’s seat.
The MRC is still due to vote on the Plan/Deal by June 30 to insure the extension of the 10 Year Deal. We will update this story as information is available.
The Cloudy Future
“It’s closed it’s open, it’s open, it’s closed.” The story on the future of Maryland Thoroughbred horse racing changes so fast my head is spinning. Cliché, I know. But just try to follow along with just what happened in the past few weeks.
The 10-year deal created in 2013 was about to Sunset like the Canadian wildfire smoke settling in on the East Coast as the powers scurried to make a new plan and new deal to keep any oxygen in Maryland’s horse racing industry.
The most recent plan is to perform CPR on the slots fund to extend the 10-year deal a little longer, keep pumping on the chest holding the cash and blowing air into empty lungs. Empty because the Purse Dedication Account (PDA), was being raided for “operational expenses.”
This latest agreement/plan/deal is still shrouded in mystery as it was never presented to the Maryland Racing Commission (MRC) as expected.
William F. Zorzi reported in Maryland Matters’ that “Thoroughbred industry officials and owners of the Pimlico and Laurel Park tracks apparently have reached an agreement after difficult monthslong negotiations, a deal they are hoping to present Tuesday for approval at a meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission, two people with knowledge of the sensitive talks said Monday evening.”
However, no deal/plan/agreement was presented at the MRC meeting that Tuesday.
Acting Maryland Jockey Club (MJC) President Mike Rogers said he could not comment on the plan.
The plan was not given to the commissioners verbally or in writing at the meeting. According to one commissioner the commissioners at large never received the plan after.
The plan was given to Mike Hopkins, MJC’s Executive Director, who said after he reviewed it he would give it to the commissioners for their approval.
However, TheRacingBiz’s Frank Vespe published an article reviewing the report that the commissioners had yet seen.
According to Vespe there was a six-month agreement between the MJC, Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (MTHA), and Maryland Horse Breeders Association (MHBA) that will keep racing going in through the end of 2023.
Vespe further states in his article: “It could also lead to the closure of Pimlico for training and stabling, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Racing Biz. Pimlico may be the future for Maryland racing, but it appears Laurel’s the present.”
Tim Keefe, president of the MTHA and a Laurel Park-based trainer, confirmed this stating “It’s cost savings, quite frankly. It’s very costly just to keep the track open for training. They’re merely doing it as a cost savings, and I don’t have a problem with that.”
What’s puzzling about closing Pimlico in any capacity is the announcement two days before the Preakness in an article by John Cherwa in the Baltimore Banner that “Stronach CEO says plan is ‘to concentrate on Pimlico’ as primary track.”
“The opportunity, I believe, is to concentrate on Pimlico as the racetrack and maybe use Laurel for training or use another location for training,” Aidan Butler said in an exclusive interview with The Baltimore Banner. “But if the idea is to build two new racetracks, that doesn’t make a lot of logical sense. Personally, if I were to rebuild one, I’d rather rebuild Pimlico.”
That was May 18. On May 31, Zorzi reported in Maryland Matters that Pimlico’s Off-track Betting (OTB) would be shuttered.
After public outcry via emails and social media, this decision was reversed the very next day.
Brandon Weigel reports in the Baltimore Banner June 1 “Pimlico owners reconsidering plans to shut down off-track betting.”
In an email sent to employees Thursday afternoon, 1/ST Racing and Gaming CEO Aidan Butler wrote that ownership is “reassessing” the move, which he indicated would have occurred only “during the summer months when it is not as utilized by our patrons.” A final decision has not been made.
Changes and Agreements
Mentioned in the report was using the Purse Dedication Account for operating costs. The PDA was created to encourage more entries, bigger fields and boost horsemen’s confidence in Maryland’s program.
When the legislature passed the The Racing and Community Development Act of 2020 to approve bonds for redevelopment of both Laurel Park and Pimlico the PDA was to be used for debt service on the bonds noted at “horsemen’s contribution.”
That’s just part of this newly hatched plan that has yet to garner the required approval of the Maryland Racing Commission.
The other part of the plan is to close Pimlico as a daily training center, which it has been since its inception in 1870.
Currently, there are 38 trainers and approximately 263 horses located in the barns at Pimlico. Not to mention dozens of workers houses at the facility.
Several of the trainers have commented on social media that they would prefer to stay stabled and training at Pimlico.
Legacy trainers from the Merryman Family, Ann and son Michael, spoke out on Eclipse Award-winning writer John Scheinman’s recent Facebook blog regarding the current happenings.
Michael Warfield Merryman said: “Have no interest in moving to [L]aurel. Track is terrible and always will be, it’s in a flood plain. They can’t keep it in good shape with the number of horses training on it now, so let’s add more. We had Trombetta’s barn, bowed so many it’s not funny. Pimlico is a far superior surface.”
When asked if he was aware of the proposed closure, Merryman responded: “Whispers we’d be shutting down in October. Hoping that was to start construction since everyone has said Pimlico will be the track going forward.”
“The Pimlico MTHA has not cared to have an appropriate Pimlico track representative since the 90s. The amount of meetings that I hear people say that the Pimlico track is as bad as Laurel from people that have not been stabled there except when Laurel shuts down for its semiannual fix. Trainers prefer to race most of the year on a worse racing surface and continue to break down horses rather than race more days at Pimlico. This might change with HISA involved. Churchill meet was moved to Ellis 134 miles away. Md trainers at. Laurel finds a 20-minute drive too taxing on themselves/ it’s not horse safety first
It’s human convenience,” said Ann W. Merryman.
“As an owner who has invested a great deal in the Maryland Horse Racing Industry, I, like Michael Warfield Merryman, also have no interest in moving my horses to Laurel for much the same reasons he mentioned,” Laura Catlett marked. “The assertion that Pimlico cannot alone support all the horsemen and horses has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The MJC sold the land surrounding Pimlico with the support of the MRC. The MRC has allowed the MJC to allocate 90%+ of state funds and racing days to Laurel. Pimlico can’t alone support Maryland Racing? How did that happen?”
This plan that seems to have come out of the blue has been in talks for months as reflected by the MRC minutes.
In the January 3, 2023 minutes it states: Executive Director J. Michael Hopkins informed the Commission that the thoroughbred industry had agreed to extend the 10 Year Agreement through January 31, 2023, to give all parties additional time to negotiate.
In the MRC Maryland Jockey Club Update from the February 7, 2023 minutes:
Mike Rogers, representing the Maryland Jockey Club (“MJC”), reported that the MJC has been having conversations with the stakeholders regarding a long-term agreement. …
Chairman Mike Algeo addressed the industry, commenting that the biggest question he had been asked while in Annapolis is when the stakeholders would enter into a long-term agreement, since the current agreement expires on June 30, 2023. Chairman Algeo expressed his concern that the expiration date would arrive very quickly and that he would be scheduling a meeting with the stakeholders in the next few weeks to discuss the status of negotiations.
In the April 4, 2023, MRC meeting minutes, a meeting that announced the resignations of two commission members, in the Public Comments section, Cricket Goodall commented that “the Maryland Horse Breeders were also included in the talks between the Maryland Jockey Club and Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.”
The Act of 2020 authorized the sale of $375 million in bonds, but the bond sale, contingent on the approval of certain still-unsigned agreements, has yet to take place with other factors such as cost estimates have nearly doubled, Covid and worker force shortage have all but halted the plan.
Add the fact that you bring in inspectors, engineers and architects to start on redevelopment plans and they see little things like wetlands. And Laurel Park had lots of wetlands.
As you can see in the provided image, Laurel Park sits right in the beginning of the Patuxent River watershed where tiny streams above and underground fed from runoff upland created the actual river and keep it replenished.
Click to see The Baltimore Sun (Jan. 31, 2013) and The Washington Post’s (May 1, 2014) photos of Laurel Park flooded Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3
So, how did Laurel end up in this environmentally sensitive location? The railroad. And the railroad ended up where it did because of the river. It was all about shipping goods, stock and people when America was based on agricultural products that needed to be transported from the rural farms to the growing cities to market.
Can Laurel Park ever have a safe, viable racing surface? Yes. With the installation of a French drainage system that redirects ground water where it was meant to go.
According to a Jan. 9, 2008 story in the Baltimore Sun’s Phillip McGowan, the Maryland Jockey Club asked for permission to fill in 4 acres of wetlands in the Patuxent River watershed as part of a multimillion- dollar redevelopment to modernize the floundering thoroughbred racetrack.
The story reported: “The nontidal wetlands that would be filled in are near Route 198, said Walter Lynch, the project’s lead architect. That is where a swath of heavily wooded wetlands buffers the racetrack complex from the state highway, near the line between Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties.
Lynch said Laurel Park’s parent owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., would offset the 4-acre fill-in that would be used for new grandstands, retail, and parking by creating 8 acres of forested wetlands nearer the Patuxent River.”
The Army Corps of Engineers and the state’s environmental agency are reviewing the racetrack’s preliminary permit request to eliminate the wetlands, according to the Sun report.
In the May 19, 2015, MRC minutes it stated that the Maryland Jockey Club requested reimbursement of $717,444.00 from the Racing Facility Redevelopment Fund for work done at Laurel Park for Phase 0, which generally encompassed the soft expenses for permitting and wetland relocation. (“Wetland relocation” was never clarified.)
Laurel Park was closed twice this past spring for issues of horses breaking down. I am baffled how Maryland Jockey Club can now move all racing operations to a track that has a recent history of fatalities, injuries and training interruptions.
Earlier this year, the General Assembly created the Maryland Thoroughbred Operating Authority, a panel with sweeping powers that would keep racing operating, should the negotiations between the Maryland Jockey Club, the horsemen and breeders reach an impasse. The authority would also be responsible for developing a new model for racing in Maryland.
To date, appointments to the new board, which came into existence Thursday, June 1, have yet to be made.
A role the new authority would also have is to jumpstart stalled improvements at Pimlico and Laurel.
