Maryland and Baltimore officials have made little progress on plans to rehabilitate PimlicoGETTY IMAGES
The Stronach Group COO Tim Ritvo said that the company has "no recourse but to continue negotiating" with Maryland and Baltimore officials as it "looks to determine the future" of the Preakness Stakes at either Pimlico Race Course or Laurel Park, according to Childs Walker of the BALTIMORE SUN. Ritvo on Saturday during his annual Preakness-day news conference said that negotiations have been "complicated by the city’s lawsuit seeking control of the track, which he said has 'no merit.'" State and city officials have "made little progress on plans to rehabilitate Pimlico" after the Maryland Stadium Authority in December released a $424M proposal to renovate the site. Ritvo said, "It gets tougher every year to give the experience that the customer deserves for an event like this. It’s just old infrastructure, and we do everything we can to keep it up to the level we can" (BALTIMORE SUN, 5/19). Ritvo on Pimlico's status said, "We're positive this place is safe. We've done the reports." He added, "The day-to-day operations to keep this place going ... we spend millions, and it doesn't make a dent in what you see here" (BLOODHORSE.com, 5/19). Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said that he "would prefer to see [the] Preakness remain at Pimlico" (BALTIMORE SUN, 5/19).
PERFECT SCENE? In DC, Barry Svrluga noted over the weekend at Pimlico a "pipe burst, so not all the toilets worked," and because the "grandstands past which the horses parade en route from the barn are so decrepit, they were closed." On Friday afternoon, a horse "collapsed after the finish of a race" and "died on the track." That all captures the "state of a sport and the venue that hosts one of its crown jewels." Horse racing is, "without hyperbole, in peril." The sport "seems a bit chaotic at the moment." Sometimes "that’s tragic," but on Saturday, it "seemed more typical." In what "might be one of the last Preaknesses" at Pimlico, '19 will be the "year a horse ran the race without a rider, and that fit in with the current state of the sport" (WASHINGTON POST, 4/19).
