Last Updated on July 9, 2026
Pimlico Race Course first opened its gates in 1870, making it the second-oldest thoroughbred racing venue in the United States. The Preakness Stakes has called it home since 1873, earning its place as the “middle jewel” of the Triple Crown alongside the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes.
For generations of racing fans, the two were inseparable.
But for much of the past two decades, Pimlico’s physical condition told a different story. Grandstand sections were cordoned off as unsafe. Elevators stopped working. Plumbing failed.
The grandeur that had once defined the venue gave way to a venue that felt tired. The Stronach Group, the company that controlled both the racetrack and the legal rights to the Preakness name and brand, showed little urgency in reversing the decline.
As the years passed, the racing community grew increasingly uneasy. The question that surfaced again and again was not whether Pimlico needed saving, but whether the Preakness would survive long enough to be saved.
Maryland Takes Ownership, But Not of Everything
By 2024, Maryland’s legislature had seen enough. The state passed landmark legislation to acquire Pimlico Race Course for the symbolic price of one dollar, attaching a $400 million redevelopment commitment to the deal.
The goal was to transform a deteriorating facility into a world-class year-round racing destination.
The plan moved forward quickly. The 150th running of the Preakness took place at Pimlico in May 2025, a historic milestone. Demolition of the old grandstand began the following July.
The 2026 race shifted temporarily to Laurel Park while construction proceeds. When the new Pimlico opens in 2027, it is expected to host more than 100 race days per year, accommodate stabling for 700 horses, offer hotel accommodations, and serve as a flexible event venue capable of drawing visitors year-round.
There was, however, a significant gap in what Maryland had acquired.
The Stronach Group’s racing subsidiary, 1/ST Racing, retained full ownership of the Preakness name and brand.
The Maryland Jockey Club, was required to pay a licensing fee to use the name at the very track the state had just rebuilt.
The arrangement amounted to roughly $6 million per year, built from a $3 million annual base rising at 2.5% each year, plus a 2% share of wagering revenue from Preakness and Black-Eyed Susan race days.
Maryland owned the land and the venue. Someone else owned the name on the marquee.
What most people did not notice at the time was a single clause buried in the 2024 legislation.
If 1/ST Racing ever chose to sell the Preakness rights to an outside party, Maryland had the legal right to step forward and match the offer. That provision would prove to be the most consequential sentence in the entire bill.
Churchill Downs Sees an Opportunity
On April 21, 2026, Churchill Downs Incorporated, the corporation behind the Kentucky Derby, announced an $85 million agreement to purchase the Preakness naming rights and brand from 1/ST Racing.
The deal would have given a single company a commercial stake in two of the three Triple Crown races.
The announcement landed with immediate unease across Maryland’s racing and political circles. Even if the race itself was contractually tied to Baltimore, the prospect of a major corporate entity controlling the Preakness brand raised real questions about long-term influence over the event.
Churchill’s chief executive, Bill Carstanjen, moved quickly to offer reassurances.
He stated publicly that the race would remain in Baltimore and that Churchill intended to license the brand back to Maryland under terms broadly similar to the existing arrangement: a $3 million annual base beginning in 2028 and rising 2.5% per year, plus the 2% wagering share. The company framed the acquisition as a straightforward investment, not a takeover.
For a state that had committed hundreds of millions of public dollars to rebuilding Pimlico, those assurances were not enough.
The licensing arrangement described by Carstanjen would have left Maryland writing annual checks to Churchill Downs for the right to use the name of a race being run at a track Maryland had paid to construct.
The State Plays Its Hand
On June 18, 2026, Governor Wes Moore announced that Maryland would exercise the matching right written into the 2024 law. The state would pay $85 million to acquire the Preakness name and brand outright.
The financing structure was designed to ensure that no general tax revenue would be used.
Maryland will issue 30-year tax-exempt bonds through a state development agency, with all debt service drawn entirely from Preakness-generated revenues including wagering, ticket sales, and sponsorship income.
The roughly $6 million per year that would otherwise have flowed to Churchill Downs as licensing fees will instead service the bond.
At that rate, the debt is projected to be retired in approximately 14 years, after which Maryland holds the name and brand free and clear, permanently.
Carstanjen’s response was measured and without apparent bitterness. “We understand why the state of Maryland would decide to acquire the Preakness IP rights as a state-owned asset,” he said in a public statement, and left it there.
A New Chapter, Built to Last
The acquisition completes something that was never quite finished when Maryland bought the racetrack two years ago.
The state now controls the full picture: a rebuilt Pimlico, the Maryland Jockey Club’s nonprofit operations, a pending $48.5 million purchase of Laurel Park, and the Preakness name and brand itself.
There is no longer a scenario in which the race could be relocated, rebranded, or sold away from Baltimore by an outside party.
The new Pimlico, due to open in 2027, will function as a genuine anchor for the region year-round, with 700-horse stabling capacity and more than 100 race days annually.
Maryland’s racing industry as a whole supports an estimated 28,000 jobs and contributes approximately $3 billion in economic activity to the state.
For the Triple Crown as an institution, the ownership structure remains what it has always been in spirit: three separate races, three separate stewards.
The Kentucky Derby belongs to Churchill Downs.
The Belmont Stakes belongs to the New York Racing Association.
The Preakness Stakes now belongs to the state of Maryland. No single corporation controls the series.
The legal clause that made all of this possible was written into a bill that most people read as a real estate transaction.
It turned out to be something else entirely: a quiet guarantee that Maryland would always have the final say. When the moment came, the state used it without hesitation.
