Laurel meet being shifted to Pimlico
Officials study problems with main track surface
The Maryland Jockey Club has canceled three planned racing cards for this weekend and will shift the remainder of its spring meet to Pimlico Race Course as officials continue to assess problems with the main track surface at Laurel Park.
The Jockey Club said Wednesday that the track at Laurel had “not responded sufficiently to wintertime cushion repairs.” Trainers have been limited to galloping their horses on recent days but will be allowed to hold workouts at Pimlico starting Sunday. The Jockey Club will provide van service from Laurel Park, where many of the state’s leading thoroughbred trainers are based.
Racing will shift to Pimlico on April 22, with eight dates scheduled for the rest of the spring meet. Those cards include the Spring Stakes Spectacular, which will be run April 24 and feature seven stakes races. The Preakness meet at Pimlico was already scheduled to begin May 6 and run through Memorial Day.
The Jockey Club said racing will continue at Pimlico “until further notice.”
The maintenance problems have added to a difficult spring for the Jockey Club, which previously canceled two weekends of racing because of an equine herpesvirus outbreak
that touched both Laurel Park and Pimlico.
The Jockey Club’s track superintendent, Chris Bosley, is working with Dr. Mick Peterson of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory and Dennis Moore, senior track superintendent for The Stronach Group, to fix the track at Laurel.
Stronach Group COO Aidan Butler said in a statement he has “full confidence” that the trio will “deliver a rehabilitated maintrack surface cushion that will offer superior training and racing to the benefit of Maryland horsemen for years to come.”
During an online meeting with horsemen Friday afternoon, Butler said he received “a heads up last week that the track was not performing as well as we’d like it to.”
“It’s going to be a heck of a lot of work, and unfortunately, it’s going to be a heck of a lot of inconvenience,” he said of the resurfacing project.
The Jockey Club has not announced a timeline for repairs, but Stronach Group Senior Vice President Steve Koch said the project will take at least two weeks.