BALTIMORE _ The long-running competition between Maryland's two biggest horse racing tracks _ Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course _ might be entering the final stretch with the tracks' owner and Baltimore boosters betting on vastly different finishes.
The Stronach Group is spending significant political capital to support its vision to tear down the nearly 149-year-old Pimlico, redevelop the 110-acre site and relocate the Preakness Stakes to an $80 million, state-subsidized "super track" at Laurel _ perhaps by 2021.
Pimlico "is just falling apart," says Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer for Stronach.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, meanwhile, represents those who want to rebuild Pimlico, keep the Preakness there and establish a work group to start planning a $400 million redevelopment outlined in a recent Maryland Stadium Authority study.
"We will fight this with every fiber of our being," Pugh said. "The Preakness belongs to Baltimore."
The fate of Pimlico has been debated for years, but this time Stronach-backed legislation before the General Assembly could move the company closer to victory. And as the two sides make their case in Annapolis, Stronach appears to be much further down the path toward its vision than many Baltimore officials realized.
The Baltimore Sun examined seven years of financial records submitted by Stronach to the Maryland Racing Commission detailing how it invested $112 million in state grants, subsidized support from the horse industry and its own cash from 2011 to 2018. The company directed almost 80 percent of that money _ $89 million _ to Laurel, spending just $23 million at Pimlico.
The bulk of the money, $45 million, came from Maryland's slots-funded Racetrack Facilities Renewal program over the past five years. Roughly 87 percent of those funds went to Laurel, The Sun's review of records found.
Stronach invested an additional $3 million of its money for additional improvements at Laurel, the company said.
State law does not dictate how much money the Maryland Jockey Club, the Stronach affiliate that runs the two tracks, must spend at each.
Meanwhile, as the company favored Laurel financially, it was adding to the number of racing days there. In 2011, the company offered 114 days of racing at Laurel, increasing that to 159 days last year. Meanwhile, racing at Pimlico fell from a high of 37 days in 2015 to just 12 days last year. Nonetheless, last year Pimlico accounted for 40 percent of total operating revenues of $66 million for the two parks.
The difference in investment at the two tracks is obvious to anyone who visits.
The hulking Pimlico presents a worn, industrial facade that ushers patrons into a grimy interior of mismatched colors and materials, frequent leaks from faulty plumbing, crumbling and missing ceiling tiles and puddles of rust-colored water on the floor. It has the feel of an abandoned warehouse.
Laurel offers a more luxurious experience with far more amenities. There are shiny white barns with steeples, built at a cost of $3 million to $4 million each. The grandstand is adorned with floral arrangements, couches and chess sets. The women's restroom features a lounge area with a couch and stylish rug. The track has carved out comfortable space for other types of gaming _ rows of monitors and high-back chairs are provided in a room that hosts video game tournaments. And another room is ready if Maryland legalizes sports betting.
Despite visual clues _ and records that have long been available for public inspection _ some Baltimore officials expressed anger and surprise when told this week the specifics of the imbalance in spending.
It is "absolutely ridiculous" that Stronach has been spending so much on Laurel and so little on Pimlico, said Del. Dalya Attar, who represents the track's Northwest Baltimore neighborhood. Del. Tony Bridges shared her surprise.
"They have intentionally put money somewhere else," said Bridges, who grew up selling snacks from grocery carts to Preakness revelers outside Pimlico.
Todd Eberly, a professor of public policy at St. Mary's College, says no one should have been surprised.
"This is a situation where politicians say they're shocked and appalled to have discovered something they should have known for years," Eberly said. "You can just look at the two facilities and you easily realize that the money has been going to Laurel not Pimlico... If they had been paying attention a few years ago, you could have possibly prevented the imbalance."
Asked whether government officials should have monitored the spending patterns and flagged them, Pugh said she was generally aware of the disparity. But she said she felt reassured because Stronach was participating in the stadium authority study about the future of Pimlico, a $426,000 analysis that the company and the city both helped to pay for.
"We remain in conversation" with Stronach, Pugh said. "We want them to come back to the table."
Del. Samuel "Sandy" Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat who represents the Pimlico area, agreed with Pugh.
"We were aware of" a funding disparity, "but looking to the long term," Rosenberg said.
"Our focus for the last two or three years has been on the study and having a process where everybody was participating _ the state, the city and the track _ and not raising issues regarding how the money was currently being spent. Because if the study works out, then the money will be spent appropriately at Pimlico."
But he acknowledged that "there has to be greater overview than there is now."
Meanwhile, Gov. Larry Hogan has not rushed to support Pugh despite saying in the past that he supports holding the Preakness at Pimlico. And Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch are not showing any signs of resisting the Stronach-supported legislation that has bipartisan support from lawmakers in the Laurel area.
Only Comptroller Peter Franchot has been unequivocal in his support of Pimlico and whether state officials could have done more to raise concerns about spending before now. He sees the spending disparity and the new threat to Pimlico as part of a "series of broken promises" to Baltimore that he says the state was "handed by the gambling industry when we legalized slot machines."
"Hindsight is useless and we should have never reached this point," Franchot said Thursday of the scramble to keep the Preakness in Baltimore.
