Housing Concerns Raised After MD Authority Proposals

During a Jan. 11 community meeting with the board of directors of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, horsemen expressed the importance of housing considerations for workers as officials work to implement proposals that would alter the state’s Thoroughbred racing and training landscape.

A pair of reports issued Jan. 5 by the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority propose a consolidation of racing operations at a rebuilt Pimlico Race Course, the creation of a training center to accommodate additional horses at a to-be-determined location, and the replacement of the current private, for-profit ownership structure with a state-owned, non-profit-managed arrangement. Racing would take place at Laurel Park while Pimlico is under construction.

1/ST Racing, a division of the Stronach Group that currently operates the state’s tracks, would turn Pimlico over to the state. 1/ST Racing would retain the right to develop the property at Laurel Park, and maintain ownership of the Preakness Stakes (G1) itself while leasing the rights to it to the new track operators.

The plans are subject to approval by the state’s General Assembly, which is to convene from Jan. 10-April 8.

Late last year, the MTHA, Maryland Horse Breeders Association, and 1/ST Racing announced a one-year extension to the racing agreement with 1/ST Racing until Dec. 31, 2024. 

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Alan Foreman, general counsel to the MTHA and who represented that group on the state-created Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, and attorney Greg Cross, a real estate and structured finance litigator who serves as the Authority’s chair, provided remarks and fielded questions during Thursday’s videoconference meeting.

One participant in the community meeting submitted a question about how officials aim to make employees and customers feel safe in the high-crime Park Heights area by Pimlico, noting that off-site housing is planned there. A Pimlico security guard was shot 11 times and killed in the parking lot at Pimlico in 2015.

Cross replied that the completion of development would be effectively “four years out” and provide “seed money” into projects.

“I think this is going to be a huge bang in Park Heights, and you’re gonna see a fundamental difference,” he added. “This will effectively become the gateway to Park Heights.”

Other participants in the community meeting expressed concerns, either directly or relayed by board members in texts they noted receiving, about having sufficient housing at the proposed training center. Three sites are under consideration.

Cross said the original plan did not set aside money for housing at the training center.

“We’re thinking that the housing will be in the community around the training facility. There will not be dormitories built at the training facility under the current plan,” he said, noting that Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., essentially operates in that manner.

Board member and trainer Ferris Allen later offered his perspective: “I think the Authority needs to understand that a lot of our employees are on foot or on bicycles; they don’t drive. They work on H-2B visas and things like that. So on-site housing is a very essential part of running our business well.”

In summarizing the recommendations of the Authority as the community meeting was coming to a close, Foreman said the Authority examined the operations of the New York Racing Association and Del Mar in modeling its plans.

“Just my own personal perspective is the status quo in racing is simply not going to survive going forward,” he said. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here. This will not present itself again. And we can’t let the perfect get in the way of the good.”

Later, replying to a question about the Authority’s recommendation to increase funding to the state’s breeding program and the mechanism for that, Cross added: “That’s going to have to come out of operations in the context of the not-for-profit. If we operate more efficiently, we’re going to control our destiny. This is a bet-on-ourselves model.”