Approximately 200 horses currently stabled at Pimlico Race Course for training could be moved to Laurel by the end of the year.
At a meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission on Aug. 1, Maryland Jockey Club acting President Mike Rogers confirmed that the MJC and members of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association are working on a plan to consolidate training at Laurel Park.
“Having two training centers is very costly, we’re just trying to cut the cost down as best we can,” Rogers said.
Even though Laurel Park currently has enough space to accommodate all of the horses, the practical solution is to delay the transition to ensure that larger operations can house their horses in a single building.
Lori Testerman, a Pimlico-based trainer, said the majority of people who live and work at Pimlico were not aware of plans to terminate training at Pimlico and also disagreed with the idea that 200 additional horses using the Laurel track for training wouldn’t make a difference.
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I do not know where Mr.Rogers gets his figures. There are almost 300 horses, 39 trainers and each of them have between 4-15 people working for them (many from the Park Hgts community). He says he is”working closely with the MD Thoroughbred Horseman Assoc. a group that is notorious for excluding Pimlico trainers. This group is also not authorized to make major decisions or deals, like a union could either. What amazes me is why the Laurel trainers do not have a problem with so many more horses sharing their already over worked, and frankly, compromised racing surface. This not a business decision but just another step in the plan to destroy Pimlico, the second oldest course in the U.S. The preakness will become just another race, down graded, moved to FL and no longer part of the Triple Crown. But the owners are from Canada, so they do not care.