By now, most of you have heard of the new “Championship Series” announced by Churchill Downs (CDI) and the New York Racing Association (NYRA). The six-race series will include the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, but conspicuous in its absence is the Preakness. This blatant snub comes as the state of Maryland is in the midst of sinking over $600M into horseracing. Talk about embarrassing.
I won’t get into all the drama, but suffice to say, at least from my perspective, this is good. A Triple Crown winner is likely finished as a realistic possibility – in fact the TDN’s piece on this is entitled, “The Triple Crown Passes Away At 107” – and other important races like the Haskell and the PA Derby will also be marginalized. So, good work, CDI and NYRA.
Yesterday, the campaign of Andy Ellis, the Green Party candidate for governor in Maryland, released a statement on the above that reads in part:
“Days after the Moore administration finalized its $85 million purchase of the Preakness, the industry’s power players cut Maryland out of horse racing’s new championship series. Andy Ellis, Green Party candidate for Governor, said the snub confirms what the numbers have shown for years: Maryland keeps doubling down on a dying industry. ‘Both parties in Annapolis have repeatedly given taxpayer dollars to prop up the horse racing industry, despite the fact that the industry is in rapid decline and loses money year after year in Maryland,’ said Ellis.
“The state’s stake in horse racing keeps growing. In 2020, the General Assembly authorized up to $375 million in bonds to renovate Pimlico and Laurel Park, a plan that collapsed before a shovel hit the ground. Lawmakers replaced it in 2024 with $400 million in bonds to rebuild Pimlico and build a new training center, repaid with public gaming revenue. The training center alone has burned through two plans: the state bought a Carroll County farm for nearly $4.5 million in 2025, abandoned it when development estimates hit $212 million, then agreed in July to buy Laurel Park for $48.5 million as part of a conversion expected to cost $177 million in all.
“On top of the construction debt, the industry collects tens of millions of dollars every year in casino revenue that the state directs to racing purses and track facilities. Last week, the state added the $85 million Preakness rights purchase to the pile.
“‘It’s a tradition in Maryland for leaders of both parties to share tents with wealthy owners at the Preakness, hand the industry public dollars, and look away from the more than 400 horses that have died at our tracks in a little over a decade,’ said Ellis. ‘Now the industry has taken the money and left Maryland behind anyway. It’s time to end this cruel, corrupt, and failing tradition.’
“As Governor, Ellis would push the General Assembly to divest the state from its failed investment in horse racing. He would work to ban the sport in Maryland, redirect the annual racing subsidy to library construction across the state, and explore legal action to recover tax breaks and subsidies the industry has taken. And he would make sure Park Heights gets the same investment it is slated to receive now, on its own terms, without tying the neighborhood’s future to a collapsing industry.”
‘Now the industry has taken the money and left Maryland behind anyway…’ is somewhat like the thieves who get dressed up in their burglar clothes and go prowling in the night to siphon gas out of cars and trucks while the owners are most likely asleep. The theft is intentional.
If this series ends up weakening horseracing by sidelining iconic races like the Preakness, it’s likely to erode fan interest over time. A fragmented racing calendar makes it harder to build excitement around the Triple Crown and could accelerate the decline in popularity that horse racing has already experienced. Fewer fans, less betting, and a smaller industry would mean fewer horses bred and raced, one can only hope
Kudos to Mr. Ellis. I wish him much success and wish I could vote for him. The people of Maryland should be up in arms at how much of their hard earned money is being wasted so frivolously.
It is refreshing to hear of a political candidate who is capable of some empathy for the horses! What Andy Ellis said is fantastic! It’s just a crying shame that in our two-party system a third party doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning any political office. It would be awesome if the voters of Maryland proved me wrong on this point!
His statement shows that he has good information on what is going on; that he is capable of caring about the needs of the people of Maryland as well as the horses.
No horse needs to have their freedom to be a horse taken away by money-grubbing people calling themselves horsemen. They are not true horsemen. They abuse horses for money and routinely do everything they can to sweep their barbaric mistreatment and sadistic killing of horses under the rug.