BALTIMORE – The Triple Crown of the future will look like this: the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes – and the Travers at Saratoga.
Impossible? Crazy? Not a bit. It’s the confident forecast of the nation’s most successful horse trainer, D Wayne Lukas, if the state of Maryland does not come to its senses and the Preakness is yanked from its anchor at Pimlico racecourse.
All week leading up to Afleet Alex’s victory yesterday in the 130th running of the Preakness, Baltimore was awash in gloom and predictions that the Preakness was in danger of being lost to the city.
Indeed, the man who almost singlehandedly built the Preakness, the second jewel in the crown, into the mammoth event it is today, Chick Lang, said in a radio broadcast, “This is probably the last time the Preakness will be run at Pimlico.”
It was against this backdrop that Lukas, who has won five Preaknesses, was asked his opinion of the classic’s future.
“Pimlico has 130 years of tradition and racing is built on great tradition,” the trainer said. “Nobody knocks themselves out to make us more comfortable than Pimlico. They are the best.
“But if Pimlico loses the Preakness, there is a good chance the Travers will take its place. And don’t think that idea has not been batted around in the boardrooms and elsewhere at the New York Racing Association.”
Horse racing today is in incredible flux. Hialeah has been lost in Florida, Hollywood Park is up for bids, with the risk of being converted into malls and condos, California racing is slipping precipitously, the New York Racing Association’s franchise expires in 2007 while it labors under federal scrutiny, Pimlico and Laurel are running on empty, Monmouth and The Meadowlands are a political football in New Jersey – and slot machines are increasingly subsidizing the racing product in Delaware, West Virginia, Iowa, Louisiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and New York.
But no state is in so deep a plight as Maryland. Magna Entertainment Corp. bought Pimlico and Laurel and rights to the Preakness from the Maryland Jockey Club three years ago for $117 million promising to spend millions to upgrade and modernize both tracks.
But since then, Magna has been running up hill. It pumped $145 million into rebuilding Gulfstream Park in Florida, its business at Santa Anita has been declining, Maryland has been a big disappointment. Net result: Magna lost nearly $100 million last year and another $4.1 million in the first quarter this year. Shareholders are getting nervous.
Most people in and out of racing believe the installation of slots would not only save Maryland racing and the Preakness, but make it competitive with surrounding racing states which are thriving on slot funds.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich, a Republican, is a big backer of slots. In a city still fuming over the loss of the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis, he has sworn he will not allow another city jewel (the Preakness) to be shipped out of town.
The stumbling block is House Speaker Michael E. Busch, a Democrat. “It’s a controversial vote,” he said. Opponents, among other things, balk at granting one firm – Magna – a lucrative gambling monopoly.
I doubt the Preakness will leave Pimlico. It is unthinkable after 130 years to pull it up and transplant it somewhere else when slot legislation could save it. But then one should never underestimate the stupidity of politicians.
If Maryland loses the Preakness, it will have no one but itself to blame. Its loss, in Wayne Lukas’ calculations, will be Saratoga’s gain.