By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews — Maryland on the Map
Maryland is quietly trying to spend another $85 million.
According to five sources with knowledge of the state’s plans, cited by Fox Baltimore, the Moore administration is taking steps to secure the intellectual property rights to the Preakness Stakes brand — the same brand that Churchill Downs Incorporated purchased from 1/ST Racing while Maryland’s governor was busy announcing a different racing deal and apparently not watching what was happening on the other side of the table.
The state that couldn’t manage farmland. The state that shut down its own racing authority for mismanagement. The state that imposed a 45-day delay on a purchase that it already announced as a win. That state now wants to spend $85 million to buy back leverage it never should have lost in the first place.
Churchill Downs Incorporated has every reason to say no. And Maryland has very little reason to believe it won’t.
What Maryland Is Actually Asking
CDI just paid $85 million for the Preakness name, trademark, and brand. In the last few years, several Derby winners have skipped the race, including this year. Meanwhile, Maryland’s investment thesis has quickly frayed publicly, and the state has demonstrated — repeatedly and documentably — that it is not a competent steward of racing infrastructure.
CDI, by contrast, is a publicly traded company with a track record of acquiring, operating, and improving racing assets. They just completed a significant renovation of Colonial Downs in New Kent County, Virginia — roughly two hours south of Baltimore. They own and operate Ocean Downs in Worcester County, Maryland, less than two hours from Pimlico. They run Churchill Downs. They know how to operate tracks.
Maryland is asking CDI to sell an $85 million asset it has no financial pressure to sell, in exchange for cash the state will have to justify to taxpayers who are already on the hook for $400 million in Pimlico bonds and a $48.5 million Laurel purchase that is currently under a 45-day financial review.
The ask is not serious on its face. CDI doesn’t need the money. CDI doesn’t need Maryland’s goodwill. And CDI holds something Maryland cannot replicate: the name of a 154-year-old race that Maryland’s own government cannot afford to watch leave.
The Leverage Map
Here is what Maryland’s negotiating position actually looks like.
Maryland owns Pimlico. Maryland owns — or is in the process of purchasing — Laurel Park. Maryland has committed $400 million to rebuild a venue that will be ready in 2027, and currently has no anchor tenant with any contractual obligation to show up.
CDI owns the Preakness brand. CDI owns Colonial Downs in Virginia. CDI owns Ocean Downs in Maryland. CDI owns Churchill Downs in Kentucky. CDI owns the Kentucky Derby, the most prestigious two minutes in American sports. CDI owns the race whose winners keep deciding the Preakness isn’t worth entering.
If CDI wanted to move the Preakness — and to be clear, there is no indication they currently do — they have options. Colonial Downs is a functioning track in a growing Mid-Atlantic market. Ocean Downs is already in Maryland. The infrastructure exists. The brand, which CDI owns, travels with the decision. Maryland’s rebuilt Pimlico would become an expensive facility without its signature event, in a neighborhood that was promised an anchor that never arrived.
That is CDI’s leverage. Maryland put it there, one hasty announcement at a time.
The Case for Getting Out of the Way
There is an argument Maryland has been too proud to make publicly, and that Annapolis almost certainly never will: Churchill Downs Incorporated would be a better steward of the Preakness Stakes than the state of Maryland has proven to be.
This is not a comfortable argument for a governor who has staked part of his legacy on the Pimlico rebuild as a Baltimore community investment. It is, however, an honest one.
CDI does not buy farmland that it can’t develop. CDI does not shut down its own management authority for mismanagement. CDI does not announce acquisitions and then impose 45-day delays to check the math. CDI operates racing facilities for profit, which means it has a direct financial incentive to make those facilities function, fill fields, and attract marquee horses. Maryland operates racing facilities for politics, which means the press release matters more than the execution, and the taxpayer absorbs the cost of getting it wrong.
A CDI-owned and operated Pimlico — or even a CDI-operated Pimlico under a long-term lease of the state-owned facility — would arrive with operational expertise, marketing infrastructure, and the business incentive to make the Preakness worth entering every year. The championship format reforms this series has proposed, extending the schedule and elevating the Belmont as a true national final, are the kind of decisions CDI is actually positioned to drive. Maryland can advocate for them. Maryland cannot compel them.
The public interest objection is real: a private operator can prioritize revenue over community investment, can move the race if economics dictate, and has no obligation to honor the Park Heights neighborhood development promise that Moore has used to justify the Pimlico rebuild. Those are legitimate concerns. But Maryland is already exposed to most of those risks anyway. CDI owns the brand. The race can already move. The only protection Maryland has is the building — and a building without the race is a very expensive community center.
The Half-Billion Dollar Question
Add it up. $400 million for Pimlico. $48.5 million for Laurel, pending review. $85 million to buy Preakness IP that CDI has no reason to sell. That is north of half a billion dollars in public money for a racing ecosystem Maryland still will not fully control — because CDI will still own the Derby, will still set the Triple Crown conversation, and will still have no binding obligation to send its Derby winners to Baltimore in May.
Maryland is not buying control of its racing future. It is buying the appearance of it. And it is doing so with a track record that suggests it will announce the purchase before it has checked whether CDI is actually selling.
Five sources told Fox Baltimore the state is quietly taking steps. Quietly is doing a lot of work in that sentence. A state that was confident in its position would not be quiet about it. A state that knows it is negotiating from weakness moves quietly, hopes the other side doesn’t notice how exposed it is, and announces the win before the ink is dry.
Churchill Downs Incorporated has been in the racing business for 150 years. They notice.
Maryland on the Map is an ongoing MDBayNews series on the state’s sporting economy and public investment in major events.
Sources: Fox Baltimore; Churchill Downs Incorporated; Maryland Stadium Authority; Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority; prior MDBayNews Maryland on the Map series reporting.
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