The Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority has agreed to build a state-of-the-art training center at Shamrock Farm in Woodbine, setting in motion a key component of the state’s plan to redevelop Pimlico Race Course, a source with direct knowledge of the decision told The Baltimore Sun.

The authority met in a closed session to discuss the location Tuesday afternoon, and a formal announcement is expected later this month.

The training center is expected to cost at least $110 million of the $400 million allocated to the “Pimlico Plus” project by the General Assembly earlier this year.

“It drives this project,” Alan Foreman, who represents the state’s horsemen on the MTROA, said before the panel went into a closed session. “The horsemen need the plan now for where they’re going to be.”

MTROA Chairman Greg Cross did not respond immediately to a message seeking comment after Tuesday’s meeting.

The MTROA, created by the state to chart a path forward for its struggling racing industry, chose Shamrock over Mitchell Farm in Aberdeen.

It’s a popular pick among the state’s horsemen, many of whom are based at Laurel Park and dreaded the prospect of relocating to the Mitchell site in Harford County.

Shamrock Farm is closer to where many of them live and work now and will offer fairly direct access to Pimlico via Liberty Road. Horsemen envision Shamrock, which already houses a longstanding breeding operation founded by late Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney, as a pastoral setting that could rival Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, where some of the state’s top stables are headquartered.

“Out of all the sites, Shamrock offers an idyllic setting where horses can live like horses,” lead architect Populous wrote in a study of the potential locations released earlier this year.

“They want to make a state-of-the-art training center. That’s what we’ve heard,” longtime Maryland trainer Linda Gaudet said. “That would be lovely, almost on a scale of Fair Hill or something like that where people could stay here year-round. We need to get more horses and new people.”

She noted that such off-site training centers have thrived in Kentucky.

State officials hope to release a design for the new training center and break ground in 2025. The facility needs to be ready to serve most of the state’s horsemen by the end of 2027, when a temporary agreement to continue training at Laurel Park, owned by The Stronach Group, will expire. Laurel will host racing in 2025 and 2026, but a rebuilt Pimlico is expected to be ready for the 2027 Preakness Stakes and will serve as the center for Maryland racing after that.

There’s not enough space at Pimlico to accommodate daily training for the horsemen used to working at Laurel, so a new, off-site training center was vital to the plan the MTROA hammered out after a previous plan to redevelop both Pimlico and Laurel collapsed.

Thoroughbred owners and trainers such as Gaudet still worry the training center could become an “afterthought” given the greater public focus on Pimlico and the Preakness. The day-to-day concerns of running a barn are less apt to register with casual fans and public officials who only watch a few races a year.

But horsemen spotlighted the importance of the training center as soon as plans accelerated to consolidate the state’s racing industry at Pimlico.

“To me, that’s the first priority; we’ve got to get going on the training center,” Foreman said in an interview earlier this month. “It has to be done in conjunction with the rebuild of Pimlico. The sooner we can get in the training center, the better for this whole project.”

The training center could occupy about 155 acres of 640-acre Shamrock Farm, according to a tentative design included in the Populous study. That design included 16 barns containing 40 stalls each, a veterinary center and a dormitory with 75 rooms for workers.

Before the closed session Tuesday, Cross said the board had accomplished all of its major goals for a busy 2024, which included reaching a deal to buy Pimlico from The Stronach Group, gaining legislative approval for a reworked Pimlico redevelopment plan and creating a new nonprofit to take over day-to-day operations of Maryland racing starting Jan. 1.

“Everything we said was necessary for ’24 has been completed,” Cross said.

Have a news tip? Contact Childs Walker at daviwalker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6893 and x.com/ChildsWalker