After decades of false hopes and dashed dreams, sectarian squabbles and torturous twists, 2025 is the year when Maryland thoroughbred racing will step into its future.

Most obviously to the casual fan, Pimlico Race Course as we know it will host the Preakness Stakes for the final time in May before bulldozers and wrecking balls reshape decaying Old Hilltop into a fresh home for the sport.

But that’s just the tip of the change that will sweep one of the state’s oldest industries in the coming months. Starting on the first day of the new year, daily racing operations will be carried out by a new Maryland Jockey Club, a nonprofit created by the state to take over from The Stronach Group, which in various iterations has run Pimlico and Laurel Park since 2002.

The state will attempt to reinvigorate its signature race, the Preakness, with a weekslong festival announced earlier this month by Gov. Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott.

Racing will proceed on a trimmed 127-date calendar, designed to work in tandem with Virginia’s Colonial Downs racetrack, where many Maryland-based horsemen might run while Laurel is on break in July and August.

Meanwhile, work is expected to begin on a new state-of-the-art training facility at Shamrock Farm in Woodbine that will accommodate the horsemen currently based at Laurel once a refurbished Pimlico is ready to host daily racing in 2027.

“It’s going to be a big year,” said Greg Cross, the Baltimore attorney who chairs the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA), which was created to chart a path forward for the struggling industry.

State officials, industry leaders and everyday horsemen hammered at these issues for decades as the economic climate for American racing worsened and the buildings at Pimlico, home to the second jewel in the Triple Crown series, crumbled. Stakeholders grew frustrated with Stronach, the Canadian racing operator that maintained it was doing its best to prop up an industry that was losing $10 million a year, with even recent Preakness days running in the red. A $375 million plan to renovate Pimlico and Laurel Park stalled.

The state turned a corner in 2023, creating the MTROA to pull the industry out of this quagmire. In the spring, the General Assembly approved the authority’s $400 million plan to consolidate racing at Pimlico and the new training facility. Eight months later, that vision is on the verge of becoming reality.

“It has to,” said Alan Foreman, who represents the state’s horsemen on the MTROA board. “If this project is going to happen — and there’s no reason to believe it will not — it must begin in 2025. It cannot get delayed any further.”

He acknowledged there’s still ample trepidation, within the industry and without.

“I think people are still waiting to see what happens. There are still unanswered questions,” Foreman said. “How the nonprofit is going to work. When construction will begin at Pimlico and what that’s going to look like. The training center. I think that until everyone sees the plans, and shovels go into the ground, there’s still a lot of anxiety.”

Stronach, which has supported this changing of the guard, is not out of the picture completely. The Canadian company still owns Laurel Park, which will be Maryland racing’s primary home for at least two more years, hosting the Preakness in 2026. The state will also pay Stronach a licensing fee of $3 million — plus 2% of the total money wagered over the weekend — for the intellectual property associated with the Preakness.

But the company is down to its last days running the daily show, with former New Jersey racing executive Bill Knauf set to take the reins of the re-imagined Maryland Jockey Club on Jan. 1. Knauf’s management team is in place, and the nonprofit will retain most of the staff that ran Stronach’s operation.

Horsemen are cautious because they know the industry has consistently lost money in recent years, but they like what they’ve heard from Knauf, who will be charged with attracting new fans and bettors to the state’s racing product. He won’t be able to sell a new Pimlico for at least two years, so for now, he’s considering experiments such as food truck festivals, car shows and vintage clothing markets to accompany races at Laurel Park. In the second week of December, he was at an industry conference in Arizona, urging executives from gambling entities to feature Maryland racing more prominently.

“He has a real sense of what works and what doesn’t work,” Cross said. “He’s willing to think outside the box. When we made the announcement, I got texts from the leaders of other very prominent horse boards saying, ‘You got a steal.’”

Beyond the new faces in leadership, the new racing calendar will be the change that impacts Maryland owners, trainers and jockeys most immediately. They’ve generally run about 175 days (157 in 2024) in recent years, but Stronach had threatened to cut that number to 80 or 90, citing mounting losses. The 127-date program for 2025 represents a compromise for all parties, especially given the nod toward coordinating with other Mid-Atlantic racing states such as Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.

“I think we’re all going to learn a lot this year,” Knauf said. “I know it’s a very large cut for the horsemen, but racing around the country has proven that it’s very difficult with that many race days to put on a real quality project and highlight your racing. I think we and the horsemen are aligned in the sense that we want to put a better product out there and showcase it.”

The reduced schedule will be a shock to the system but one horsemen are willing to embrace as they search for a workable formula. They will have to cover any financial losses under the agreement approved by the General Assembly, so their interest in restoring profitability is urgent.

“This schedule not only ensures year-round access to high-quality racing opportunities for our horsemen in the region but also supports the successful launch of the new nonprofit operating entity,” said longtime Maryland trainer Katy Voss, who serves as president for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “It reflects our unwavering commitment to forward-thinking in a rapidly evolving industry.”

There’s plenty of anxiety that the money won’t flow, mixed with hope after years of horsemen feeling they weren’t a priority for their parent company.

“It definitely needs improving; we know that,” said trainer Linda Gaudet, a Maryland racing fixture for more than 50 years. “We all had different ideas going forward, what might work, but this is what we got. It has to work. There is no alternative. We’ve all fought for this.”

Of greatest interest to the wider public will be the Maryland Stadium Authority’s progress on tearing down and rebuilding Pimlico. Cross revealed a significant amendment to that plan in November, saying the existing track at Pimlico likely will not be rotated from its current alignment. Keeping the oval where it is would not only appease historians but save money and construction time. Cross called it a “win-win in all directions” that would help the state meet its “very aggressive” goal of having a renovated Pimlico ready to host the Preakness in May 2027.

Demolition on the current facility is expected to commence after the 150th Preakness is run on May 17, and Cross answered with an emphatic “yes” when asked if the project, delayed and re-imagined so many times, can be complete in a little more than two years.

“We’re on track,” he said. “It’s just a lot of constituencies to make sure you’ve got them all on board. So I think if I’m looking at the next year, that’s the biggest challenge — touching base and making sure they all know we’re going to get there.”

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