Before Journalism sped down the final stretch to earn a narrow victory in the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes, longtime spectators noted the track’s many empty seats and vacant infield plots, which in previous years were active with revelers.

While Saturday’s feature race was one to remember, officials who pushed for the planned rebuild of Pimlico Race Course may want to forget the flagging attendance record in recent years at the second jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown.

To Pat Curran, a Perry Hall resident who’s been to Preakness 27 times, Saturday could have been “a normal day at the track … It did not have the same Preakness feel to me.”

It seemed less crowded than in previous years, especially earlier in the day and in parts of the grandstand and infield, Curran and others said. And with ticketing this year targeted to specific events or areas, some attendees said they felt more restricted in their roaming than usual.

At the landmark track’s last major event before being razed in June and then rebuilt in time for Preakness 2027 in a $500 million redevelopment, perceptions of crowd size proved on the mark. It’s part of a larger trend that state officials hope to reverse.

Race organizers said late Sunday that 63,000 people attended races on Friday and Saturday, a number just slightly less than the 63,423 who attended the two-day event last year. As of Monday, attendance was not available for individual Friday and Saturday sessions, said a spokeswoman for 1/ST, a brand of The Stronach Group, which hosts the race.

In recent years, the Preakness has lost money as attendance has decreased from an average of more than 100,000 in the decade before the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, roughly 182,000 attended the weekend, including 131,256 on Preakness Day.

In 2023, an announced 46,999 attended the Preakness, with a combined 65,000 attending both days; and in 2022, 42,055 attended the Saturday event while more than 60,000 attended both days, Stronach had said. Organizers have said they intentionally reshaped events for smaller crowds at the aging facility, which includes facilities that are unused because they have been condemned.

Ebone Granger, a resident of Ashburn, Virginia, has attended Preakness weekend for a decade with a cousin and a friend. They sit in the same section on the club side near the finish line.

“Everybody knows everybody, and the bartender knows us and has our drinks ready,” said Granger, who runs Granger Financial insurance in Sterling, Virginia, with her husband. “This was probably one of our favorite years.”

She said attendance appeared sparser than usual on Friday, for the 101st running of the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, and crowds appeared thinner on the infield on Saturday, until the last few races.

And she was disappointed that their pricey finish-line tickets this year did not allow them onto the infield, where separate tickets were sold for the Infield Fan Zone, with music, entertainment and a food village.

“There are more food options, music festivals and vendors,” she said. “It enhances everybody’s Preakness experience.”

Curran, who attended with his wife and 14-year-old daughter, said the upper reserved area of the grandstand, where they sat, appeared more vacant than usual and they missed the walk through the infield.

“This was the lowest attended Preakness I’ve seen, maybe because the infield wasn’t open,” he said. “Our area upstairs was pretty dead,” with people showing up closer to the start of the Preakness race.

Without access to the infield, “it was like a normal day at the track, but everybody was dressed nicely and everything was expensive.”

Despite lower reported attendance, organizers said the Preakness 150 race day handle hit $110 million, up from the $98.5 million reached last year. Wagering on Black-Eyed Susan Day reached $28.5 million, 1/ST said.

It was reportedly the highest return for the Preakness Stakes alone in four years, even without Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty at Pimlico.

Reduced numbers of attendees may not mean less revenue, especially if organizers have shifted from all-inclusive tickets to a range of ticket prices per event, said Daraius Irani, chief economist and a vice president of strategic partnerships and applied research at Towson University.

“You might have a reduced number of people but more ticket revenue,” he said, and the event may end up safer and with lower cleanup costs.

State officials said Monday the reimagined Pimlico will reinvigorate not only racing but boost economic growth in the surrounding Park Heights neighborhood. Maryland’s racing industry will be managed by a new state-created nonprofit that took over for The Stronach Group at the beginning of this year.

“The future of horse racing is alive and well in Maryland, and the state looks forward to delivering a new, reimagined Pimlico,” said Carter Elliott IV, a spokesman for Gov. Wes Moore.

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