Laurel Cancels Racing 'Until Further Notice'

The Maryland Jockey Club announced on its website and on Twitter before the first post time at Laurel Park April 21 it had canceled racing at the racetrack between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. "until further notice."

Horsemen were notified of the suspension via text message at 10:34 a.m.

According to Maryland Racing Commission chair Michael Algeo, that cancellation spikes racing for "a minimum of this weekend." One possibility for future racing would be to kick off the Pimlico Race Course Preakness meet two weekends earlier than scheduled.

Friday's closure followed a tragic day April 20 that saw a 4-year-old colt named Golden Pegasus  sustain a catastrophic injury during race 4, a $40,000 claimer going 1 1/16 miles on the main track. The colt owned by SAB Stable and trained by Hugh McMahon had to be euthanized on the track. One race later, a 6-year-old gelding named Bigmancan  was injured during a six-furlong starter optional claiming race on the dirt and had to be vanned off. Bigmancan is owned by Ronald Cuneo and trained by Damon Dilodovico.

These incidents came on a day that began with what was described as a "contentious" meeting between trainers, jockeys, and exercise riders and racetrack consultants brought in by Maryland Jockey Club parent company 1/ST Racing.

The decision to suspend racing marks the second day to be unexpectedly canceled in two weeks. The April 8 card also was shelved after two horses suffered fatal injuries during morning works, prompting jockeys to refuse to ride.

The April 21 cancellation came at the instigation of the Maryland Racing Commission, according to Algeo. Following the Thursday injuries, he said he received several calls from anxious horsemen about the condition of the track, which prompted him to call Maryland Jockey Club acting president Mike Rogers.

"I said, 'I don't want to set a precedent of the Racing Commission coming in and saying we're shutting down racing,'" Algeo recalled. "But based on the information I'm receiving, we're going to have to do something."

Subsequent conversations between Rogers and the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association led to the agreement to pause live racing at Laurel, Algeo said.

Tim Keefe, president of the MTHA, sent a letter April 21 by email to Rogers recommending that "based on recent events" racing at Laurel be suspended for the weekend and moved to Pimlico Race Course starting April 27. In a tweet sent late Friday, MTHA noted the the cancellation of weekend racing and added that the racing office will be open April 22 to entries for April 27 at Laurel.

"We further recommend that training at Laurel Park consist only of joggers and gallopers and horses be shipped to Pimlico for workouts until such time the surface at Laurel Park has been evaluated and deemed safe by our consultant John Passero," the letter stated. MTHA posted a copy of the letter on its Facebook page.

What happens next remains unclear. The track had five $100,000 stakes scheduled for April 22, three on the turf and two on the main track. As of press time, horsemen had not been informed of when racing would resume at the track, or what would happen to those stakes. The dirt stakes were the Native Dancer Stakes for 3-year-olds and older going nine furlongs and the Primonetta Stakes for fillies and mares 3 and up going six furlongs. The turf stakes were the Dahlia Stakes for fillies and mares 3 and up and the Henry S. Clark Stakes for 3-year-olds and older both going a mile, and the 5 1/2-furlong King T. Leatherbury Stakes for 3-year-olds and older.

In a statement released late Friday, the MJC reaffirmed that racing was canceled for the weekend and added it will also be "discussing plans for implementation of updated safety and veterinary protocols similar to those that have been in place in California since 2019 and have proven to significantly reduce the number of equine fatalities during racing and training."

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority was also contacted for comment but did not respond by press time.

Laurel's cancellation comes at a particularly fraught time for the state's racing industry. The ongoing track issues have frayed trust between the horsemen and the track operator; horsemen have groused about the surface for years, and a 2017 report by former MJC track superintendent Passero, commissioned by the MTHA, revealed significant problems.

Racing was canceled twice at Laurel in 2021. First in April to conduct a review of the surfaces. The track went through a four-month, multi-million dollar reconstruction of the dirt surface in 2021, which included the replacement of the cushion, base, and substructure, that officially ended Aug. 10 when horses once again began training over the track. The track closed again, however, in early December following a number of equine fatalities in November.

In September 2022, the Maryland Jockey Club track maintenance crew worked on the composition of the main track by adding some clay to portions of the surface—mainly from the half-mile pole to the eighth pole—to make the composition consistent with the rest of the surface heading into the cold-weather months.

In addition, recent studies have made clear the challenges the Maryland industry faces with two aging facilities in desperate need of renewal. The funding available to solve the facility issues is widely acknowledged to be insufficient for the tasks at hand. Uncertainty exists too regarding whether the Stronach Group will remain involved in Maryland, and if it does in precisely what capacity.

The Laurel spring meet is currently scheduled to run through Kentucky Derby weekend before racing shifts to Pimlico for the Preakness meet.

Frank Vespe runs The Racing Biz website that covers Mid-Atlantic racing and breeding.