No Preakness in 2011??
 

The Maryland Racing Commission held its monthly meeting today at Laurel Park. Among numerous items on the agenda was a request to approve a racing license for MJC, which is now owned in part by MID/PNG, for 2011.

MID/PNG submitted a request for 17 racing days at Laurel Park to commence on Jan1, 2011, with 30 additional days requested for a meet at Pimlico to be "run around" the Preakness.

As a result of the racing meet application, testimony was heard from MD Horsemen's Association leaders, as well as MHBA, and a few individuals. The MD Racing Commission was urged to not grant a racing license to MID/PNG, which would nullify the request for any racing dates in 2011.

The MD Racing Commission voted to reject the granting of a racing license for MID/PNG. As of this time, racing will end at Laurel on Dec 18 with no racing dates being granted for 2011, including the Preakness.

Charles Town?

Monmouth, assuming there is a Monmouth...

I'm more worried about the Magna 5.

Frank can't move it or the State of MD can step in and seize it through eminent domain.

Is Maryland providing Magna with opportunity to move Preakness to another venue such as Gulfstream? New name suggestion The Race Formerly Known As The Preakness, or TRFKATP.

How about The Preakness at Parx? Got a classy ring to it. :p

Now would be the time to seize on this opportunity to re-think the Triple Crown series. Wait more than two weeks after the Derby, and make the Preakness or the Belmont Stakes a turf race. I'd like to see the Belmont be the grass race, as it's the last of the trio. Hell, we could make it impossible to win the Triple Crown by putting the Preakness on synthetic, then the Belmont on grass.
I bet we'd see a lot more European entries

While you are at it, how about making a fourth leg a turf sprint down the hill at Santa Anita?

Also, maybe add a fifth leg for fillies only.

Too late for Artax

That's what will end up happening, no?

Anyone who wants to change the Triple Crown should be tarred and feathered.

Exactly.

If anything changes about the Triple Crown Considering Maryland’s rich horse racing history and Preakness history, it would be a very dark day if the Preakness went elsewhere.

Maryland has very deep roots in the sport we all love. Some things should not change and changing anything about the Triple Crown is one of them. If anything ever did change about the Triple Crown I would consider that sacrilegious in my book.

It will clearly be a dark day for racing if one day we find ourselves arguing which horse was better using the argument that the old Triple Crown was more difficult than the new Triple Crown so that makes So and So better since he ran in the old Triple Crown. No thanks to any of it.

Isn't that basically the Canadian Triple Crown? (1 dirt race, 1 Grass, 1 Synthetic)

You can't change what tracks the triple crown is contested over!

If you move the Preakness Stakes to another track than there is no longer a Triple Crown to be won. Why? Because than you are changing the accomplishment of winning the triple crown. What the general public doesn't understand is that horses win 3 races in a row at 3 different race tracks all the time. But not all race track pose the same obstacles as Churchill, Pimlico and Belmont. The accomplishment of sweeping the triple crown is doing it over these three race tracks. These three races at their current distances over there current tracks test a horse in a way they could never be tested otherwise. Every race track has it's own unique obstacles for horses to overcome. The 11 super horses who swept the Triple Crown did so over the same three tracks while overcoming each individual tracks obstacles. If you move the Preakness Stakes to a new track than the a horse is no longer being tested in the same way as the previous 11 triple crown winners. Thus they are sweeping a new series.

Sure you COULD run the Preakness Stakes at another race track, but if a horse were to win the Derby at Churchill, The Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, and the Preakness Stakes at, say, Santa Anita Park than that horse would have swept a different Triple Crown than the previous 11 did. That Horse would have been tested differently. The unique thing about running the races as they are now where they are now is that it urges a horse to be special. No horse has ever accidentally won the triple crown in it's current form.

Thorough out the history of the Triple Crown in America things have not always been a constant. For example at one time the Preakness Stakes was run before the Kentucky Derby. Other non-constants have been distances. When Sir Barton won the Kentucky Derby he did so by winning at a different distance than the race is currently held at. But one of the things that has been a constant is that the three triple crown races were always held at there current three tracks. You MUST sweep the crown at Churchill, Pimlico and Belmont! If not you have not been tested the same way as the horses who have previously won the triple crown.

Moving the Triple Crown and its races would be like moving The Masters from Augusta National.

You all need to get a grip.

Exactly.

This is like the "No Saratoga?" threads from 6 months ago.

I hope Steve gets Satish Sanan to talk about it on this week's appearance.

i don't agree with smartbid. altho a change to another track for the preakness would be a shame, it wouldn't be that big a deal imo. not for the series at least. for racing in md it would be a damned crying shame. for the integrity of the crown? not so much. now, moving the ky derby from churchill would be the ultimate blasphemy. the preakness? not so much. do i see it actually happening? well, of course not.