Final Preakness at Pimlico before rebuilding stirs nostalgia mixed with relief for needed fixes
BALTIMORE (AP) — Preakness days in recent years have featured water and plumbing miscues. A large section of the grandstand at Pimlico Race Course has been rendered unusable because it’s condemned, and much of the rest of the storied but decaying track is a relic to the sport of king’s heyday many yesteryears ago.
The home of the second jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown had become something of an eyesore, far from the glitzy palace of Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby.
The 149th rendition of the Preakness on Saturday will be the last before a massive reconstruction project begins at Pimlico, and with that brings a mix of nostalgia over the vaunted venue but also hope for the future because fixing up the old place has been long overdue.
Tom Rooney, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and a longtime staple of the industry in Maryland, knows all too well the contrasting feelings as someone who attends the Preakness annually sitting in the clubhouse at Pimlico, which first opened in 1870 and hasn’t gotten significant upgrades since the mid-20th century.