Preakness 150 will take place at Pimlico Race Course on May 17 before redevelopment begins at Old Hilltop later in the year. Preakness 151 will be held at Laurel Park. Longtime gaming reporter Bill Ordine recently chatted with PressBox about Preakness 150, the renovations coming to Pimlico and more.
This has been edited for clarity.
PressBox: Though Pimlico Race Course has long been in need of upgrades, what charming aspects of the facility have you come to enjoy?
Bill Ordine: The thing that has made Pimlico special to me and I think a lot of other people — thousands, maybe millions of other people who attended the race there — is that it is a throwback to an earlier age of American sports. Always in our imaginations we have images of what the golden age of sports has been. Pimlico has been a connection to that, a physical reminder of what sports has been to us when sports had a mythical place in the American culture. That’s what Pimlico has meant to me personally and I think a lot of other people who went to the Pimlico that we have come to know.
For somebody like me, to walk into the press box that won’t be any longer, it’s a throwback to the days of [sportswriters] Grantland Rice and Red Smith. It really gives you chills to walk into that press box — this old, wooden press box — at the top of this race track. They’ve got pictures of sportswriters from like 70 years ago. As a sportswriter, you watch the race from a catwalk. When there was heavy attendance by news organizations at the Preakness, you actually had your name listed on a spot on the catwalk as to where you were supposed to stand. Because sportswriter attendance was so great, they had to actually assign standing space out there on that catwalk near the finish line.
That is something that I think has attracted people to the Preakness year after year. It is going back in time of the sports culture of America to be in that place and to see essentially an event run in the 21st century as it had been run over decades previously. That, I think, is the appeal to Pimlico.
PB: How can a renovated Pimlico help everyday race-goers and bettors, not just those who go to the Preakness?
BO: To cater to the sports fan of the 21st century, you’re going to need comfortable seating. You’re going to need amenities in terms of food and beverage. The bathrooms have to work. The basic things where Pimlico has come up short in recent years, those things all have to be elevated immensely. People go to a sporting event now like they’re going to the theater. They want to be comfortable. They want to have 21st century amenities. If you’re going to be running races during warm weather, people want to be cool. If you’re going to be running races during cool weather, people want to be warm. That’s what’s got to change there.
You have to feel more like you feel when you are home in your living room watching a sports event. Maybe I’m going to sound like an old-timer, but the modern sports fan is pretty soft. I know we see all these video shots of people freezing their ears off at Lambeau Field and that sort of thing, but by and large, if people are going to consistently patronize a sports venue, they want to be as comfortable as they are at home.
PB: What has to change at Pimlico to make Preakness Day a more pleasant experience?
BO: They’re going to have to have a discussion as to what you want to do with the infield, period. We know where the Preakness is placed in the buffet of major race tracks. It’s the people’s race. It’s supposed to mirror Baltimore’s blue-collar culture. It’s not just for the elite. The Preakness is supposed to be something that average, middle-class sports fans can enjoy. The infield has been sort of the embodiment of that. To what extent do they envision future Preaknesses continuing that tradition? Because the infield has been a thorny issue.
That ties into, what are your alcohol policies going to be? What are you going to do about selling alcohol? There used to be a time when people could bring their own alcohol into Pimlico. Those days are long gone. Then they went to things like bottomless glasses of beer. They tried to somehow minimize excessive drinking by monitoring beer consumption in that way. They’re going to have to decide on an alcohol policy because that’s where the infield has gotten out of control.
In terms of the physicality of the infield, an issue that we’ve always known about with the infield is that people in the infield don’t actually get to watch the race. The sightlines really suck. There are no sightlines from the infield. If you want to actually elevate the spectator experience in the infield to a place where people who are in the infield are also spectators and not just revelers, then you’ve got to do something about how you’re going to arrange the infield. They never even get to watch the race, and you’re certainly not getting very much handle out of them. If your business model is going to center around actual wagering on the race, you’re not going to get that much out of the infield if in fact what you do is just make the infield a place for a party.
PB: What’s the best way for Pimlico visitors to bet during Preakness Day this year?
BO: We have had very small fields for the Preakness the last couple of years. We had eight starters last year. We had seven starters the year before that. The Preakness’ reputation clearly has gotten dinged over the last couple of years. It is hard to tell whether the fact that this is going to be the last race at old Pimlico will encourage more people to go or whether the disinterest that has beset the Preakness, reflected in the smaller fields, is more reflective of a lingering apathy about the event.
My advice to anyone going to the Preakness this year, as it would be in any other year — get there early and get comfortable. If you’ve got actual seats at the race, get to your seats early. Be mindful of the weather. Dress accordingly, because we’ve had some foul weather at the Preakness occasionally over the last few years. As always, wager for pleasure. Decide whatever your budget is going to be. If you have been following horse racing and you watched the Kentucky Derby and see how horses have been training leading up to the Preakness, go ahead and make your educated wager on the Preakness.
If you want to add a little spice to it, you can pick some exotics understanding that the exotics — which involve multiple-place finishers, sometimes over multiple races — are a little like buying a lottery ticket. Basically consider that spent money. If you hit one of those, consider it found money. I think that is the way to approach the Preakness. It’ll be the only race a lot of people go to for an entire year, so it should feel like going to the theater. It should be an experience for you. Get yourself a beer and a crab cake sandwich … and settle in for a day of enjoyment. Soak in the fact that this is it, that you are in this place for the last time. This is like going to the last game at Yankee Stadium, so enjoy it.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Maryland Jockey Club
Originally published April 16, 2025