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Polly Warren, president of the Pimlico Good Neighbors Association, talks to Joseph A. and Karin De Francis before community meeting to discuss possible razing and rebuilding of Pimlico Race Course. (Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam / August 5, 2002) |
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"If they don't want slots, what do they want?" she asked. "How do they propose to make it profitable? There isn't a new market for horse racing here. I'm very suspicious."
Stronach said in an interview Saturday that "it would be nice to have [slots] in the short run to level the playing field" with tracks in neighboring states that have them, but that horse racing can compete without slots in the long run.
"I don't want solely to hang my hat on slots," he said. "I'm a horseman. I want to make sure we don't lose live racing. Slots are not the only answer."
Stronach also said he intends to move the Preakness to Laurel for a year during construction and build a new automotive parts factory at or near Pimlico. (De Francis clarified that aspect of the plan yesterday, saying the factory would not be built on the 129-acre Pimlico property, but somewhere in Baltimore or Maryland.)
The company's proposal caught the state's top racing official off guard. Louis Ulman, chairman of the racing commission, said he met with Stronach and De Francis on Thursday but that they never mentioned plans to tear down Pimlico.
The plans have raised hopes for a rejuvenated Pimlico. But they also sparked fears that the track might not be rebuilt and that the Preakness, the second jewel in horse racing's Triple Crown, would never return.
"That makes me jittery, too," Mayor Martin O'Malley said of plans to hold the 2004 Preakness at Laurel. "But provided it's just a temporary thing, that may be the price of progress."
At last night's meeting, Del. Lisa A. Gladden of Baltimore asked: "What assurance does the community have that if you take down even one brick of Pimlico you will build it back?"
De Francis said he and Magna would make an "absolutely legally binding" guarantee that the track would be rebuilt.
Several state officials said they were confident the racing commission could make the sale contingent on Magna following through on its promise to rebuild Pimlico and keep the Preakness there.
Polly Warren, president of the Pimlico Good Neighbors Association, asked De Francis why the existing facility couldn't be renovated.
"Why do you have to tear it down and start it new without considering that it's historic?" she asked.
De Francis said that renovation would be more expensive. He said designers could make a new track look historic as was done with Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Pimlico opened in 1870 and was renovated in 1954. Although some structures would qualify for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, the track's signature Victorian-style Members Clubhouse was destroyed by fire in 1966, said Martin P. Azola, former vice president of facility development for the Maryland Jockey Club.
Most of the visitor facilities date from the 1950s and 1960s and are "functionally obsolete" for today's racing environment, he said.
Chick Lang, former general manager of Pimlico Race Course, said he does not lament the idea of losing the buildings. What matters most, he said, is preserving the racetrack itself.
"You're going over hallowed ground," he said. "You're talking about the scene of races won by ... Man O' War and Seabiscuit and Secretariat and jockeys such as Eddie Arcaro and Bill Shoemaker and Angel Cordero. You're not going to lose that. That same track will be there. The hallowed ground will be there."
Sun staff writers Greg Garland, Edward Gunts, Tom Keyser and Ken Murray contributed to this article.
Stronach said in an interview Saturday that "it would be nice to have [slots] in the short run to level the playing field" with tracks in neighboring states that have them, but that horse racing can compete without slots in the long run.
"I don't want solely to hang my hat on slots," he said. "I'm a horseman. I want to make sure we don't lose live racing. Slots are not the only answer."
Stronach also said he intends to move the Preakness to Laurel for a year during construction and build a new automotive parts factory at or near Pimlico. (De Francis clarified that aspect of the plan yesterday, saying the factory would not be built on the 129-acre Pimlico property, but somewhere in Baltimore or Maryland.)
The company's proposal caught the state's top racing official off guard. Louis Ulman, chairman of the racing commission, said he met with Stronach and De Francis on Thursday but that they never mentioned plans to tear down Pimlico.
The plans have raised hopes for a rejuvenated Pimlico. But they also sparked fears that the track might not be rebuilt and that the Preakness, the second jewel in horse racing's Triple Crown, would never return.
"That makes me jittery, too," Mayor Martin O'Malley said of plans to hold the 2004 Preakness at Laurel. "But provided it's just a temporary thing, that may be the price of progress."
At last night's meeting, Del. Lisa A. Gladden of Baltimore asked: "What assurance does the community have that if you take down even one brick of Pimlico you will build it back?"
De Francis said he and Magna would make an "absolutely legally binding" guarantee that the track would be rebuilt.
Several state officials said they were confident the racing commission could make the sale contingent on Magna following through on its promise to rebuild Pimlico and keep the Preakness there.
Polly Warren, president of the Pimlico Good Neighbors Association, asked De Francis why the existing facility couldn't be renovated.
"Why do you have to tear it down and start it new without considering that it's historic?" she asked.
De Francis said that renovation would be more expensive. He said designers could make a new track look historic as was done with Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Pimlico opened in 1870 and was renovated in 1954. Although some structures would qualify for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, the track's signature Victorian-style Members Clubhouse was destroyed by fire in 1966, said Martin P. Azola, former vice president of facility development for the Maryland Jockey Club.
Most of the visitor facilities date from the 1950s and 1960s and are "functionally obsolete" for today's racing environment, he said.
Chick Lang, former general manager of Pimlico Race Course, said he does not lament the idea of losing the buildings. What matters most, he said, is preserving the racetrack itself.
"You're going over hallowed ground," he said. "You're talking about the scene of races won by ... Man O' War and Seabiscuit and Secretariat and jockeys such as Eddie Arcaro and Bill Shoemaker and Angel Cordero. You're not going to lose that. That same track will be there. The hallowed ground will be there."
Sun staff writers Greg Garland, Edward Gunts, Tom Keyser and Ken Murray contributed to this article.
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