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On Saturday, the Preakness Stakes will be run for the first and last time at Laurel Park in Anne Arundel County before returning to Pimlico in 2027. Millions will watch on screens, but only 4,800 tickets were available, and they’ve been sold out for a long time. That’s because the casino revenues that were set aside for racetrack facility renewal are directed to a rebuild of Pimlico, and for a planned training center at Laurel.
The Laurel grandstand is deteriorating, will soon be demolished, and cannot accommodate the tens of thousands who would attend if they could.
But to the horses and the dedicated men and women who care for them, none of that matters. The Preakness Stakes is a horse race. It’s why a specific stallion was brought into a shed with a specific mare, to create a foal who was carefully raised and gently handled to become a happy, healthy three-year old whose natural instinct to run faster than the rest of the herd could be so strong that it might inspire in humans the passion and adoration that they found in Secretariat, Man O’ War, and so many other equine heroes.
Horse racing wasn’t my chosen horse sport, but it was the source of the Thoroughbred horses that I purchased, retrained, and rehomed, because they are the most athletic and the most fun. I was so convinced that these ex-racehorses were undervalued and underappreciated that I created the Retired Racehorse Project to market them, and the Thoroughbred Makeover to showcase hundreds every year competing in ten horse sports after a year of retraining by amateur, junior, and professional trainers. Check all that out at TheRRP.org.
I rarely bet on a horse. I’d rather just watch them. But there’s one in this year’s Preakness that inspires me, just as candidates in political races sometimes inspire me, so despite the Ethics Commission’s warnings about using this letter for political campaigning, I am today officially endorsing that horse in the Preakness Stakes.
His name is Taj Mahal. He was born in Florida, and was sent to train with the legendary Bob Baffert in California. But he wasn’t showing much promise, so they didn’t race him. Instead, they sent him to a young woman at Laurel Park in Maryland who has never had a horse in a Triple Crown race.
Her name is Brittany Russell, and she decided to take it slow with Taj Mahal. She let him mature and find his talent gradually. When he finally ran in February, he won in a race of non-winners. His second time was two weeks later, and he won in a low level stakes race. The third and most recent race was a month ago, when he decisively won Maryland’s Federico Tesio Stakes. His total winnings are $178 thousand, and his jockey is Brittany’s husband Sheldon Russell.
On Saturday, the purse is $2 million, and the field is the best of the Kentucky elite. The last time a Maryland-based horse won the Preakness was Deputed Testamony in 1983. Nobody knows what will happen when this talented local horse breaks from the gate and fights for a position near the front of a 14-horse field where he can test his stride against the best of this year’s three-year-olds. Nobody knows if he’ll dig deep enough when he’s tiring to prove to the others that he’s the best. Brittany doesn’t know, Sheldon doesn’t know, and Taj Mahal doesn’t know. But if he does all those things and crosses the wire even a nose ahead of the rest, the backside of Laurel Racetrack in Anne Arundel County will be celebrating their hometown heroes for a very long time. And I’ll be joining them.
I can’t fully explain the power of the connection humans have with horses. I think it has something to do with the pleasure we get from connecting to something more powerful than we will ever be, something that we will never control, but something that we can find harmony with.
Go to Laurel Park on a racing day. Hang out by the paddock where the horses are saddled and mounted. Take in their power and elegance up close. And then watch what they do on the track. They will humble you, and they will empower you.
If Laurel does become the state’s Thoroughbred Training Center, I will be advocating for public access to it, so that all of us can watch the morning training and the workouts in a park-like setting that connects us to things that are bigger than us - like nature and horses.
Until next week…