Headlines: All Maryland
– Funny Cide will make his 2005 debut this Friday in the Pimlico Special. He’ll be facing the likes of Eddington, Offlee Wild, and Pollard’s Vision. Friday’s card at Pimlico, the day before the Preakness, features five stakes races, including the Pimlico Distaff and the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. Ashado is entered in the former; Runway Model in the latter. Maddalena will start in the six-furlong Miss Preakness Stakes. (DRF)
– Maryland racing relies on Preakness. “Literally, it’s the one day of the year that we make money,” said Jim Gagliano, executive vice president of Maryland operations for Magna, which is threatening to sell the Preakness to another track or to move it another Magna-owned unless slots are brought to the state (BH) … “But the bullying looks a little empty when you examine the obvious,” writes Michael Olesker. If the Preakness is the one day Pimlico makes money, why would Magna take its most profitable race away from a track it paid millions for? Why wouldn’t they? asks John Eisenberg. “Slots opponents who think the Preakness won’t move should get their heads out of the sand and realize that anything is possible in sports today, that history and tradition are worth as much as a torn mutuel ticket and that those warning sirens going off are real.” (Sun)
