By: Nicholas Sohr

There will be horse racing in Maryland next year. The questions are how much, what kind and where?

As the future of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, the state’s two thoroughbred tracks, is anything but certain, a little certainty is returning the Ocean Downs.

The Maryland Racing Commission granted the harness track outside of Ocean City a 40-day live racing meet for next summer that will follow a schedule similar to 2009.

Ocean Downs canceled its meet this year and held only four weekends of stakes races to accommodate the construction of a track-side casino. With Rosecroft Raceway in Prince George’s County closed and its parent company in bankruptcy, Ocean Downs is the only working harness track in the state.

The casino — it would be the state’s second — is scheduled to open in the first days of 2011, with a test run scheduled for the end of December.

The grand opening is about seven months later than the track’s management had planned. Asbestos and corroded structural steel in the building being renovated to hold the 750 slot machines delayed the Memorial Day weekend kickoff.