Maryland Jockey Club board named amid Pimlico overhaul

State officials have named the nine board members who will govern The Maryland Jockey Club, the nonprofit organization that will oversee day-to-day operations in a new era for local thoroughbred horse racing that includes state government ownership and major renovations to Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore following the Preakness Stakes this weekend.

The Jockey Club will have oversight of racing at Pimlico Race Course, the longtime home of the Preakness Stakes and the newly envisioned center of year-round racing in Maryland. The nonprofit will also be in charge of operations at a new training facility in Carroll County that the state recently purchased, and at Laurel Park in Anne Arundel County.

Here are the nine board members, according to a press release:

• James T. Dresher Jr., the owner of Glenangus Farm and CEO of Skye Asset Management.
• Tim Keefe, a trainer and former president of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.
• Chuck Tildon, vice president of external affairs at the University of Maryland Medical System.
• Lisa Golden Hofstetter, the Northview Stallion Station vice president and Sycamore Hall Farm co-owner.
• Michael Hopkins, a former Maryland Racing Commission executive director.
• TK Kuegler, the founder and managing partner of Wasabi Ventures Stables.
• Jeff Cherry, the founder of Conscious Venture Partners and Novella Center for Entrepreneurship.
• Kathleen Anderson, the equine medical director of Fair Hill Training Center.
• Michael D. Hankin, a co-CEO of Brown Advisory.

Racing officials last year named Bill Knauf, a former New Jersey racing executive, to be The Maryland Jockey Club’s president and general manager. He’ll report to the new board.

Responsibility for selecting the board members fell to the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, which lawmakers unexpectedly eliminated four years early as part of their final budget negotiations in April. They said the decision arose from a need for more oversight and transparency about coming changes in the horse racing industry and at Pimlico.

The operating authority will be dissolved June 30, at the end of the current fiscal year.

Venable attorney Greg Cross, who chairs the operating authority, said in a recent statement that, “I could not be more thrilled that this all-star group has agreed to volunteer their deep experience and time to take the baton from (the operating authority) and build off of the new foundation that is in place for Maryland racing as we look to the future.”

The Maryland Stadium Authority and its contractor, the Clark Construction Group, will soon be moving forward with demolition work at Pimlico to prepare the facility for upgrades.

As part of the redevelopment plans, the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes next weekend will be at Pimlico, but the race will leave Baltimore in 2026 while the track is upgraded. It will instead be at Laurel Park.