Preakness: MD race gets new TV deal, time

ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland Jockey Club finalized a new, six-year agreement with NBC Sports to air the Preakness Stakes, Gov. Wes Moore announced Wednesday.

Moore and NBC Sports also said the race, which has traditionally been held on the third Saturday of May in Baltimore, will be moved by eight days to a Sunday, allowing the winner of the Kentucky Derby to compete. The accompanying Black-Eyed Susan race will run on that Saturday.

NBC Sports has been airing the Preakness since 2001, said Jon Miller, the company’s president of acquisitions and partnerships. Beyond the flagship and the Black-Eyed Susan, NBC Sports will air Preakness Preview Day and the Maryland Million Day races.

“These changes are about more than just television and time,” said Moore, a Democrat. “They also continue to demonstrate what happens and what Maryland can do when Maryland controls what happens next.”

On Monday, Churchill Downs Incorporated and The New York Racing Association, Inc. announced the creation of a new, six-race competition that will be run annually beginning in 2027 at Churchill Downs Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course, broadcast on NBC and FOX.

But the new series leaves out the Preakness Stakes, instead including the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, the Matt Winn Stakes, the Jim Dandy Stakes, the Travers Stakes and the Championship Race.

The state has moved forward with several deals to stake claim over the Preakness.

On Friday, Moore announced that the state had acquired the intellectual property rights to the Preakness and the Black-Eyed Susan from 1/ST Racing after exercising its right of refusal to match Churchill Downs’ $85 million offer.

The Maryland Economic Development Corporation is issuing bonds to finance the acquisition, not the state’s general fund. The horse racing industry generates about $3 billion in revenue for the state and supports 28,000 jobs.

Republicans railed against Moore following the Churchill Downs announcement.

“For months, the Governor claimed he had ‘saved the Preakness.’ But this announcement makes clear that owning the trademark isn’t the same as owning the future of the sport,” Maryland Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr., R-Upper Eastern Shore, said in a statement Monday. “I warned that Maryland wasn’t buying certainty, we were buying risk. The Governor chose to own the liability rather than secure a long-term partnership with the industry’s most influential organizations.”

He continued the fire Wednesday, stating that Maryland can’t compel Churchill Downs or the New York Racing Administration to continue the Triple Crown.

“Maryland controls the Preakness. It doesn’t control Churchill Downs. It doesn’t control NYRA. And it doesn’t control where the nation’s best horses choose to run.”

In a campaign email Tuesday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox, who will again face Moore in November’s general election, wrote that the $85 million purchase of the intellectual property rights was a “disastrous use of our taxpayer money.”

“For generations, the Preakness brought national prestige, tourism and economic opportunity, and unforgettable family memories to Maryland,” Cox said. “Yet under Wes Moore, taxpayers and racing revenues are being committed to enormous debt while Maryland’s signature race is pushed toward the sidelines.”

Moore said Wednesday that the moves to secure the intellectual property and enter into an extended deal with NBC Sports were made to ensure that the Preakness “can and will remain the second jewel of the Triple Crown.”

“The Triple Crown will continue to be one of the marquee sports events of the year, and will continue having the Preakness at the center,” he said.

This story has been updated.