The magic of spring at Pimlico
It’s a rite of spring in Maryland, griping about Pimlico Race Course—with its rundown stable area, the grandstand/clubhouse resembling a warehouse, and all the other shortcomings that make it a less than ideal site to showcase the Preakness. Some people even hint that the place is jinxed, thinking back to famous, unfortunate episodes such as the Preakness day power outage and the man-on-the-track.

They’re probably right. The place ought to be torn down, and a new track built to replace it. It would be a sensible thing to do. But I will be one of the old-timers who consider throwing themselves in front of the bulldozers when, and if, that day finally comes.

For me, going back Pimlico in the spring is like visiting an old family homestead and discovering, once again, that you really do adore your extended family.
From the moment the aroma of the backstretch hits me, at the stop sign on Winner Avenue, my spirits lift. Forget about glitz and glamor. This is all about finding comfort in the familiar. The same ropes in exactly the same place on the parking lot. The paddock looking like it looked when I was a child. Squeezing into a corner for a ride to the press box while a cart full of food takes up most of the space in the one creaky elevator that serves the entire grandstand.
Walking through the grandstand, I meet up with people I haven’t seen in years, or sometimes decades.

The energy of the place is amazing.
In my mind’s eye, it’s eternally springtime at Pimlico, and the sun is always shining.

A big part of its allure, of course, is the paradoxical way that the dowdy old track commands respect for its long tradition of top-class racing. The second oldest race track in the country (behind only Saratoga), and founded in 1870, it has consistently showcased many of the nation’s top runners, and for most of the past two decades hosted two venerable Grade 1 events—the Preakness and Pimlico Special (the latter of which will not be run in 2007).

Eleven Triple Crown winners. . . and well over a dozen horses who went on to earn honors as the nation’s Horse of the Year. . . plus countless other stars of yesteryear have left their hoofprints at Pimlico, known for many years as Old Hilltop.

The serious talent will show up, as it always does, at Pimlico this spring. To be part of the crowd that gathers to greet it is to celebrate all that is good about horse racing.