What’s next for Shamrock Farm? Carroll County wants a say.

What does a government do with a 328-acre horse farm it shouldn’t have purchased? That’s the $4.5 million question before Maryland as it figures out the future of Shamrock Farm, a bucolic piece of horse country in Carroll County.

Some state lawmakers think the answer is to let Carroll County’s government decide. A bill from Carroll County’s representatives would give the County Commission the exclusive opportunity to purchase the land until 2029.

“It would be their decision on the best use of the property if they buy it,” Del. Joshua Stonko, a Carroll County Republican and the lead bill sponsor, said. “Given that the property is in Carroll County, my view is the county should have the right of first refusal if the purchase makes sense to the commissioners.”

The Maryland Stadium Authority owns Shamrock Farm now, and the legislation would set the sale price at roughly $4.5 million, the amount the state paid when Gov. Wes Moore and state Treasurer Dereck E. Davis OK’d the purchase last May.

Shamrock Farm was supposed to be the site of a state-of-the-art horse training facility, a key component of a state-backed plan to revitalize the embattled thoroughbred racing industry. The original cost estimate for the project was $110 million, which would have been the largest state investment in Carroll County history.

The Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, the government entity that selected the farm as the future training center site, no longer exists. Moore’s administration and top Democratic lawmakers unceremoniously shut it down in April 2025 after myriad operational problems became clear to state officials.

The now-defunct authority operated with limited oversight and, when it came to Shamrock, engaged in self-dealing. Pittsburgh’s prominent Rooney family, which owns the Steelers, was Shamrock’s previous owner. Former U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney was on the racetrack authority board when his fellow members voted to purchase his family’s farm.

“It’s the perfect site,” former authority Chair Greg Cross said last year at the meeting where Moore and Davis approved the farm’s purchase.

But it turned out Shamrock Farm is not a feasible site for such a facility. After the purchase, surveyors determined the site was so hilly and there were so many drainage issues that development costs would likely double. An environmental review found a protected population of brown trout would be harmed by the project, and mitigation costs would be astronomical.

The legislature allotted $520 million for the training center and renovations to Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes. Staring down a harsh economic reality, the stadium authority and Moore administration pivoted from the Shamrock Farm plan in January.

The state entered into a tentative $50 million agreement to buy Laurel Park, a horse track in Anne Arundel County, to build the training facility. Officials estimate it will take another $70 million to equip Laurel Park.

Critics have questioned why Maryland didn’t do due diligence before purchasing Shamrock — Stonko, the Carroll County delegate, called it a mistake.

But the state owns it now and, because there are no takebacks in real estate transactions, it has to figure out what to do with it.

State officials in January said they planned to convene a task force of Carroll County officials and horse racing leaders to plan Shamrock’s future. Early proposed uses include a horse rescue sanctuary or recreational development.

It’s unclear if those meetings have taken place. Moore’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Given the farm is state land, there’s an array of potential uses for the site. County residents have expressed their own concerns about the site’s future and, even when the training center project was alive, were skeptical about what could be built there.

That is why some lawmakers want the county to have the option to purchase it.

“It’s an opportunity for the community to have input,” Sen. Justin Ready, a Republican whose district includes a portion of Carroll County, said. Ready is the Senate sponsor of Stonko’s bill.

Stonko said the county could purchase it and turn it into a park or preserve it as open space.

“It is not uncommon for counties to purchase or control land that does not have a planned, dedicated use,” he said.

The House and Senate versions of the bill are awaiting their first hearing.