Horse racing

Emails detail a pitch to turn Sagamore Farm into a state-owned horse training facility.

The Banner connected with Repole over email to talk about Mindframe’s development and why he’s confident the Maryland-bred can win.

Former Laurel Park jockey Bryson Butterfly was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for his role in the killing of a Baltimore County high school student.

Bryson Butterfly was an up-and-coming jockey at Laurel Park. Then he was arrested and charged in the murder of a Parkville High School student during an arranged robbery. Butterfly pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and agreed to testify against two others.

Talk of demolishing Pimlico Race Course and building a new racetrack has a long and complicated history all its own.

Turcotte won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes twice each from 1965-73 before his riding career ended when he fell off a horse and suffered injuries that made him paraplegic.

Maryland has earmarked $500 million for horse racing infrastructure, a rare public investment into the industry. As crews work to demolish and rebuild Pimlico by the 2027 Preakness, the countdown is on.

As Maryland rebuilds Pimlico, demolition is underway, including the historic Stall 40, once home to Derby champions.

Maryland-bred horse Post Time has never finished worse than third but will face an all-star field.

It’s never easy being Don Quixote, the mad Spanish knight who tilted at windmills aboard his noble nag, Rocinante.

The Preakness Stakes will be held next year at Laurel Park and is “expected to return” to Pimlico in 2027, according to the news release.

Squire’s is a modern Italian restaurant with a past life as a 20th century pool hall, speakeasy and illegal horse betting parlor.

Even into his late 80s, the legendary trainer made the middle leg of the Triple Crown into an event worth talking about. His powerful presence will be missed.

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas won 15 Triple Crown races and 20 in the Breeders' Cup. He died Sunday at home in Kentucky after a brief illness. He was 89.

Sovereignty led off the first leg of the Triple Crown by winning the Derby in early May. The Bill Mott-trained colt also edged Journalism in that race.

During a full day of racing capped by a dramatic come-from-behind Preakness Stakes win by the horse Journalism, dozens of fans watched the action in a trackside tent paid for by Maryland taxpayers.

The 63,000 who visited Pimlico on Friday and Saturday, combined, mirrors the past three years. But those figures are a far cry from the last decade.

Amid the rush to modernize an aging Pimlico, traditionalists feel conflicted as the track they’ve come to love for its history is about to be changed forever.

The next time racing returns to the site — the hope is for the 2027 Preakness — everything around it will be different.

A statue of George “Spider” Anderson, the first Black jockey to win the Preakness Stakes, was unveiled near Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.