All Things Considered, Strong Handle for Preakness

A limited but sold-out crowd of about 5,000 found its way May 16 to Laurel Park and bettors across the country had no problem finding their way to the Preakness day signal to wager on the classic at its temporary home this year. Despite the on-track crowd being limited, the initial handle for this year's 14-race Preakness card reached $108,741,963, according to 1/ST Racing, down just 1.2% from last year's 14-race card ($110,043,794). Those appear to be strong numbers considering the smaller crowd capped at 4,800 on-site to generate on-track handle this year compared with 52,574 last year. With the usual home of the Preakness Stakes (G1), Pimlico Race Course, being rebuilt, the 1/ST Racing Maryland Jockey Club decided to cap the attendance number in order to keep the people who attended Saturday's races comfortable in seating throughout a refurbished clubhouse and parts of the grandstand, along with tent seating along the stretch. That kept spirits high, as did perfect weather without a cloud in the sky and temperatures reaching a high in the low 80s. Maryland-based trainer Graham Motion said the consensus seemed to be a success. "I've had nothing but people saying how nice it's been," Motion said. "Obviously this has been some different circumstances. But this is my home track. I mean, I started training right across (the track), so it's pretty cool." This will be the final year of the Preakness under the 1/ST Racing-led Maryland Jockey Club, as the latter will shift to a public, nonprofit entity when the event returns to Pimlico next year. 1/ST Racing executive vice president Mike Rogers was glad to see bettors throughout the country find the Preakness card under the Laurel banner. "I was a little worried about the branding, moving from Pimlico to Laurel, but this goes to show that people like to bet on good horses and they find them," said Rogers, who noted a lull in handle for some of the day's races in the middle of the card because of short fields before a strong finish for stakes later in the day that included a Preakness with a maximum 14-horse field. BloodHorse estimates a slightly smaller crowd turned out May 15 for the Black-Eyed Susan day races. Pari-mutuel handle for the 14-race card reached $23,790,408.