The Preakness Stakes has found a temporary home in Laurel.
For the first time in the race’s 151-year history, the Preakness Stakes will gallop into Laurel Park on May 16. Its usual venue, Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, is undergoing renovations.
With the race’s proximity to the City of Laurel, officials and business owners say the move presents an opportunity to boost local business and draw increased attention and traffic to the area.
“There’s just been a little bit of wait and see, because it’s only here for one year,” said Kim Cayce, owner of the Laurel Golf Center, which sits across the street from Laurel Park. “As a business owner, this is one of those things that you just take into stride.”
To help give local businesses a lift, the city launched its “Saddle Up, Laurel!” initiative, which includes events and separate promotions with 21 local businesses. Several restaurants in the city, for example, will offer discounts or special menus the week of the race. City officials said it’s all meant to spotlight Laurel’s business scene.
“[Saddle Up, Laurel] is an opportunity for participating businesses to get a little bit of extra visibility, and hopefully for us to deliver some consumers into their stores,” said Jay Meashey, director of the Department of Economic and Community Development.
Preakness continues to be a premier horse racing event not only within the state but nationally.
Last year’s race drew 5.9 million viewers on NBC, according to the Sport Business Journal. Crowds also flock to Pimlico to see the event in person, spending millions of dollars. For years before the pandemic, Preakness drew crowds as large as 140,000. In 2018, the event generated more than $11 million in race-related visitor spending, according to the Maryland Department of Commerce.
But this year’s event will be a smaller, more curated affair with patrons receiving more of a boutique experience. Ticket sales are capped at 4,800 due to capacity restraints at the venue.
While businesses hope for the best, a large-scale economic impact in Laurel is uncertain.
“In the grand scheme of things, one extra race day probably doesn’t raise [businesses’] income very much,” said Dennis Coates, an economics professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and editor of the Journal of Sports Economics. “My guess is that … most of the people who attend it drive in for the day and drive out.”
Still, business owners remain cautiously optimistic about what Preakness will bring to their storefronts.
“First and foremost is engaging my community,” said Temitope Popoola, owner of Myste Lounge, when asked about his focus for the weekend. “I have no concerns, because whether or not [a Preakness bump] happens we’re going to continue pushing with the community and making sure people come here.”
At the Laurel Golf Center, Cayce plans a watch party celebration and will hold a hole-in-one contest for the chance to win $1 million on May 12. Other businesses will be featured in a special “race card” promotion the city will produce, encouraging participants to spend locally, Meashey said. And the city’s Parks and Recreation Department will host five events, ending with music at The Mansion at Laurel on May 15.
“It’s up to the businesses to capitalize on the efforts that the city and surrounding counties have put into it,” said Nadol Hishmeh, president of the Laurel Board of Trade and owner of Olive on Main, a restaurant on Main Street in Laurel.
And while Meashey understands that visitors may not stay and spend in Laurel, city officials are still making the case.
For somebody who “appreciates small town America and appreciates the ‘shop local’ ethos, I think that Laurel is a great value proposition for them,” he said.