Green Party candidate for Governor Andy Ellis issued the following statement Tuesday after Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Association announced a new national Thoroughbred Championship Series that excludes the Preakness Stakes.

Ellis argues the decision, coming just days after Maryland finalized an $85 million purchase of the Preakness and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes rights, demonstrates that the state’s long-term investment in horse racing has not delivered the promised returns. His campaign is calling for Maryland to end public subsidies for the industry and redirect those funds to other priorities.

Press release follows in full:

Ellis: Preakness Snub Proves Maryland’s Horse Racing Gamble Was a Losing Bet

Days after the Moore administration finalized its $85 million purchase of the Preakness, the industry’s power players cut Maryland out of horse racing’s new championship series.

Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Association announced a new six-race Thoroughbred Championship Series set to launch in 2027, featuring the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, but not the Preakness Stakes. The announcement landed less than a week after the State of Maryland finalized an $85 million deal to buy the rights to the Preakness and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, matching an offer from Churchill Downs. Andy Ellis, Green Party candidate for Governor, said the snub confirms what the numbers have shown for years: Maryland keeps doubling down on a dying industry.

“Both parties in Annapolis have repeatedly given taxpayer dollars to prop up the horse racing industry, despite the fact that the industry is in rapid decline and loses money year after year in Maryland,” said Ellis.

The state’s stake in horse racing keeps growing. In 2020, the General Assembly authorized up to $375 million in bonds to renovate Pimlico and Laurel Park, a plan that collapsed before a shovel hit the ground. Lawmakers replaced it in 2024 with $400 million in bonds to rebuild Pimlico and build a new training center, repaid with public gaming revenue. The training center alone has burned through two plans: the state bought a Carroll County farm for nearly $4.5 million in 2025, abandoned it when development estimates hit $212 million, then agreed in July to buy Laurel Park for $48.5 million as part of a conversion expected to cost $177 million in all. The state took ownership of Pimlico itself, and a state entity now runs Maryland racing. On top of the construction debt, the industry collects tens of millions of dollars every year in casino revenue that the state directs to racing purses and track facilities. Last week, the state added the $85 million Preakness rights purchase to the pile.

The return on that investment arrived Monday: the sport’s most powerful players built a new national championship circuit around Churchill Downs, Belmont Park, and Saratoga, and left Maryland’s signature race out entirely. The move threatens the Triple Crown, the one thing that made the Preakness a national event, just as the state assumed responsibility for running the race every year.

“It’s a tradition in Maryland for leaders of both parties to share tents with wealthy owners at the Preakness, hand the industry public dollars, and look away from the more than 400 horses that have died at our tracks in a little over a decade,” said Ellis. “Now the industry has taken the money and left Maryland behind anyway. It’s time to end this cruel, corrupt, and failing tradition.”

As Governor, Ellis would push the General Assembly to divest the state from its failed investment in horse racing. He would work to ban the sport in Maryland, redirect the annual racing subsidy to library construction across the state, and explore legal action to recover tax breaks and subsidies the industry has taken. And he would make sure Park Heights gets the same investment it is slated to receive now, on its own terms, without tying the neighborhood’s future to a collapsing industry.

About the Ellis/Andrews Campaign

Andy Ellis and Owen Silverman Andrews are running for Governor and Lt. Governor as Green Party candidates. You can learn more about the campaign at https://www.gogreen2026.com/