Churchill Downs and 1/ST, the Belinda Stronach-run racing group that was the owner of Pimlico before its recent sale to the state of Maryland, have agreed on an $85-million deal for the “intellectual property rights” for the storied 151-year-old Preakness — which is to say, in effect, Churchill now has the rights to stage and to profit from the running of the second jewel in the Triple Crown as well as the first. The landmark deal, announced on April 21, will be finalized at some point after this year’s Preakness, which will be run by 1/ST at Laurel, with Pimlico now being rebuilt by the state of Maryland.

The principals were understandably effusive about the, for the sport, enormous implications of the change of hands. For her part, Belinda Stronach was at pains to point out that 1/ST was by no means exiting racing, although the retreat from Pimlico and the Preakness does now mean that 1/ST will officially no longer have a public footprint in Maryland.

Alongside the rights to the Preakness in the Churchill-1/ST deal are packaged the rights to the distaff Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, and both of those landmark races were the “intellectual property” that had remained in the hands of 1/ST after the 2024 sale of Pimlico to the state of Maryland. The major focus of 1/ST’s track portfolio will very much remain the two of the nation’s most popular and successful racing venues, Santa Anita in California and Gulfstream in Florida, according to Stronach.

“Content” is a mightily-overused word, but for Churchill Downs, an investment in staging and operating the Preakness is a really smart move at an opportune moment. The aging, tatty, late-modern Pimlico was demolished last year as 1/ST and the state of Maryland hammered out their $48-million-plus deal for the state to take over as the track’s new owner/operator. A fine new grandstand is underway. From Churchill’s point of view, this was the moment to drive a deal with 1/ST for the race itself. Why control just one jewel of the Triple Crown when you can control two? (NBC’s contract to broadcast the Kentucky Derby has until 2032 to run; Fox’s contract for the Belmont expires in 2030.) But NBC’s Preakness contract expires after the race’s 2026 running, which is to say, with a brand-new track and the swift renewal of media revenue streams being hammered out, Churchill is looking at a bright return on its investment developing sooner rather than later.

Possibly a significant wrinkle in the olympian plans of the deal principals arrived after the deal was announced on April 21 in the form of a statement from the Maryland Jockey Club, the official host, if you will, of the Preakness. The Jockey Club statement posited that the “intellectual property” rights sale would affect neither the Jockey Club’s “operational control” of mounting the Preakness and the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, nor would it affect what the Club clearly termed as its media rights to those races. How that statement fits, or does not fit, with the reality of the “intellectual property” of the two races that Churchill Downs just agreed to purchase for its $85 million remains to be clarified.

That noted, racing fans will not see a material change this year, except for the fact that 1/ST will stage a stripped-back, limited-attendance Preakness at Laurel, but it will be fascinating to see Churchill’s hand and brand at work in Maryland from the 2027 meeting onward.