Maryland Bought the Preakness for $85 Million. Here's Where Its Bettors Are Actually Moving Their Money

Maryland Bought the Preakness for $85 Million. Here's Where Its Bettors Are Actually Moving Their Money

Maryland now owns the Preakness. Outright. The state finalized an $85 million purchase of the rights to the race and the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, and the money didn’t come from the general fund. It came through revenue bonds, a financing structure more familiar to stadium authorities than horse tracks, as Bond Buyer laid out shortly after the deal closed. That’s a big bet on a 150-year-old race by a state that just spent months fighting over red…