In 1998, Bill Knauf went straight from the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program to Monmouth Park in New Jersey. For the next 26 years, he steadily climbed the ladder, rising eventually to the track’s vice president of business development.
Late last year, Knauf took on a new role: president of the Maryland Jockey Club (TMJC), the state-owned entity that will run racing in Maryland following the engineered exit of 1/ST Racing and Gaming, which gave up the deed to Pimlico while retaining its ownership of Laurel Park in suburban Maryland. Under the deal, racing will be consolidated at a redeveloped Pimlico by the end of 2027.
For the next several years, Knauf, 51, will be managing a circuit undergoing massive changes, including the Pimlico reconstruction project and the building of a new training center outside of Baltimore. But he’s excited about the changes happening in Maryland, he told Daily Racing Form in a recent interview, especially the opportunity to build a new Triple Crown track from the ground up.
DRF: You spent your entire career, from 1998 until late in 2024, at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. What led you to take this new position in Maryland?
Bill Knauf: It really came out of nowhere. I was not at the time looking for the position. I wasn’t looking for any position. But when I learned about building a new racetrack, that was the focal point of what attracted me, having a new facility that I could help have some input into. Then, I did like that you have the Triple Crown there. And growing up in New York, I knew that Maryland also had a great history of racing, and that was attractive to me, knowing that it was kind of a low point and we would be trying to reinvigorate it. It’s something where a lot of things lined up. It was a cool project and something different in my life. Obviously, I was very familiar with everyone at Monmouth and loved it, but this was a new opportunity and a new thing to tackle. The whole project attracted me.
You spent your career at a track, Monmouth, that was owned and operated by a state agency, the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority (NJSEA), before ultimately being leased to a private, horsemen-led company. Now you are going into a similar arrangement, wherein a state agency owns the Maryland tracks and the state’s horsemen have much closer financial ties to the racing operation. Did the similarities affect your decision?
One-hundred percent. When I started learning the structure of how Maryland would be, I saw that it was very similar to Monmouth. I could speak to that, and I was comfortable with that, because I was very comfortable under the NJSEA and very comfortable when we went private to the horsemen’s company. Like you alluded to, that’s similar to New Jersey, where the Maryland horsemen will eventually have a stake for any racing losses.
All those years working closely with the horsemen in New Jersey prepared me for when I came here. I feel very comfortable working with the horsemen here, as well as working with the MTROA (Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority) being a state authority. And it was both sides feeling comfortable, both the MTROA feeling comfortable with me and vice versa, in that I understood that structure and how it operates.
What are the benefits of such an arrangement?
Just the state taking ownership of racing in Maryland is a pretty strong statement. They have a proud tradition, and so now there’s that stability. Obviously, there are a lot of things happening with private companies in racing that are causing confusion in long-term planning, and that was one of the reasons that I felt like I could make the move to Maryland. You have the state saying, “We’re going to protect our assets. We’re going to protect the Preakness. We’re going to protect Pimlico.” That was good enough for me from a long-term perspective.
What are the downsides?
There are downsides with every arrangement, to be perfectly honest, whether it’s state-[run] or privately run. With the state owning the facilities, maybe there’s some red tape that may slow the process down for certain things. But I would say there are more benefits than downsides.
What have you seen so far in the relationship between horsemen and the new state-operating company?
It’s been really good. We have had productive conversations. We obviously had discussions about the reductions in live days. We’re cutting 31 days. And the horsemen understood that we just need to do that to try to prop up racing a little bit more, get higher field sizes and handle. Obviously, the conversations have been really positive. All the sides are never going to be on the same page, but my feeling is that as long as you are trying to work through things together, it’s a good relationship.
When you talk about the reduction in live racing days, a lot of it is because you are allowing Colonial Downs in Virginia to run without competition from Maryland in the late summer. That’s always been a problem in the mid-Atlantic, so many tracks running at that time of the year. Is there more regional cooperation needed, and how do you go about getting horsemen to make those sacrifices?
You’re 100 percent right as far as all the tracks running in late summer. So this is a little bit of a groundbreaking partnership with Colonial. It’s an experiment. Our horsemen saw the need to reduce at that time of the year, and Colonial was obviously in a position where they wanted to boost up their meet. There are still discussions going on constantly about the types of races and the benefits to both Maryland and Virginia, in breeding and racing. Hopefully the talks keep evolving to where our horsemen are very comfortable knowing that even though they can’t run in Maryland, this is a perfect spot for them for that time of the year.
Certainly there are other conversations to have [with] potentially Delaware and Monmouth. Obviously, Monmouth is a much shorter meet, so Delaware probably makes the most sense. We started with Colonial, and the horsemen have been leading that charge, both ours and the Virginia horsemen. In this industry, you don’t hear about a lot of cooperation with two separate companies, but it’s been going great so far.
With state breeding programs declining across the country, is there an option for combining incentive programs so that horses bred in the mid-Atlantic region are eligible for payments in multiple states? I know I’ve heard people discuss this before, but it’s never gone anywhere.
Everything is on the table. In terms of breeding, I’m just now getting up to speed on Maryland’s breeding statistics. Maryland breeding is a very strong component of the state’s industry. I was impressed at how many foals – I know it’s gone down nationally, but on the whole, it’s still a very strong breeding program in this state. Coming from New Jersey, where it’s a fraction of the size, it is an industry that is constantly trying to figure out how to evolve. It’s all on the table. I don’t have any specifics or details at this time, but hopefully something comes out in the next few months.
Let’s talk about all the construction plans. What is the schedule for the training center, and when will horsemen be able to move in?
I don’t have the date yet or I would tell you. Everything is going to be done at the same time. The Pimlico plans have been ongoing. Hopefully, the clubhouse plans are not far down the road. At the same time, now that the [training center land] has been purchased, they’ll start laying out those plans soon. I don’t have a timeline when we would be in there. I can’t even guess. We all want it sooner rather than later. We want to get the horses relocated from Laurel prior to [the new Pimlico opening], but I just can’t guess right now.
The heavy lifting doesn’t start until after this year’s Preakness, when the Pimlico property is razed. Then you guys are under a tight timeline to consolidate racing at Pimlico before the 2027 Preakness. What are going to be the biggest challenges to get to that date on solid footing?
The clubhouse is the biggest challenge. Now that we’re not rotating the [racing surfaces], the plans for the track and the barns are a little cleaner. The clubhouse is a massive structure, so it’s time and materials in an all-out sprint for a facility that size to get it completed. They will begin construction in early June, right after this year’s Preakness.
The transfer agreement with the state includes an unusual provision that allows 1/ST to retain the rights to the Preakness and that week’s racing. It’s unclear to me how this will work. Will 1/ST send in executives for all the operational planning and execution for that week, or will that be TMJC’s responsibility? Or is it a combination of the two?
For 2025 and 2026, we will be under the guidance of 1/ST. So we – the Maryland Jockey Club – will work closely with them, facilitate whatever they need as far as the grounds and preparing the surfaces and preparing the building, or anything else they would need from us. We are under their guidance for the next two years. So to answer your question, the answer is yes. We will work very closely with all of their departments and their executive team to do whatever they need in terms of management of the Preakness. In 2027, they would license the Preakness to us, and at that point the Maryland Jockey Club and the MTROA would take over full management of the Preakness.
So it’s their show for the next two years?
That is correct.
This year is the 150th running of the Preakness. How is TMJC going to approach the anniversary? 1/ST is going to be in charge, but what will you guys be stressing about the future of Maryland racing in that context?
Right off the bat is that you have the last Preakness being celebrated in a historic building. So that alone is sort of the hook as far as the 150th, because it is the last time that it is going to be happen. But the governor’s wife has formed a committee that is planning a lot of lead-up events for the 150th celebration, for weeks prior to it. The state is really embracing the 150th because it’s such a special number. There are going to be a lot of lead-up events.
1/ST, obviously, will be partner with a lot of the events, and I would expect quite a celebration for this one.
Do you think you would have had that enthusiasm from the state and the city if the deal hadn’t been made for the takeover? The relationship was pretty contentious before.
That’s tough for me to answer because I wasn’t in Maryland before, so I don’t really have a good feel for it. But I can answer you that right now all parties are in the same room and planning together to make this one of the biggest blowouts and send-offs as possible.
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