As passersby stroll down Laurel’s Main Street, signs flap from sidewalk lamp posts, urging readers to “Thrive” and “Progress Through People” while a banner highlighting the city’s upcoming farmers’ market or the Main Street Festival waves in the wind.
Yet in recent weeks, new signage featuring jockeys racing thoroughbreds adorn the windows of local storefronts with the slogan “Saddle Up, Laurel!”
The new slogan was launched by the city to commemorate the first-ever Preakness Stakes horse race held at Laurel Park Racecourse. For more than 130 years, the annual Preakness Stakes horse race has been held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The Baltimore racetrack is currently undergoing redevelopment, leading to the transition of the May 16 event.
City officials decided to highlight the best of its community – its small businesses.
The “Saddle Up, Laurel!” slogan was described as a “citywide call to celebrate, participate and showcase the very best of Laurel,” according to a city news release.
The community created subcommittees to approach Preakness Stakes 151 city celebrations as a collaborative effort, according to Christina Cornwell, director of the city’s Department of Emergency Management, one of the agencies tasked with planning for the event.
“This is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the city of Laurel to engage in this type of event,” said Cornwell. “So, we tried to take advantage of everything that we could to highlight our local businesses and what Laurel is about in our community.”
On May 2, the city’s Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) launched two programs to highlight local businesses, in honor of the Preakness Stakes, according to Jay Meashey, the department’s director.
For one program, participating businesses will place stickers on a “Saddle Up, Laurel! Race Card” of visiting patrons. The other program, “Saddle Up, Laurel! Capture the Flag,” is a digital photo contest in which locals and visitors can submit photos of flags placed throughout the city.
Participants who complete the “Saddle Up, Laurel! Race Card” will receive a “swag bag” that has City-branded or ECD-branded items in it, like a plastic cup, pens, notepads, other giveaway items that you might expect to find on the City’s table at Main Street Festival or an event like that. Participants who complete both programs will be entered in a drawing to win a “grand prize,” according to Meashey.
“[The programs are] to generate some foot traffic at places that maybe aren’t on the radar of residents or tourists,” Meashey said.
Stewart Sinex, co-owner of 3 Gear Games, said he signed up for the “Saddle Up, Laurel! Race Card” program in effort to try his “darndest” to support community initiatives.”
3 Gear Games regularly hosts gaming sessions for popular live action role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons for its clientele in addition to selling a variety of card, board, and live action role-playing games and accessories, as featured on the store’s website.
Sinex said he is uncertain and a little concerned about Laurel’s preparations for increased tourism due to Preakness, primarily regarding parking.
“We’re expecting to have so many people seeking parking that we would not be surprised if we end up getting our customers choked out during the [Preakness Stakes],” he said. “We hope that people wandering around will see us and come in and want drinks and concessions that we usually keep.”
Tiffany Johnson, owner of Coco&Soy Candle Company, said in addition to participating in the race card program, she will host a candle making class on Saturday for Preakness attendees who might want a break from the races.
Johnson said she believes the city can handle an influx of visitors, but it would take proper planning to maintain.
“We have the ability, I think we have the capacity,” she said. “I just think the organization around it has to be structured.”
Johnson also said that community members have told her how they’ve had to put cones in their driveways during Halloween celebrations so people wouldn’t park there, and the street was completely blocked off by people parking there.
According to Johnson, Halloween celebrations in the city draw crowds of thousands.
Preakness Stakes follows the city’s Main Street Festival, held on May 2, which has a turnout ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 people. According to Cornwell, the city anticipates a similar turnout from this year’s Preakness.
Cornwell said city officials aren’t anticipating a disruption to parking within city limits.
“We’re really not expecting a lot of issues because it’s no different than when they do their [Jim McKay Maryland Million Day] race every year in October, and we really don’t see an impact to the city the day of that,” she said.
The city is casting a spotlight not only on its business but also on at least one of its nonprofits. The Laurel Historical Society will present a temporary exhibit in the lobby of City Hall throughout May in anticipation of Preakness Stakes, showcasing some of Laurel Park’s history, according to Kristen Norton, executive director of the Laurel Historical Society.
“We have a pretty extensive collection of objects related to Laurel history and development, and obviously, Laurel Park being a significant historic site in Laurel, we have quite a few objects from Laurel Park that will be on display in addition to some interpretive panels, kind of detailing the significance of the site over the last 100-plus years, ” said Norton.
Laurel Park, which opened in 1911, sits on a 229-acre site in Anne Arundel County. The racetrack has a storied history hosting generations of fans, champions, and Triple Crown winners.
Since Jan. 1, 2025, Maryland has leased Laurel Park from The Stronach Group as a transition facility while Pimlico is being redeveloped. In January this year, the Maryland Stadium Authority announced it reached a tentative agreement with The Stronach Group to acquire Laurel Park to redevelop it into a “premier hub for thoroughbred training” in the state, according to an MSA news release.
Next year, Preakness Stakes is slated to return to Baltimore as Laurel Park transitions into a training center, if the state completes the purchase of the race course.
“I think it’s wonderful that people will have an opportunity to experience Laurel Park, especially if it will, in fact, turn into kind of a training center in the near future, and maybe not be as open to the public as it historically has been,” Norton said. “So I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to share Laurel Park and celebrate it for its long-standing history, hopefully with a much larger audience of people, maybe who have never been there before.”