Some modest upgrades will occur in time for the 2026 Kentucky Derby.
This year’s Preakness Stakes’ event at the Pimlico Race Course will be the last at the track for two years, as the Baltimore, Maryland racetrack will be closed for renovations. The hope is Pimlico’s downsizing and reconstruction will be done by the 2027 running of the Preakness. In New York, the Belmont Stakes is not taking place in Elmont as the Belmont Park racing venue is being downsized and reconstructed with the hope that The Belmont Stakes will be able to return to the facility by 2026. The race will be held in Saratoga, New York in June. The other racetrack used in Thoroughbred Horse Racing’s Triple Crown events, Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky will not get a planned billion dollar renovation. That has been cancelled because of America’s new tariff policy. Churchill Downs officials are worried about costs of renovation.
On April 24th, Churchill Downs CEO William Carstanjen said the decision to delay its infield renovations and Skye Terrace project came as a result of the changing economic conditions, largely influenced by inflation and ongoing global trade disputes resulting from tariffs. “A lot has changed in the world in the past nine weeks including increased general economic uncertainty and risk of significant inflation, driven in part by the new tariffs that the U.S. intends to charge on products from almost every country in the world. This has created unanticipated and currently unquantifiable expected cost increases in most materials.” Initially, the first part of the track renovations was supposed to be finished by the 2026 Kentucky Derby. The plan was to have a new facility built on the track’s infield. Churchill Downs now plans a smaller, $30 million update in some of track’s most exclusive areas. The project will remain on pause for at least a year because economic conditions are expected to worsen.
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