The old Pimlico — some writers have called it America’s worst major sporting event venue — will take its final bow at the 2025 Preakness.

The second jewel of the Triple Crown shines with traditions. Don't miss the 2025 Preakness Stakes, this Saturday, May 17, at 2:30 PM ET on Peacock.

Much like a hole in denim jeans or the gap in a 7-year-old's front teeth, the 2025 Preakness Stakes naturally draws the eye to what is not there than what is there. What is not there: Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty.

The wrecking ball is just about hovering over Pimlico Race Course, with a complete knockdown and rebuild of the grandstand and other facilities coming.

Deputed Testamony lived to be 32 years old. He died in 2012 and his final resting place is at Bonita Farm in Harford County, where Boniface continues to train more horses. His team is working hard ahead of the 150th running of the Preakness.

Saturday will come soon enough. The horses are not the only game in town. The Orioles, for example, are well toward the rear of the American League East, but there is still enough time to rally and get nose-to-nose and belly-to-belly against the two cities Baltimore loves to put in its place: New York and Boston.

Her training career began in 2004 and Merryman has never won a race on Preakness Day. She did, however, win the The Very One Stakes on Black-Eyed Susan Day in 2021 with her homebred Caravel, who would later win the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) that year after she sold her.

The state paid a premium last year to wrest control of daily horse racing from an unpopular operator, arguing that a state-funded rebuild of the historic but decaying 155-year-old Pimlico Race Course would help make the industry financially stable.