Pieces of Pimlico’s horse racing history on sale at auction

Maybe you don t know Secretariat from Seattle Slew but you do have a chance at owning a piece of horse racing history After the th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday Pimlico the storied racetrack in Baltimore was shuttered for good The aging track is being razed while a new track and complex is planned to reopen in Maryland s Department of General Services is in charge of auctioning off items from Pimlico and Assistant Secretary of Business Enterprise Administration Ronnie Dampier advised WTOP that while the online auction kicked off Saturday there are plenty of good items left And he explained you don t have to be a racing fan you could also be a history buff or someone who just enjoys collecting one-of-a-kind items We have things like benches that are original to Pimlico Dampier stated We have brass finish hand railings we have pictures They also have seats up for auction where fans who once sipped the famous Black Eyed Susan cocktails or waited to see if their horse came in to win place or show would have watched the races Dampier explained it s bittersweet yet very exciting to see the dismantling of a racetrack that hosted Triple Crown winners from Sir Barton in to Justify in The new Pimlico that will be created I truly believe is going to be quite quite the sight to see he mentioned referring to the future of the site In the meantime he stated the auction has a lot to offer This is a piece of history that you get to own It s a piece of history that you get to keep and share those stories with your families your children your friends In the s Pimlico not only hosted the Preakness the second gem in the Triple Crown but its infield became famous or infamous for what became known as the running of the urinals Attendees who were then allowed to bring their own beverages would clamber on top of the portable toilets that were lined up and hop from the top of one to the next while various members of the crowd lobbed cans of beer their way Chichi Nyagah-Nash deputy secretary of the Department of General Services noted items from those days would not be auctioned off Those would not be up for sale as with bulk event sites those urinals were rented from vendors So unfortunately no There will not be any of the tossed beer cans or the dented urinals for sale in this auction she communicated WTOP But Nyagah-Nash stated the Department of General Services regularly makes surplus items available for sale to the constituents and that somewhere there are lucky Ravens fans with memorabilia in their homes She announced the department not long ago ran an auction of inventory from M T Bank Stadium We make available items that go beyond things like copiers and desks and used furniture from the state she revealed For example a high-top table with a Ravens logo on it is now in someone s living room because of us posting it The current auction of items from Pimlico continues through Friday Source