April Smith asked if I would help her save Pimlico.

She’s a leader of the Friends of Pimlico, a Facebook group that wants the Maryland Stadium Authority to save as much history as possible as it redevelops the 155-year-old Baltimore track.

“Believe me when I say that tourists want to see some talisman of what happened here,” she emailed me. “All the wood barns are rich in character, but if we can only save one, it must be the Preakness Stakes barn.”

Going, going, gone.

“The Maryland Stadium Authority announced today that the structural demolition necessary for the Redevelopment of the Pimlico Racing Facility project will begin Thursday, July 24, 2025 with the razing of the existing barns and outbuildings adjacent to Winner Avenue.”

That heads up from the stadium authority Wednesday afternoon caught Smith and her Friends group napping. The stakes barn, where generations of Preakness contenders were stabled, could be gone in days, if it’s not already rubble and dust.

Friends of Pimlico found out from me.

“Where did you hear demo starts tomorrow?” Maribeth Kalinich emailed me.

It’s never easy being Don Quixote, the mad Spanish knight who tilted at windmills.

For 25 years, Smith and Kalinich have seen themselves riding to the rescue of Maryland’s historic race course. They’ve followed development plan after development plan and met with disappointment after disappointment.

“The first one, they had a Victorian theme of the architecture, which was like, wow, we love it. It was really cool when they came out with it,” Kalinich said.

“They show you pretty pictures, you know, to get you. It’s just like clickbait. ... So when the rest of the plan was dropped the following year, it was two options — one to reorient the track, but the theme was based on the Palio.”

That’s the annual bareback race in Siena, Italy, where Renaissance-costumed jockeys careen around the brick town square.

“The most dangerous and dumbest horse race in the world,” Kalinich said.

They’ve been a length behind the current plans — attending meetings, emailing, submitting requests for details that just won’t come.

Maryland bought Pimlico Race Course last year from The Stronach Group, a Canadian company that let it go to near-ruin for two decades.

Every year at Preakness time — the Triple Crown middle leg and about the only Baltimore race the public cares about — there was sad agreement that it couldn’t continue.

Control of Maryland racing and the Preakness passed to a new state nonprofit with an old name, the Maryland Jockey Club.

The stadium authority, which finances sundry public projects, plans to issue $400 million in bonds and quickly demolish, design and rebuild.

Gov. Wes Moore and other members of the Board of Public Works got a glimpse of ideas for the new track in May: another grand Victorian with new barns and an infield full of pavilions.

What, exactly, Smith and Kalinich want to know, will be saved?

The stadium authority agreed with the Maryland Historic Trust to pull what it can from the wreckage and send a list 30 days after demolition starts. It will create an exhibit at the reopened Pimlico in 2027.

They are committed to rescuing grandstand timbers, a bas-relief of horses by Bernard Zuckerman, paddock numbers, the infield cupola and the stall where Triple Crown winner Secretariat was stabled in 1973.

Horsemen like the late trainer D. Wayne Lukas might have loved the barns, but the state was never going to save them. It started auctioning off seats, signs and memorabilia days after this year’s race.

“I’m mystified by the Maryland Historical Trust’s inability to see anything historic at Pimlico, except for one measly stall,” Smith said.

Smith and Kalinich want a museum, not a cubby in the clubhouse. They want some place where the glory days are remembered — exhibits on photo finishes, famous trainers and the cheering fun of a day at the races.

“A racing library, a museum which will be a destination for people because it would also be an event space,” Smith said.

They want room for pastures and accommodations for grooms and a firm sense of what once was.

The problem is, no one hears them. There are polite replies, but no sign of anyone actually listening.

“Hello Maribeth,” authority spokeswoman Rachelina Bonacci wrote. “As always, thank you for contacting the Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA) and your interest in the Pimlico project.”

Smith and Kalanich don’t have a constituency, just 4,000 people who joined their Facebook group.

They don’t have any money. Smith is a rider and a Baltimore tour guide who loves Pimlico. Kalinich lives in Millersville and first went to the track with her uncles.

Today, she is an editor at Past the Wire, a racing news website, tracking developments right down to the auction results.

“We can report that the sign recognizing Sir Barton’s Preakness victory was purchased by freelance racing photographer Eric Kalet and sent to author Jennifer Kelly in recognition of her book, Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown,” she wrote.

They have worries about green space being replaced by new office buildings. They worry about what’s lost, and what might still be saved.

“The thing is, we, we got them to not move the oval,” Smith said.

“They have to rebuild the oval,” Kalinich reminded her. “It’s going to stay in the same place, but it’s not going to be the same.”

They wonder if racing in Maryland can survive the transition, temporarily to Laurel Park and then to whatever incarnation of Pimlico opens to horses, trainers, riders and the public.

Kalinich wouldn’t bet on it. Smith is an optimist.

“I believe in karma,” Smith said. “I believe that you have to have a positive attitude. And I breathe every day with gratitude.”

What the state is seeking is practical, keeping horse racing alive in Maryland when fewer and fewer people care about it, even if it loses some history.

Perhaps, said the mad knight, to be too practical is madness.