Artifacts and furniture have found new homes. Now it’s time for the beloved-but-battered walls to come down.

Demolition of Pimlico Race Course, which first opened in 1870, will begin Thursday. The demise of “Old Hilltop” will pave the way for a new track that state officials hope will renew interest in horse racing generally and the Preakness Stakes specifically.

The razing of the racetrack marks the beginning of the first substantial, tangible process to revitalize the site after multiple stops and starts over the years. Pimlico has needed upgrades for decades, but efforts rarely got out of the starting gate.

Under a new plan, though, the state obtained Pimlico from The Stronach Group, a Canadian company that has owned the track since the 2000s. A state-created nonprofit, adopting the historic name of the Maryland Jockey Club, now operates Maryland racing and will run the Preakness beginning in 2027.

It will pay The Stronach Group roughly $5 million annually for the right to run the second race of the Triple Crown series.

The state will spend about $500 million in bonds and cash to construct a new Pimlico, along with a new training center in Carroll County. The track is expected to open in time for the 2027 Preakness, less than two years away.

Ayers Saint Gross and Populous are designing the facilities, and Clark Construction Group is building them.

Demolition — which will require excavators but not explosives — had been expected to begin about a month and a half after the 150th Preakness Stakes, on May 17, but was a few weeks delayed.

Barns and outbuildings adjacent to Winner Avenue will begin to be razed Thursday, the Maryland Stadium Authority said in a news release. The authority took over managing the rebuild after the elimination of the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority this year.

Immediately after this year’s Preakness, archivists removed and preserved historic items. The state auctioned other collectibles, such as chairs from the grandstand and old typewriters from the press box.

The stadium authority plans to develop an exhibition on Pimlico’s history, featuring “artifacts, oral histories, photographs, salvaged materials, and other appropriate graphics for display” within the new racetrack.

Officials have described the timeline to construct the new Pimlico as aggressive and ambitious. It’s “the most complex undertaking” in the stadium authority’s four decades of existence, Gary McGuigan, an executive vice president with the authority, has said.

The Preakness will be held next year at Laurel Park and is “expected to return” to Pimlico in 2027, according to the news release.