Turfside Terrace
I have attended the Preakness each of the last 3 years in the Turfside Terrace area. The view is a unique one. When they run the few turf races on the card, you are no more than 15-20 feet away from the horses coming down the stretch. It's awesome. Seeing the performances of Funny Cide and Smarty Jones in the stretch from that vantage point is truly special. You will miss the action down the backstretch, but there are plenty of monitors to view. The lunch is okay, nothing special. With the tickets going up to $350 (formerly $250 if my memory serves me correctly), it had better be an open bar now. It was previously a cash bar. Also of note, you have to buy two tickets in order to get the parking pass. I only had one last year and raised hell with the MJC because their preliminary info didn't say anything about having to buy a pair, now it's made very clear in all of their publications. Drawbacks are that you are stuck on the infield for a long period of time following the Preakness and can't leave until the connections and various VIPs are returned back to the frontside. At that time you might as well wait for the last race to go off as well. Also it's been well documented that the area isn't great. I don't mind that, but it's certainly not an area meant to accomdate 100,000 people, most of whom will be baked in the sun and drunk out of thei mind. Makes getting out quite an adventure. But I'll more than likely be doing it again this year. Every year it's this and the Belmont. Hopefully I won't get screwed in their ticket lottery again this year.