Obituaries

Former Pimlico assistant director Chick Lang, 83, famous for promoting and transforming the Preakness Stakes, of natural causes:

Born into racing, Lang was the third of three generations known as “Chick” Lang. His father and great-grandfather were Kentucky Derby-winning jockeys, and his grandfather owned Thoroughbreds. Lang, who was born and raised right outside Pimlico, spent his childhood traveling from racetrack to racetrack with his father. At age 12 Lang watched the famed Seabiscuit-War Admiral match race in 1938 standing atop the roof of the jockeys’ room at Pimlico. That same year, he started his first official job on the track as a “gopher” for his uncle Jim Arthur.

Lang would go on to wear many hats in the Thoroughbred industry. In a brief but brilliant training career, Lang started runners in three races in 1947, resulting in two wins and a second. His next successful venture was as an agent for jockeys John Tammaro and Bill Hartack. After winning three Kentucky Derbys with Hartack, Lang took up a position at Pimlico in 1960, a move that would forever change the face of the track and the Preakness.

As the director of racing and later the vice president and general manager, Lang worked tirelessly to promote the Preakness until his retirement in 1987. When he started with Pimlico, the Preakness was largely overshadowed by the Derby and the Belmont Stakes (gr. I), and as Lang himself once described, the race was dying. In his first grand scheme in 1961, Lang released 2,000 yellow and black balloons over the annual Kentucky Derby parade, and had “Next Stop Preakness at Pimlico” written across all of the Louisville buses traveling to Churchill Downs that day.

Lang eventually turned the Preakness into a week-long festival and was instrumental in having the Pimlico infield opened to fans on Preakness Day. He introduced the idea in 1965, bringing in a busload of his daughter's friends to the infield to watch the races.