That’s what explains both the urgency and the legal difficulty of Baltimore’s lawsuit against the Stronach Group. Pimlico’s owners have, as the suit alleges, conducted a systematic effort to invest heavily in their other Maryland thoroughbred track, Laurel Park, and not in Pimlico, which company officials claim is at the end of its useful life. State law prohibits the company from moving its most valuable asset — the Preakness Stakes — from Pimlico to Laurel or anywhere else absent a natural disaster, but as the city’s suit alleges, the company seems intent on creating an unnatural one. The Stronach Group says it will hold the second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico this year and next, but it has made no promises beyond that. Meanwhile, it is seeking during this legislative session to make the state a partner in the effort by requiring that 80 percent of the racetrack renewal funds generated by Maryland slots taxes go toward paying off bonds for a massive facility improvement program at Laurel and a nearby training center in Bowie.