Preakness prevents drones from interrupting operations and taking illegal footage

Preakness Stakes and Pimlico Race Course wanted to prevent drones from interrupting operations and/or taking illegal footage. Drones posed a physical threat to the horses, riders, and fans in attendance. Perimeter security needed to be extended into the airspace, to ensure race day operations were drone-free.

Dedrone worked with Pimlico Race Course, home of the Preakness Stakes, and security teams from Maryland Jockey Club in the weeks leading up to the event for a pre-event installation and threat assessment. The threat assessment revealed likely takeoff and landing locations and provided pre-event intelligence to predict airspace activity and develop data-driven standard operating procedures in the event of a race day incursion. A fully integrated Dedrone solution provided airspace situational awareness. Data from the multi-sensor setup was automatically fused and analyzed by DedroneTracker.AI, to provide complete view of airspace activity.

As a result of the pre-event threat assessment, DedroneTracker.AI provided security personnel with predictive analytics, identifying hotspots and likely positions of unauthorized drone pilots. On multiple occasions before race day, unauthorized drone pilots were detected and located using Dedrone, and enabling security teams to respond to the threat in real-time. By race day, Pimlico Race Course experienced zero drone disruptions, broadcasters were able to film the event without any interruptions, and the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1) was won handily by Rombauer.