BALTIMORE — As a gaggle of reporters surrounded Bob Baffert to hear what the Hall of Fame trainer had to say after a year away from the Triple Crown series, John Salzman Jr. went about his business in the background.
Anyone who has followed thoroughbred racing over the past three decades knows Baffert, the white-haired maestro who’s won the Preakness Stakes seven times but was suspended from last year’s Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes because of a medication violation that disqualified Medina Spirit from his 2021 Derby victory.
Salzman is in his first Preakness at age 59, hoping Coffeewithchris, fifth in his last start at Laurel Park, can defy the odds. He’s known to few people outside the intimate circle of Maryland racing, but he’ll proudly tell you that unlike the titans of his profession, he and his wife, Marla, care personally for every horse in their barn.
