The trainer is seeking his record eighth Preakness victory and has the race's favorite, Improbable.
Preakness Stakes favorite Improbable, left, is lead back to the barn at Pimlico as trainer Bob Baffert, second from right, and co-owner Elliott Walden look on. By Dave Sheinin Dave Sheinin National baseball writer Email Bio Follow May 17 at 5:05 PM BALTIMORE — Bob Baffert always stays downtown for Preakness week, waking before the sun rises over the Inner Harbor and beating the rush-hour traffic up the Jones Falls Expressway.
But things are different for the 144th running of the Preakness on Saturday evening at Pimlico. It finds an embattled sport, an embattled city and an embattled racetrack all in desperate need of the same things: a great race free of controversy, a champion worthy of the blanket of black-eyed Susans, a sparkling story line to distract everyone, even if temporarily, from all the problems.
“I feel like we’re favored by default,” said Elliott Walden, co-owner of Improbable. “But this horse has a great résumé. He ran very well in the Derby without hitting the board.
Baffert, who was raised on a ranch in Nogales, Ariz., and lives in Los Angeles, brought his first horse to Pimlico in 1996, finishing fourth — a “bad fourth,” he specified — with Cavonnier. But a love affair with the city was underway. He has seen Baltimore at its most desperate and wounded, winning here with American Pharoah in 2015, less than a month after the death in police custody of Freddie Gray that led to civic unrest.
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