An assistant trainer was stabbed early Tuesday morning as he was working in a barn at Pimlico Race Course, police said.
The man, whose name was not released, was working in a corner of Barn Six shortly before 5 a.m. when two people approached, stabbed him multiple times and took off, authorities said.
The man was taken to Sinai Hospital with apparently non-life-threatening wounds later Tuesday morning, after he came out of surgery, police said.
The stabbing came three days after Pimlico was flooded with more than 118,000 race fans on Preakness Day, the North Baltimore racetrack?s biggest annual event.
Barn Six is on the opposite side of the racetrack grounds from the lettered barns, including Barn E, where the Preakness horses were kept this weekend, said Mike Gathagan, a spokesman for the Maryland Jockey Club.
Trainers and their assistants work at Pimlico every day, galloping the horses, he said.
Other people were around the grounds when the man was stabbed, Gathagan said, and it?s not unusual for workers to get to the barns at 4 a.m. and work until late morning.
“It?s business as usual for those people every day,” he said. “Preakness is nothing special to them.”
Gathagan said the stabbing was the first such incident since he started working with the club nearly six years ago.
“It?s not an everyday occurrence,” he said, when asked whether he and other workers felt safe in the neighborhood. “We?re fine.”
One local horse trainer said part of the reason he prefers not to train at Pimlico is its urban setting.
“For what Pimlico stands for, its history as a racetrack, it probably could have a lot more going for it to make it a lot more pleasant place,” said Tim Woolley, who is based at Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton.
