John Salzman, trainer of Xtra Heat, dead at 81

John Salzman Sr., a prominent Maryland-based trainer for nearly five decades, passed away on Monday at age 81.

Salzman is best known for training the filly Xtra Heat, who won 26 of 35 starts and nearly $2.4 million in purse money between 2000 and 2003. She earned 25 stakes victories, including seven at Laurel Park, and also finished second in the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and third in the 2002 Dubai Golden Shaheen. In 2015, she was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Salzman, while proud of her achievement, skipped the ceremony.

“Duty calls,” the trainer said, per Thoroughbred Racing Commentary. “I have horses to run.”

Based in Maryland from the beginning, Salzman made his debut at Laurel in late 1978. He notched his first victory in May the following year when Denarose, his lone horse at the time, won a maiden race at Penn National. He won his first stakes at Bowie in 1983 with Noble Home in the $50,000 W.P. Burch.

Over time, Salzman became known as a highly adept juvenile trainer and frequently shipped 2-year-olds for premier stakes races in New York. Long before his two trips to the Breeders’ Cup with Xtra Heat, Salzman sent Leading Prospect, then a four-time graded stakes-placed colt, to the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He finished seventh behind Is It True and Easy Goer.

Salzman retired in 2025, having won 828 of 5,636 starts and $16 million in total earnings.

Many of Salzman’s skills as a horseman were passed down to his sons, John Salzman Jr. and the late Tim Salzman, who also became prominent trainers in the Mid-Atlantic. When he flew down to Florida for sales later in his career, his sons frequently traveled with him. Few juvenile races in the spring in Maryland have gone without a Salzman runner in recent decades.

“We'd buy horses for a little bit of nothing,” John Salzman Jr. said in April. “We can get them ready early and have them sharp, ready to go four and a half, and we'd get our money back before the other horses are even ready to run.”

Tim Salzman passed away after a battle with cancer earlier this year. Megan Salzman, the daughter-in-law of John Sr. and widow of Tim, earned her first victory as a trainer on Sept. 13.

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