For the second straight year, trainer Brittany Russell finds herself at the end of a racing season chasing history.
With three racing days left in Laurel Park‘s fall meet, starting Dec. 29, the 34-year-old Russell leads Jamie Ness 115-113 for the most winners at Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course in 2023.
No woman has ever led Maryland’s annual trainer standings. Last year Russell became just the fourth woman to win a training title in Maryland at Laurel’s spring meet and then won Pimlico’s Preakness Meet and Laurel’s fall meet to become the first woman to earn multiple crowns.
“That would be something. I didn’t realize we’re on the verge of a milestone. It would mean a lot,” Russell said. “What can you say, really? You wake up and you try and do a job and you try and do the best job that you can for the horses and your clients. Being in a position like that, it’s pretty special.
“The woman thing, honestly, I don’t think about that, ever, until somebody points it out to me. I just show up and I try and do my best and win as many races as anybody regardless of male or female,” she added. “Most of my best friends are male trainers. That’s just who I interact with. Do I feel they look at me differently because I’m a woman? No, I feel like we just show up and do our job.”
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Russell has horses entered in three races both Friday and Saturday and two on Sunday’s New Year’s Eve closing day program at Laurel. Ness has horses in one race Friday, five races Saturday, and six races Sunday.
Already, Russell has far surpassed personal highs across the board in starts (674), wins (173), and purse earnings ($7,745,992). She ranks 11th nationally in wins and 16th in purses earned, and landed the first grade 1 of her career with Doppelganger in the Carter Handicap (G1) in April at Aqueduct Racetrack | BloodHorse.com Track Profile”>Aqueduct Racetrack.
“You can say, ‘Well, it’s Brittany, she’s great on the Maryland circuit’ and all that stuff, that she’s just a Maryland trainer. You can put her up against any of these top trainers at tracks that have much larger purses and rank them equally,” said Stuart Grant, founder of prominent owner The Elkstone Group. “If you look at the people that are behind her, it’s a really impressive list. She’s doing what she needs to do and she’s paying her dues.
“She’s good and she cares. She’s got a good team and she lives and breathes this stuff,” he added. “She’s super. I love having horses with her. I have more horses with her than I have with anyone else.”
Russell defended her Preakness Meet title this spring, and trails Ness, 36-34, in Laurel’s fall meet standings. She went out on her own in 2018 after working for such trainers as Brad Cox, Jimmy Jerkens, Ron Moquett, and late Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard and has 418 wins and more than $17.5 million in purse earnings to her credit.
This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
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