BY PREAKNESS PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
LAUREL, MD—Brittany Russell remembers having a sense of pride when Jena Antonucci became the first female trainer to win a Triple Crown race three years ago with Arcangelo in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes. The feeling wasn’t dissimilar when Cherie DeVaux saddled Golden Tempo for a victory in the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) May 2.
Their successes left just the Preakness Stakes, the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, as the only race in the series left for a woman to conquer. Russell, Maryland’s champion trainer each of the past three years, is carrying the ball in this year’s race to be held Saturday at her home track, Laurel Park.
Russell will saddle undefeated Florida-bred Taj Mahal for the 151st Preakness, giving a leg up to her husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, on race day. They drew the rail against 13 rivals, the first full Preakness field since 2011, and are co-second choice on the morning line at 5-1.
There have been 16 women to saddle a horse for the Preakness, starting with Judy Johnson, who finished seventh with Sir Beau in 1968. Jennifer Pedersen is the only one to do it more than once, sending out three starters: Griffinite, fifth in 2001; New York Hero, sixth in 2003; and Song of the Sword, ninth in 2004.
Nancy Alberts had the best Preakness finish for a female trainer in 2002 when Magic Weisner came up three-quarters of a length shy of Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem while finishing second at odds of 45-1. Kelly Rubley is the most recent to try it with Alwaysmining, 11th in 2019.
Though her focus is on the job and not the attention, Russell has received plenty of it from numerous newspaper, radio and television interviews leading up to the Preakness. NBC scheduled an afternoon with the family, including 6-year-old daughter, Edy, and 4-year-old son, Rye.
“Jena opened the door and Cherie walked through it in the Derby. I’ve watched and listened to a lot of interviews in the past week, and Cherie’s right. There’s little girls looking at us right now and we were once in that position,” Russell said. “Did I think I would be here with a Preakness horse that’s really live? Um, no. [But] it is possible.
“I think it is important that we kind of show up for them and be a good example and role model,” she added. “I have a little girl. All Edy is going to know is to work. She watches Sheldon and I and all we do is work. We keep the business running. I hope she sees that if you do that, you can be successful.”
Success has followed Russell since she went out on her own in 2018 after working for such trainers as Ron Moquett, Jimmy Jerkens, late Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard and Brad Cox. The 36-year-old native of Peach Bottom, Pa. is the only female to lead Maryland’s year-end standings in wins, unsurpassed since 2023.
After joining Karen Patty (1992) Mary Eppler (2016) and Linda Rice (2017) in an elite group of women to win individual meet titles in Maryland, she became the only one to do it on multiple occasions at both Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, currently under reconstruction.
Taj Mahal is owned in a partnership led by Tom Ryan’s SF Racing, Jack Wolf’s Starlight Racing and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables – a group known as ‘The Avengers’ – and came to her last fall after starting out on the West Coast with Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.
SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables and partners won the 2023 Preakness with Baffert-trained National Treasure.
“I think it just goes to show that I have a lot of the right people on my team now. Getting horses for the Avengers and having a relationship with Bob, Sol and Tom, and last year I had a filly for [Mike] Repole in the Black-Eyed Susan [Reply, who ran fourth],” Russell said. “Those are the kind of people you want to be training for and hopefully be doing well for.”
Wednesday Preakness Notes for Taj Mahal
Rather than go out at his usual time shortly after 6 a.m., Taj Mahal galloped with the rest of the Preakness horses at the reserved 7:30 a.m. time slot Wednesday morning, then stood in the starting gate with regular exercise rider Alex Beitia aboard.
“He went out later because the gate’s not open until 7:30,” Russell said. “That’s something we would do anyway. Everything went well. We’re happy.”
Return to the May 13 issue of Wire to Wire
