Maryland’s Leading Trainer Sending Three Contenders to Belmont

BALTIMORE – Two months after going ‘up the road,’ as she is wont to say, to earn her first Grade 1 victory, Laurel Park-based trainer Brittany Russell is headed back to New York to take a few more swings at the big time.

The 33-year-old Russell has four horses entered during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Belmont Park, three of them in Grade 1 stakes – undefeated 3-year-old filly Goodgirl Badhabits in Friday’s Acorn, and Doppelganger in the Met Mile and Fort Warren in the Woody Stephens, both on Saturday’s Belmont Stakes (G1) program.

Maryland’s overall leading trainer by wins with 52 five months into 2023, Russell also has Madaket Stables’ L Street Lady, winner of Laurel’s Jan. 21 Xtra Heat and third in the May 19 Miss Preakness (G3) at historic Pimlico Race Course, entered in Thursday’s Jersey Girl for 3-year-old fillies.

“It’s huge for us to be able to take these horses. Yeah, they’re all going to be in deep and I’m sure we’ll be long shots but these are really nice horses and we’re excited,” Russell said. “They’re doing great and they’ve put us in a position to give them this chance, so here we are. You have to be in it to win it, and that’s the thing.”

Team Russell found itself in a similar situation in early April, when she brought Doppelganger to Aqueduct for the Carter Handicap (G1). Sent off as the longest shot in a field of six at nearly 18-1, the 4-year-old colt owned by a partnership led by SF Racing, Starlight Racing and Madaket surged to a 1 ¼-length upset providing his trainer and jockey Jevian Toledo a career milestone.

“Doppelganger, when he went up there and won the Grade 1, we were looking at it like hopefully he gets a setup and we get a piece of it, and look what happened,” Russell said. “It worked out.”

Twice graded-stakes placed in California for his previous trainers, Bob Baffert and his ex-assistant Tim Yakteen, Doppelganger has put together three straight wins since joining Russell in Maryland. He returned from 203 days between starts to take an open 1 1/16-mile allowance by 2 ½ lengths Jan. 27, then followed up with a 1 ½-length optional claiming allowance triumph going one mile Feb. 24, both at Laurel.

Doppelganger has breezed four times at Laurel since the Carter, most recently going five furlongs in a bullet 1:00.40 June 2. Toledo is named to ride back from Post 8 of nine.

“He hasn’t missed a beat. He’s trained really well. I’m excited to take him up there,” Russell said. “He’s had a lot of time and we’ve been able to do a lot of work with him in the morning, and he’s handled it. It actually seems like he’s looking for more now. You hope that’s a sign of him moving forward. These horses in these races, sometimes they do run the best race of their life and that’s what you’re hoping for on the day. He’s going in the right direction. You never know who’s going to have a bad day.”

Fort Warren, a 3-year-old son of two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin, shares common ownership with Doppelganger and arrived in Maryland shortly after finishing third in the Jan. 29 San Vicente (G2), also for Baffert. Fort Warren breezed for the first time Feb. 25 at Laurel and showed subsequent works at Pimlico and Delaware Park before returning to action on Pimlico’s Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Day program May 19.

Favored at even-money in a field of six, Fort Warren broke a step slow from his rail post in the six-furlong optional claiming allowance under Russell’s husband, champion jockey Sheldon Russell, and settled in third along the rail behind 2022 Maryland Million Nursery winner Johnyz From Albany, who set fractions of 22.63, 44.94 and 57.06 seconds and took a three-length advantage into the stretch before Russell tipped off the rail to mount a challenge. Still trailing by two lengths at the eighth pole Fort Warren came with a steady run to surge past Johnyz From Albany in the final sixteenth and go on to win by 1 ¾ lengths in 1:09.94.

Sheldon Russell is named on Fort Warren from Post 9 of 13.

“I think it was a really good steppingstone where we needed to get him going. Obviously, he was always very highly thought of and when I got him in it just took me some time to kind of get a read on him, really,” Brittany Russell said. “It was nice [the owners] let us take our time and we were able to get him going in a spot like that where he could sort of slingshot into a bigger race. Yeah, it’s three weeks since he ran but he came out of that race really, really well and that’s what we needed to see. Again, I think he wants one turn and I think seven-eighths is definitely in his wheelhouse. Honestly, I think he should enjoy that.”

James Bakke and Gerald Isbister’s Goodgirl Badhabits, by Mastery, is a speedball that went unraced at 2 but has won each of her starts at Laurel, sprinting 5 ½ furlongs March 10 and seven furlongs April 29, by 23 combined lengths. The 1 1/16-mile Acorn, where she drew Post 7 of eight with Toledo, will be a stern test of both distance and company.

“We know she’s fast. Since the first time I breezed her we were like, ‘Wow, this is a really fast filly.’ The question is going to be how far can she carry it,” Russell said. “She’s showing us signs of really maturing and growing up mentally. In the mornings she’s relaxing and her gallop-outs are really impressive, so if you’re going to judge it off what we see in the morning I think she can do it. It’s a big step up so it’s also going to be stretching her out against better company. We’re throwing it to her, but we also have confidence in her. I think she’s a very nice filly.”

Russell is coming off a Preakness Meet at Pimlico where she led the trainer standings with 15 wins, 10 more than her closest rivals, in earning her fourth career meet title. She won with her first career starter Feb. 25, 2018 at Laurel and owns 310 lifetime victories including her first graded triumph in the 2021 Bold Ruler (G3) at Belmont with Wondrwherecraigis.

Maryland-based trainer Graham Motion has three horses entered in graded-stakes Friday at Belmont – Spendarella in the Just a Game (G1), They Grey Wizard in the Belmont Gold Cup (G2) and Clitheroe, to be ridden by Laurel regular Feargal Lynch, in the Intercontinental (G3).

Laurel-based Rudy Sanchez-Salomon entered Gamestonks in Saturday’s Ogden Phipps (G1). It will the 4-year-old filly’s first start for Sanchez-Salomon after winning five of 13 races including a May 6 allowance at Penn National and finishing off the board in a pair of stakes attempts for Russell.

Laurel Park will open its summer meet with a nine-race program Friday. The 10-day stand runs through Friday, June 30.