Post Time (Walter Wlodarczyk)
NYRA Press Office
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When it comes to making history, Brittany Russell knows how it works. Just the fourth woman to lead the trainer standings at her home base of Laurel Park and the first to do it twice, both coming in 2022, the 34-year-old went one better in 2023, becoming the first female ever to win more races than any trainer in a single year at Laurel and Pimlico Race Course.
Russell’s success, while prolific, has not been limited to Maryland. Wondrwherecraigis provided the Pennsylvania native her first graded triumph in the 2021 Grade 3 Bold Ruler at Aqueduct Racetrack. She won both Aqueduct’s Carter with Doppelganger – her first Grade 1 victory – and Gulfstream Park’s Grade 3 Suwannee River with Full Count Felicia on the road last year. In April, she defended her Carter title with Hillwood Stable’s Post Time.
Ellen Charles of Hillwood Stable explained after the Carter score why the victory from the grandson of the Maryland-bred Opening Verse mare Merriweather was a meaningful one for her family.
“His granddam is Merriweather, and my grandmother was Marjorie Merriweather,” Charles said. “I always wanted something out of that mare, because my grandmother was a remarkable woman. And you know what? I do believe he’s gotten something from her. He’s been exciting.
“I was born in New York and grew up in Maryland, but it means everything,” added Charles of the Carter score. “It’s so exciting that these beautiful animals can do what he did today and that he pulled it off.”
On Saturday, Post Time returns to New York for the Grade 1, $1 million Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap, facing the likes of Grade 1 Whitney and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and 2023 Horse of the Year finalist White Abarrio and 2023 Grade 1 Preakness winner National Treasure.
Launched in 1891 and being run for the 131st time Saturday on the undercard of the Grade 1, $2 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets, the Met Mile has never been won by a female trainer.
“The Met Mile is a huge race. It would mean so much to win a race like that,” Russell said. “It’s everything. It’s the relationship with Ellen and it’s the journey that this horse has sort of taken us on. It’s really special if he were to win it.
“To be honest with you, just the fact that he’s taking us there is a really big deal,” she added. “I feel like we’re not just going up there to take a swing. I feel like this horse is doing really good and I feel like he has a shot to be effective.”
Post Time is rated as 7-2 third choice on the morning line behind White Abarrio [6-5] and National Treasure [8-5]. The 4-year-old Maryland-bred son of 2016 Met Mile winner Frosted has been third or better in all 10 of his starts, eight of them wins. He put together four straight stakes wins including the Grade 3 General George at Laurel and Grade 2 Carter presented by NYRA Bets on April 6 at Aqueduct before finishing second by less than one length in the Grade 3 Westchester May 3 during Belmont at the Big A.
“It was a tough beat last time, but he didn’t do anything wrong and he came out of it in good shape. That’s horse racing. Let’s move on and worry about the next one,” Russell said. “That’s sort of what we’ve done. He’s had three good breezes. He had a good half [May 25] and a good five-eighths [June 1], so I feel like he’s training right into it like we need him to. That’s a good feeling.”
At this time of year Russell has horses at Laurel, Pimlico and Delaware Park and keeps Post Time with another string at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., headed by assistant trainer Emma Wolfe. Having worked for such trainers as Brad Cox, Chad Brown and Jimmy Toner, Wolfe also serves as Post Time’s regular exercise rider and breeze partner and has been with her charge this week on the Saratoga backstretch as well as Thursday’s paddock schooling session.
“He comes out of the barn on his hind legs. She loves it,” Russell said. “She’s been huge. Emma knows him better than anybody. She does a great job riding him. He’s more mature but he’s always going to have those quirks about him. It’s nice up there because he doesn’t have to go the racetrack and come right back to the barn. They have a thing now where she takes her time with him and he can enjoy his life up there.
“Fair Hill is a great place for him to train,” she added. “He lives in a beautiful barn. The racetrack up there is good, it’s safe, and he’s been running good off of it, so I’m not changing anything.”
Russell’s husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, will be aboard Post Time for the eighth straight race, breaking from post 3 in the field of six at 120 pounds, six less than topweight White Abarrio.
