Racing

Russell Shoots for Saturday Stakes Double with Post Time, Apple Picker

Since going out on her own in 2018, trainer Brittany Russell has started one horse at Keeneland with that start coming in 2020. 

She returns Saturday, Oct. 21 with Hillwood Stable’s undefeated Post Time in the $250,000 Perryville (L), which is Race 6, and Michael Dubb’s Apple Pickerthree races later in the $350,000 Lexus Raven Run (G2). 

The two Russell runners are stabled with trainer Brad Cox’s string here, which makes for a reunion of sorts for Russell. She is a former Cox assistant. 

“I was here and Churchill Downs and pretty much wherever he wanted me to go,” she said. 

Post Time has won his four races by a combined 17 lengths. 

“He won the allowance (off a nine-month layoff on Sept. 22 at Pimlico), and this race was on the radar,” Russell said. “He always has had the talent and at this time of the year, where else can you run seven-eighths against straight 3-year-olds?” 

Post Time’s comeback victory was a 4½-length score, the same winning margin that Apple Picker recorded in the Weather Vane Stakes at Pimlico on Sept. 16. 

“We are taking a shot here because there is not much else there (in the Mid-Atlantic region),” Russell said. “I only got her this year, and (performing well in) a race like this would do a lot for her.” 

Sheldon Russell, Brittany’s husband, will ride both horses Saturday. 

Russell, who is enjoying her best year with her runners earning more than $6 million, has 100 horses spread among Laurel, Delaware Park and the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Maryland. 

“It sounds like a lot, but I want a number that I am comfortable with and can do a good job with them,” Russell said. “In the spring when the owners call and say they have a 2-year-old coming in, you can’t say no.”