Brittany Russell | Horse Racing Free Tips

Hello Beautiful Chasing History In Maryland Million Distaff

Already a two-time winner in Maryland Million competition among her seven career stakes victories, 4-year-old filly Hello Beautiful can join some elite company with a third event triumph in Saturday's $100,000 Distaff at Laurel Park.

The seven-furlong Distaff for fillies and mares 3 and older is among eight stakes and four starter stakes on the 36th Jim McKay Maryland Million program, 'Maryland's Day at the Races' celebrating the progeny of stallions standing in the state.

Highlighted by the $150,000 Classic for 3-year-olds and up, first race post time is 11:30 a.m.

Since its inception in 1986, only six horses have won three Maryland Million races and not since Eighttofasttocatch captured his third Classic in four years in 2014. The others are Ben's Cat, Countus In, Docent, Mz. Zill Bear and Hall of Fame mare Safely Kept, who won the Distaff from 1989-91.

Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stables and Magic City Stables' Hello Beautiful won the Lassie as a 2-year-old in 2019 before her 11 ¼-length romp in last year's Distaff.

“She's had a good year, anyway. I like to be humble about things,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “Our filly's doing good and I hope she runs her race. Just stay humble and be happy that she's healthy.”

Hello Beautiful enters the Distaff off back-to-back front-running victories in the Alma North July 31 at historic Pimlico Race Course and Weather Vane Sept. 18 at Laurel, both going six furlongs. The Alma North was jockey Sheldon Russell's 1,500th career win and the Weather Vane came by 10 ¼ lengths under Jevian Toledo after Russell – the trainer's husband – injured his foot Sept. 9 and remains sidelined.

“Since she won last time she's been great, and I'm very pleased with her,” Brittany Russell said. “Nothing in the morning or watching her come out of that last run would indicate a regression. Of course, you don't know until you run but all signs are positive with her right now.”

Hello Beautiful has won nine of 17 career starts with $524,610 in purse earnings, is 8-for-12 lifetime at Laurel and owns three wins in four tries at the distance including the Distaff and Safely Kept to cap a 2020 season interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic that altered racing and included unsuccessful road trips to Ellis Park and Saratoga for stakes.

“We tried some things last year. It was a bit of a tough year and just to get her back on track on [Maryland Million] day was huge, and to get a second Maryland million win,” Russell said. “It's fun to have a filly like this for a day like this, [one] that you hope can keep kind of making us all proud.”

Toledo gets the return call from Post 1 aboard Hello Beautiful at topweight of 122 pounds, giving four to six pounds to her rivals. Russell said her stable star continues to thrive since her most recent victory.

“Her exercise rider jumped off of her [Tuesday] morning and he was all smiles. He was like, 'Wow.' If she was good on Sunday, she was even better today. That just makes you feel good,” she said. “Hopefully we'll be lucky enough to see her next year as a 5-year-old. I don't know quite yet what the plans are, but it's exciting.”

To achieve her milestone win, Hello Beautiful will face a stiff challenge from eight-time stakes winner Street Lute, a 3-year-old daughter of Street Magician owned by Lucky 7 Stables and trained by John 'Jerry' Robb in what is expected to be an intriguing matchup of speedy fillies.

“It's definitely going to be one of her tougher spots. She's got to run against older horses [and] Hello Beautiful is a very tough older horse,” Robb said. “There's one day when they ran the same day, back-to-back races. Street Lute's race went faster than hers did, but then like a week later they adjusted the time. But, we've known all along we were going to have to hook up sooner or later.”

Street Lute was favored to win last year's Lassie but was caught at the wire by Miss Nondescript and came up a neck short. She then proceeded to reel off five consecutive wins, all in Laurel stakes, improving her record to 5-for-7 over her home track, where she has yet to lose going seven furlongs in three tries.

Sixth by 2 ½ lengths in the M. Tyson Gilpin on the grass July 19 at Colonial Downs, Street Lute ran seventh in the Charles Town Oaks (G3) Aug. 27 but came back with a three-quarter-length triumph over her elders including fellow Distaff entrant Malibu Beauty in the six-furlong Tax Free Distaff Sept. 25 at Delaware Park.

“She's always been doing great. She didn't like the grass and she bled at Charles Town in the graded race,” Robb said. “She's good. Just draw a line through those two races and there are no bad ones.”

Street Lute, whose most recent victories have come from off the pace, doesn't figure to let Hello Beautiful out of sight under regular rider Xavier Perez from their rail post. She will carry 118 pounds.

“Hello Beautiful has been getting away with real easy leads and breathers, and I don't see that happening,” Robb said. “She's doing good.”

Robb also entered CJI Phoenix Group and No Guts No Glory Farm's Fille d'Esprit, whose name means 'spirit girl' in French. The 5-year-old Great Notion mare, claimed for $10,000 last August, won four straight races to end 2020 but has yet to race this year after overcoming an injury.

“She got hurt, and she's back and been working lights out. She worked three-quarters the other morning here in 11 flat,” Robb said. “She's just coming back really good, knock on wood. She had won four in a row and she beat some of the horses that are in the Maryland Million when she was winning those races, horses that went on to win stakes. She's a nice filly. I hate to run her seven-eighths first time back, hate to run her against Hello Beautiful first time back, but maybe she's the one that'll pick up the pieces from the speed duel.”

ZWP Stable, Inc. and Non Stop Stable's Malibu Beauty was a front-running winner of the six-furlong Miss Disco against fellow Maryland-bred/sired horses Aug. 21 at Pimlico prior to her loss in the Tax Free District. The 3-year-old Buffum filly has been first or second in seven consecutive starts, four of them wins.

NRS Stable, James Chambers and Avalon Farm's Coconut Cake was riding a three-race win streak heading into last year's Distaff, but was forced to scratch after developing a quarter crack days before the race. She has a win, two seconds and a third in six starts since coming back, most recently running second to Hello Beautiful in the Weather Vane.

Also entered are Maryland-breds Whispering Pines, third by a length in the seven-furlong Conniver March 13 at Laurel and fourth in the Shine Again Aug. 4 at Saratoga, and Factorintheheat.

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Hello Beautiful Scores Big In Weather Vane At Laurel

With her regular rider on crutches and watching from the grandstand, Hello Beautiful provided Sheldon Russell with a spectacular get-well gift as she rolled to a popular and emotional 10 ¼-length triumph in Saturday's $100,000 Weather Vane at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

The second running of the six-furlong Weather Vane for fillies and mares 3 and older was the first of four stakes worth $500,000 in purses headlined by the $200,000 Grade 3 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash for 3-year-olds and up.

Russell's wife, trainer Brittany Russell, fought back tears as she tried to explain how much the victory meant to her team, particularly since her husband – Maryland's top money-earning jockey this year at the time of his Sept. 9 foot injury – will be out indefinitely.

“It's really bittersweet. I had a tear in my eye, watching it with Sheldon,” she said. “She's just so special.”

Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stables, and Magic City Stables' Hello Beautiful ($2.40), sent off at 1-5, had been ridden by Russell in 14 of her first 16 starts, eight of them wins, including six stakes led by the July 31 Alma North at historic Pimlico Race Course, his 1,500th career victory.

With Jevian Toledo up, Hello Beautiful broke alertly and was quickly in front as her main challenger, fellow multiple stakes winner Never Enough Time, stumbled from the gate. Hello Beautiful was in command throughout, coasting through a quarter-mile in :22.37 and a half in :45.32 and opening up through the stretch to win under wraps in 1:09.56 over a fast track.

“She's a really special filly. When you have a nice horse like her, anyone can win on her like that,” Toledo said. “I have to give her all the credit. I just put her in the front and she grabbed the bit the whole way. In the stretch, I just showed her the stick and she took off, and when I looked back it was easy enough so I just took hold of her and she came back real easy to me.”

Toledo and Russell, both Maryland year-end champions and multiple meet leaders during their careers, are represented by Marty Leonard.

“We have the same agent and we are mates. You never want to see anyone get hurt. I feel bad because I know how special the filly is to him and for his wife,” Toledo said. “Thank God we were able to get the job done. Hopefully, he can come back and ride her the next time.”

Stakes-placed Coconut Cake, racing for the first time since March 13, finished second with Never Enough Time two lengths back in third. Praise and Honor and Fifteen Royals completed the order of finish.

The Weather Vane is named for the Maryland-bred champion older filly of 1998 that won 17 of 36 career starts and 14 stakes including the 1997 Grade 3 Safely Kept.

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Wondrwherecraigis Steps Back To Graded Company In Saturday’s De Francis Memorial

With two straight wins under his belt including a long-awaited first stakes triumph and returning to a track where he has yet to lose, the timing is ideal for Wondrwherecraigis to step back into graded company in Saturday's $200,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) at Laurel Park.

The 30th running of the six-furlong De Francis for 3-year-olds and up headlines four stakes worth $500,000 in purses on a 11-race program that includes the $100,000 Weather Vane for fillies and mares 3 and up, also at six furlongs, and a pair of $100,000 stakes going one mile – the Polynesian for 3-year-olds and up and Twixt for females 3 and older.

All four races are part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series. First race post time is 12:40 p.m.

Named for the late president and chairman of both Laurel and historic Pimlico Race Course, the De Francis' illustrious roster of winners includes Hall of Famer Housebuster, fellow sprint champions Cherokee Run, Smoke Glacken, Thor's Echo and Benny the Bull, and Lite the Fuse, the race's only two-time winner (1995-96) honored with his own stakes race in Maryland.

Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, The Elkstone Group and Bethlehem Stables' Wondrwherecraigis enters the De Francis off front-running scores, both at six furlongs, in a July optional claiming allowance at historic Pimlico Race Course and the Tale of the Cat Aug. 13 at Saratoga, by 8 ½ combined lengths.

The 4-year-old Munnings gelding has breezed twice since over Laurel's newly reconstructed main track, most recently going a half-mile in 49 seconds Sept. 11. He broke his maiden and won an open allowance last spring to start his career in his previous Laurel races.

“It's a new surface and he's been training right along on it, so hopefully he runs as well as he did before,” trainer Brittany Russell said. “I think when a horse like this is doing well, you have to take a shot.”

Wondrwherecraigis ran second, beaten a head, in the Gold Fever last June at Belmont Park but was disqualified to third for interference. He made his graded debut running fourth to Yaupon in the Amsterdam (G2) at Saratoga, after which he was given time off. He returned after nearly nine months with a three-length triumph May 14 at Pimlico on the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) undercard.

“He ran at Saratoga and I brought him back and kept him in training for a little bit,” Russell said. “He was just banged up. There was nothing specific. He had no specific injury, but who's to say had we tried to push on that there wouldn't have been.

“He's a completely different animal now than he was a year ago, and that's due to [the owners] letting me kick him out and do the right thing by him,” she added. “He's been with us for some time, and he's special to us. He's a really cool horse around the barn. He's quite a character, so the fact that he's gotten so far along in his racing to be thinking about trying to win a graded-stakes with him, that in itself is pretty special.”

Wondrwherecraigis was ridden in all four of his local races by Russell's husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, who is out indefinitely with a foot injury suffered Sept. 9. Jevian Toledo will be aboard from Post 5 in a field of six.

“You're going to run against good horses when you're running in good races,” Brittany Russell said. “He's faced good horses and he's been winning the right way. It's not like he just gets the job done. He holds his own the right way.”

Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen's Grade 1-placed Jalen Journey will go after his second straight win, eighth overall and first in a stakes for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. North America's all-time win leader, Asmussen owns three sprint stakes wins in Maryland this year – the May 15 Chick Lang (G3) with Mighty Mischief, July 4 Lite the Fuse with Yaupon and Aug. 21 Star de Naskra with Jaxon Traveler.

Third in the 2019 Bing Crosby (G1) and fourth in the Pat O'Brien (G2) prior to being sold and moved to Asmussen, Jalen Journey took a two-race win streak into the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) in March, where he ran 10th behind ill-fated Zenden. The 6-year-old ridgling has won two of his last three starts, the most recent an 8 ½-length romp in a third-level optional claiming allowance Aug. 6 at Saratoga, running 6 ½ furlongs in 1:14.67.

“I think he's progressed pretty strongly since we send him to Dubai. He didn't really run all that well over there, whether he didn't handle the trip or what,” Bernsen said. “I think it was more because he was training at Oaklawn Park and they had all those snow problems and it really threw our schedule off for Dubai. They had to cancel the prep race that we had and then they had to walk the horses around the barn for 11 days so it really set him back. I think he was really short going into Dubai.

“Since he got back from there, he's really settled in well. His last race at Saratoga was a really, really big run. It was very impressive in a really, really fast time,” he added. “Sometimes these horses just get good. He ships around pretty easily. I would expect him to put in a pretty respectable run.”

Asmussen, winner of the 2018 De Francis and Maryland Sprint (G3) with Switzerland, enlisted Feargal Lynch to ride from Post 2.

“If he repeats what he did in the last race, that would sort of validate who he is,” Bernsen said. “This is a really solid racehorse.”

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Hillside Equestrian Meadows' multiple stakes winner Laki is entered to defend his victory in the 2020 De Francis, held last fall on the undercard of the Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico when the stakes schedule was reshuffled amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The 8-year-old Maryland-bred gelding rallied to take last year's De Francis by a nose, the first graded triumph for both him and trainer Damon Dilodovico, who also won the De Francis when it was ungraded with Immortal Eyes in 2013.

“That was incredible. My first graded race. You'd like to think you don't count those things but you start to wonder if you'll ever get one,” Dilodovico said. “Two years ago, I thought he'd win a number of them. It's just the way things go. He knocked it out, and it was an exciting race to boot. It was a big day.”

Laki is 11-for-37 lifetime, including 8-for-23 at Laurel, with $831,162 in purse earnings and at least one stakes win five straight years, a streak he extended in the Frank Y. Whiteley going six furlongs April 24 at Pimlico. Subsequently fifth in the Maryland Sprint (G3), most recently he ran seventh in the Chesapeake Aug. 23 at speed-favoring Colonial Downs.

“He runs against quality horses every go. We were a little disappointed last time at Colonial. His style, it's not going to be too successful on a track like that but you never know,” Dilodovico said. “He's been training well this year. I don't really feel like he doesn't show up. They all get beat. He tends to circle back every fourth start or so and really launches a good number. Hopefully he's sitting on one for this.”

Regular rider Horacio Karamanos gets the call from outside Post 6 at topweight of 124 pounds, four more than each of his rivals.

RyZan Sun Racing's Kalu takes a three-race win streak into the De Francis, his stakes debut. The Godolphin-bred, 5-year-old gelded son of Hall of Famer Ghostzapper has won by an average of more than 3 ½ lengths during that stretch, all at six furlongs, a distance where he is 7-for-17 lifetime.

“[The owners], they're super game. They just want to have some fun. We figured this was a horse that we could win some races with and hopefully show up on a big day,” trainer Kent Sweezey said. “He's a fun horse to have. He's very easy, he's laid back, he ships well and he travels good. This will be hopefully a good spot for him.”

Sweeney first claimed Kalu for $8,000 in April 2020 before losing him two months later for $6,250. He was claimed again for the same price last August before rejoining Sweezey over the winter and finishing first or second in eight of his next 11 starts.

“I was thinking just the starter [races] would fit him for the next couple years and then his numbers started coming up real good and I said, 'Lets think about something cool,'” Sweezey said. “Growing up I watched stallions win this race. When you go back and look at the stallion register, there are stallions that have won this race. In years past there have been some really good horses come out of it, not to mention just the history behind Maryland racing and all that. It would be an honor to win a race like that.”

Victor Carrasco will ride Kalu from Post 1.

Trin-Brook Stables, Inc.'s War Tocsin was second to Wondrwherecraigis July 18 at Pimlico. The 5-year-old gelding has been off the board in both of his stakes tries this year, the May 15 Maryland Sprint and seven-furlong Russell Road Aug. 27 at Charles Town.

Terry Overmier's Whiskey and You also exits the July 18 race, where he was fourth, between a fourth to Yaupon in the Lite the Fuse and fifth to Mucho in the July 31 Challedon at Pimlico, his most recent race. All four of his career wins have come at Laurel including back to back March 21 and April 10.

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Jockey Sheldon Russell Will Require Surgery For Broken Foot

Sheldon Russell, the top money-winning jockey in Maryland this year, will have surgery to repair an injury to his right foot suffered in a pre-race spill Sept. 9 at Laurel Park.

Russell, 34, got the news Monday after visiting Dr. Jacob Wisbeck, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in foot and ankle injuries, at MedStar Health in Timonium, Md. Russell said a date for surgery won't be determined before a follow-up visit Sept. 20.

“What we found out is it's the main bone in the foot and needs to be addressed. If I opted not to do the surgery and heal it by myself there's chances of dislocation [and other complications],” Russell said. “He's given me another week to get the swelling down.

“I'll sit down with him next Monday at 8 o'clock and we'll X-ray the foot [again]. Hopefully some of the swelling has gone down and we can sort of schedule something,” he added. “Right now that's probably the route I'm taking to do the right thing. I'm going to be off regardless, so why not get it fixed properly.”

This year Russell has $2,497,146 in purse earnings in Maryland, leading 18-year-old runner-up Charlie Marquez by just under $100,000. Russell's 65 wins are second to Marquez's 79.

Russell was hurt after being thrown when Little Bit of That, a 2-year-old Maryland-bred Great Notion filly trained by his wife, Brittany Russell, reared in the post parade of her scheduled first start. She got loose and was scratched from the maiden special weight event, and is entered again to make her debut Thursday under jockey Forest Boyce.

“We'd done some schooling with her in the morning. She'd never shown any signs of doing anything silly. It's just one of those freak accidents,” Sheldon Russell said. “She got out with the pony and she walked a couple of steps and I don't know. She was walking like a professional, like she knew what her job was to do, and all of a sudden something spooked her and she jumped back.

“It wasn't the pony's fault or anything like that,” he added. “She was going like she was going to go over and she's throwing me off. She threw me so high. The right foot landed in the dirt first and it went toes in. When they took me off the track I said to Brittany, 'My foot's broken.'”

Russell said he was diagnosed with a Lisfranc injury, involving both the bones and ligaments in middle part of his foot, due to the way he landed and causing separation between his first two toes. Surgery may include inserting hardware to stabilize the area.

“[Dr. Wisbeck] said it happens a lot to football and baseball players. He was saying catchers get it from when they jump straight up,” Russell said. “He had a lot of jerseys up in his office. I felt good seeing someone like that.”

Russell, whose wife is expecting their second child in seven weeks, was fitted with a boot and told to keep weight off the foot for three months. Among his upcoming mounts were Wondrwherecraigis in the $200,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) and multiple stakes winner Hello Beautiful in the $100,000 Weather Vane, both on Saturday.

“I'm in for a long run,” Russell said. “But, it could have been worse. That's all I can think about. I'm home, I'm safe, and I have my family around me.”

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