Chris J. Russell

Last updated
Chris Russell
Occupation Jockey
Born (1980-12-03) December 3, 1980 (age 42)
Cheverly, Maryland, U.S.
Career wins400+ (as of 2023)

Chris J. Russell (born December 3, 1980 in Cheverly, Maryland) is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He grew up with no horse racing background. He first got on a horse at the age of 18. He learned to ride in South Carolina breaking babies for Frank "Gorrie" Smith. After spending two years there he returned to California.

Russell obtained his jockey's license in December 2003 and began riding in California (where he won his first race at Santa Anita on February 23, 2005) [1] before heading to the East Coast of the United States where he rode at Monmouth Park Racetrack in New Jersey for a short time before ending up at Laurel Park Racecourse (where he was involved in a November 2005 collision that sent both him and Rosie Napravnik to a hospital). [2] In 2007, he returned to Southern California and the following year began riding at Los Alamitos Race Course. In June 2009 he left to ride the Northern California Fairs. After the 2010 racing fairs ended in October Russell returned to Los Alamitos Race Course. As of 2023 his career winnings total more than $5,500,000. [3]

Russell won the top jockey award at the 2011 Humboldt County Fair meet in Ferndale, California [4] after having taken second place at the previous year's meet. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike E. Smith</span> American jockey

Michael Earl Smith is an American jockey who has been one of the leading riders in U.S. Thoroughbred racing since the early 1990s, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2003, and has won the most Breeders' Cup races of any jockey with 27 Breeders' Cup wins. Smith is also the third leading jockey of all time in earnings with over $336 million. In 2018, Smith rode Justify to the Triple Crown, becoming the oldest jockey to win the title at age 52.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Stevens (jockey)</span> American jockey

Gary Lynn Stevens is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey, actor, and sports analyst. He became a professional jockey in 1979 and rode his first of three Kentucky Derby winners in 1988. He had nine wins in Triple Crown races, winning the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes three times each, as well as ten Breeders' Cup races. He was also a nine-time winner of the Santa Anita Derby. He entered the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 1997. Combining his U.S. and international wins, Stevens had over 5,000 race wins by 2005, and reached his 5,000th North American win on February 15, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kent Desormeaux</span> American jockey (b. 1970)

Kent Jason Desormeaux is an American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey who holds the U.S. record for most races won in a single year with 598 wins in 1989. He has won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes three times each, and the Belmont Stakes once. Aboard Real Quiet, he lost the 1998 Triple Crown by a nose.

The Los Alamitos Futurity is a Grade II American Thoroughbred horse race for two-year-olds run over a distance of one and one sixteenth miles on the dirt held annually in early December at Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress, California. The event currently offers a purse of $300,000.

Robby J. Albarado is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He began riding at the age of 10 and progressed to riding at bush tracks in his native Louisiana by the age of 12. After turning professional, he earned his first official win at Evangeline Downs in 1990. Since then, he has won more than 5,000 races, but his career has endured setbacks as a result of serious injuries. During 1998 and 1999, he suffered two skull fractures, one of which required doctors to replace a damaged portion of his skull with titanium mesh and polymer plate. Another serious accident in the fall of 2000 kept him out of racing for the better part of 2001.

The Bayakoa Stakes is a Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for fillies and mares age three and older run over a distance of one and one sixteenth miles on the dirt held annually in early December at Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress, California. The event currently offers a purse of $100,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Solis</span>

Alex O. Solis is a jockey based in the United States. He lives in Glendora, California and rides predominantly in Southern California. He got his big break and his first gained national prominence when he won the 1986 Preakness Stakes with Snow Chief. In 2014, he was elected to the horse racing hall of fame and on January 1, 2015, became the 29th jockey in North American history to have 5,000 wins.

Rosemary Homeister Jr. is a retired American jockey in Thoroughbred racing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garrett K. Gomez</span> American jockey

Garrett Keith Gomez was an American Thoroughbred jockey who won two Eclipse Awards and thirteen Breeders' Cup races during his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Espinoza</span> Mexican jockey (born 1972)

Victor Espinoza is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing who won the Triple Crown in 2015 on American Pharoah. He began riding in his native Mexico and went on to compete at racetracks in California. He has won the Kentucky Derby three times, riding War Emblem in 2002, California Chrome in 2014, and American Pharoah in 2015. He also won the Preakness Stakes three times, in those same years and with the same horses. He was the first jockey in history to enter the Belmont Stakes with a third opportunity to win the Triple Crown; his 2015 victory made him the oldest jockey and first Hispanic jockey to accomplish the feat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chantal Sutherland</span>

Chantal Sutherland is a Canadian model, television personality and jockey in North American Thoroughbred horse racing. She is referred to as the Danica Patrick of horse racing. She is known for her appearances on the reality tv show, Jockeys on Animal Planet, as well as being the poster girl for the Del Mar racetrack. During an interview on Sky Sports in the lead-up to the Dubai World Cup race, she said that her primary vocation was jockey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Bravo (jockey)</span>

Joe Bravo is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. The son and grandson of jockeys, he began his professional career in Thoroughbred flat racing at Calder Race Course in Miami Gardens, Florida during the latter end of 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosie Napravnik</span> American jockey

Anna Rose "Rosie" Napravnik is a former American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey and two-time winner of the Kentucky Oaks. Beginning her career in 2005, she was regularly ranked among the top jockeys in North America in both earnings and total races won. By 2014 she had been in the top 10 by earnings three years in a row and was the highest-ranked woman jockey in North America. In 2011, she won the Louisiana Derby for her first time and was ninth in the 2011 Kentucky Derby with the horse Pants on Fire. In 2012 she broke the total wins and earnings record for a woman jockey previously held by Julie Krone, and became the first woman rider to win the Kentucky Oaks, riding Believe You Can. She won the Oaks for a second time in 2014 on Untapable. She is only the second woman jockey to win a Breeders' Cup race and the first to win more than one, having won the 2012 Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Shanghai Bobby and the 2014 Breeders' Cup Distaff on Untapable. Napravnik's fifth-place finish in the 2013 Kentucky Derby and third in the 2013 Preakness Stakes on Mylute are the best finishes for a woman jockey in those two Triple Crown races to date, and she is the only woman to have ridden in all three Triple Crown races.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Garcia (jockey)</span>

Martin Garcia is a Mexican jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing based in Southern California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Chrome</span> American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

California Chrome is a champion US Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2014 Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and 2016 Dubai World Cup. He was the 2014 and 2016 American Horse of the Year. In 2016, he surpassed Curlin as the all-time leading North American horse in earnings won.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Sherman</span> American horse trainer and former jockey (born 1937)

Art Sherman is a former American horse trainer and jockey. At the age of 77 he became the oldest trainer to win the Kentucky Derby. He began his career as a stable hand for Rex Ellsworth and Mesh Tenney. While working in Ellsworth's barn, he was the exercise rider for the 1955 Kentucky Derby winner Swaps and 1956 Kentucky Derby entrant Terrang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dortmund (horse)</span> American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

Dortmund was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. In 2014, he was undefeated in three races and established himself as one of the best juveniles in California with a win in the Los Alamitos Futurity. In the early part of 2015, he moved into contention for the American Triple Crown races with wins in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes, San Felipe Stakes, and Santa Anita Derby. In his return to racing in the fall of 2015, Dortmund took the Big Bear Stakes and Native Diver Handicap- his final career victories. He died in South Korea on April 18, 2022 at the age of ten, due to colic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florent Geroux</span> French jockey

Florent Geroux is a jockey who has earned over 1,700 wins in American thoroughbred horse racing, including the 2017 Breeders' Cup Classic on Gun Runner, two Breeders' Cup Distaff wins with Monomoy Girl, and the 2021 Kentucky Derby on Mandaloun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Vega (jockey)</span>

Antonio "Tony" Vega was a Puerto Rican American Thoroughbred jockey and community activist from New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was a graded stakes winning, three-time champion jockey who competed in North American horse racing from 1982 to 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheryl White (jockey)</span> American horse racing jockey (1953–2019)

Cheryl White was the first African American female horse racing jockey and the first woman to serve as a California horse racing steward.

References

  1. "Jockey Russell, Trainer Pender Get First Win". www.bloodhorse.com. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
  2. "Laurel's top jockey injured in spill". Baltimore Sun. 13 November 2005. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
  3. "Chris Russell, Career, Equibase". Equibase.
  4. "Ferndale horse racing finishes with flair; Steel Blue wins the marathon", Humboldt Beacon, August 25, 2011
  5. "Athlete of the Week: Chris Russell" Archived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine , KIEM-TV, August 17, 2011.