Bargain Purchase Out of Sorts Keeps Trainer Russell Rolling
Bargain Purchase Out of Sorts Keeps Trainer Russell Rolling
Juvenile Filly Gallops by 10 ¾ Lengths in Sunday Maiden Triumph
Xtreme Mayhem Impressive in Debut
LAUREL, MD – Respect the Valleys’ 2-year-old filly Out of Sorts, who fetched just $1,000 as a yearling last fall, continued trainer Brittany Russell’s sizzling run at the fall meet by splashing to a 10 ¾-length maiden special weight triumph Sunday at Laurel Park.
With Russell’s husband, jockey Sheldon Russell aboard, Out of Sorts ($3.60) covered six furlongs over a sloppy and sealed main track in 1:11.62 in her second career start. She was a troubled-trip fourth in debut Sept. 24 at Pimlico Race Course, then was scratched at the gate Oct. 15 at Laurel when a neighboring horse was fractious in the starting gate.
“I’m so proud of that little filly. That was so satisfying. I knew she’d like the track. She’s the type of filly that you can take her out on anything and she trains good every day,” Brittany Russell said. “She’s so neat. She’s so pleased with herself. She acted so well and, as happy as you are to win, it’s just so cool to see them walk over there and do everything right.”
Out of Sorts, favored at 4-5 in the field of nine, pressed 9-1 long shot Cookies and Cream through a quarter-mile in 23.17 seconds before edging to a short lead midway around the far turn. Sheldon Russell shook the reins once straightened for home and the Dramedy filly opened willingly up on her rivals.
“It’s awesome. A friend of mine, Sarah O’Brien, bought her for Respect the Valleys and they only paid $1,000. It’s funny because everybody liked her all along,” Brittany Russell said. “They sent her in with another filly who I liked quite a bit, and we were like, ‘This filly is all right. We’ve got to give her a shot in a maiden special weight.’
“The first time, she just needed a run for experience,” she added. “She’s always been little bit funny mentally and it was kind of one of those things where we were either going to run her and we were going to lose her or we were going to run her and she was going to step forward, like she’s going to get it and she’s going to be great. She did just that. I would love to train fillies like that for $1,000 all day long.”
Out of Sorts gave Russell her sixth training victory from 12 starts (50 percent) at the fall meet, which opened Oct. 8. She also has two seconds and four thirds for an in-the-money strike rate of 100 percent.
On last weekend’s 35th Jim McKay Maryland Million program, Russell won the Distaff with 3-year-old filly Hello Beautiful and was third in the Nursery with 2-year-old maiden Reassured. In other maiden special weight action for juveniles, she sent out fillies Gherardini to a win Oct. 29 and Chloe Rose to a third-place finish Oct. 18.
“We’ve got the right horses and we’ve got right horses coming around at the right time, that’s all it is,” Russell said. “I was lucky this year that had a lot of 2-year-olds coming in and we got to bring them along just how we wanted. We were able to kind of mold them how we wanted to and I think that has had a lot to do with it. I love getting the young horses and I love bringing the young horses along. And I have Sheldon and he can give me such a great gauge of what we have.
“I’m never in a hurry with a horse, unless they’re like begging you to go on and do more,” she added. “You have to listen to the horse. I feel like this is probably the time of year that we would have had a bunch of them ready anyway. Maybe it helps to not feel pressured to have them ready, but I feel like this was going to be our time.”
In Sunday’s other maiden special weight, Xtreme Racing Stables’ 2-year-old Bayern colt Xtreme Mayhem ($14.60) swept to the lead on the far outside under jockey Cecily Evans approaching the stretch and turned away Shackqueenking late to capture his debut in 1:11.86 for six furlongs.
Notes: Live racing returns Thursday, Nov. 5 with an eight-race program starting at 12:25 p.m. Eight Juvenile fillies were entered to go one mile in a maiden special weight in Race 3 while the feature comes in Race 7, an entry-level allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting seven furlongs.
