Trainer Brittany Russell arrived on the second floor of the Laurel Park grandstand minutes before the draw for the 151st Preakness Stakes on Monday evening. Flanked by her family, she couldn’t find a place to sit. Without many options, the woman of the hour reluctantly chose to take a couch right in front, as if propelled to center stage. Russell left the draw with mixed feelings. The bad news came first when Taj Mahal, her local star, drew the rail in the field of 14 3-year-olds. Sheldon Russell, the trainer’s spouse and first-call jockey, will have an immense task from the 1 post, four weeks after coaxing the colt to a dominant victory from the far outside post in the $150,000 Federico Tesio. “It wasn’t what I was hoping for, but it is what it is, right?” Russell said. “He’s a good gate horse and we’ll just have to play it as it unfolds.” After positions were drawn, the morning line told a brighter story. Taj Mahal was listed as the 5-1 co-second choice, eliciting a reassured nod from Russell. In the trainer’s first Triple Crown race, her hometown hopeful will be more than a local stand-in. He is a very real and improving contender. “He’s getting some respect,“ Russell said. :: Get ready for Preakness with DRF past performances, picks, and betting strategies! Two weeks after Cherie DeVaux became the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby with Golden Tempo, Russell has a similar chance to make history with Taj Mahal. The Preakness is the only Triple Crown race yet to be won by a female trainer, with Nancy Alberts earning the best finish in the race when Magic Weisner ran second in 2002. But just as DeVaux has said her career isn’t defined by her gender, Russell won’t be emerging from the shadows if she scores on Saturday. Since stepping out on her own in 2018, the Mid-Atlantic trainer has become a singularly awesome force at Laurel, winning four straight fall meet training titles and 56 stakes at the track. “We’re pretty dominant here,” Russell said. “I have a lot of good horses and it’s always easier to win at home. It just is, with horses walking out of their stalls.” Local contenders sometimes find themselves in the right place for a Triple Crown event, but with the Preakness temporarily moving from Pimlico to Laurel this year, the race literally landed in Russell’s backyard. While 13 runners ship from all over the country to continue along the Triple Crown trail in Maryland, the trainer’s newest star has been waiting for them. Bred in Florida by Vegso Racing Stable, Taj Mahal was purchased for $525,000 at the 2024 Keeneland September yearling sale. Owned by a partnership led by SF Racing, he began his career in training for Bob Baffert on the West Coast, but after a slow start, he was sent to Russell as a 3-year-old. Russell said she wasn’t sure what to expect from the Nyquist colt ahead of his career debut in February, and even after a 4 1/4-length maiden score on Feb. 6, she still wasn’t certain how far he wanted to go. She got a better idea when he came back on short rest to win the $100,000 Miracle Wood on Feb. 21. “In the Miracle Wood, when he handled the mile the way he did off two weeks’ rest, that answered a lot of questions,” Russell said. :: Get Preakness Betting Strategies for exclusive wagering insights, contender analysis, and more After that ambitious stakes debut, Russell challenged racegoers to consider what the colt could do with proper time to train. He put the debate to rest in emphatic fashion in the Tesio, exploding to the front end from the 10 post and opening up by 10 lengths on the backstretch. Sheldon Russell managed to slow him down near the far turn before kicking him back into gear for a commanding finish, earning a 92 Beyer Speed Figure. At one point following the Miracle Wood, Russell and the horse’s connections were preparing to send Taj Mahal to the Grade 2 Wood Memorial, but a minor foot issue kept him out of the Kentucky Derby prep. It nearly prevented them from nominating him to the Triple Crown at all, but an encouraging workout on April 4, two days before the final deadline to pay the nomination fee, came just in time. He immediately justified that decision in the Tesio. Despite serving as a Win And You’re In race for the Preakness since 2016, the Tesio has historically been a dreadful prep for the Triple Crown race. Besides Icabad Crane, the third-place finisher in the 2008 Preakness, no Tesio winner has gone on to run better than sixth in the last 30 years. The Tesio’s greatest winners, like Broad Brush and Deputed Testamony, can only be found in yellowed photographs and as namesakes for modern stakes races. If Taj Mahal proves to be the genuine article, he would be bucking a trend that has festered for decades. Much of the analysis of Taj Mahal’s chances in the Preakness revolves around Russell’s status as a “local trainer,” with some noting her 34-race losing streak in graded stakes going back to April 2024. But in order to earn her 30 percent strike rate at home, the trainer has quietly built a résumé deserving of a national moment. “When I worked for Brad Cox, I traveled with good horses,” Russell said. “We went to the Breeders’ Cup. I did a lot of things for him and I learned from those moments. I watched Jimmy Jerkens, the way he handled some of his better horses. Along the way, you just pick up a little bit from everybody and you hope that if you’re in that position, you’ll know how to handle things.” Russell’s work as an assistant for Cox and Jerkens, as well as Ron Moquett and Jonathan Sheppard, dovetailed into near-instant success on her own. In 2018, she married Sheldon Russell, cementing a partnership that has defined Maryland racing since. On an average day, Laurel arguably has a higher percentage of children in attendance than any track in the country, if only because of the Russell kids and their friends darting around the grandstand. “Being able to do this with my family is a big part of it,” Brittany Russell said. “The kids come to the races with us all the time. Obviously, Sheldon and I are here, so it’s pretty special that we can do it together.” Four years after saddling her first runner, Brittany got the horse of a lifetime when Post Time began his career at Laurel. In 2024, Sheldon rode the Maryland-bred star to a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, a momentous achievement to go with two graded stakes victories. The jockey, who has previously ridden in two Preaknesses, said it would be a “dream” to win his first Triple Crown race alongside his wife. Going to the West Coast with Post Time was a life-changing moment for them, but winning Maryland’s biggest race would mean even more. “I would love it,” Sheldon Russell said. “Post Time took us on a journey, and he sort of handed the arm band to [Taj Mahal]. Hopefully, this guy steps up for us.” Between her work for prominent trainers, brushes with the national spotlight, and ever-growing local experience, Russell was prepared when Taj Mahal exceeded her expectations. It will soon be time to find out if Taj Mahal is ready for a moment all his own. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.