Russ Hudak, a clocker, oddsmaker and more, retires from racing game
Russ Hudak retired from a 41-year career in racing last Sunday at Los Alamitos.
Hudak, who turns 70 later this month, was primarily known for his work in the last 20 years as a clocker and oddsmaker at Southern California tracks, but briefly worked earlier in his career for Daily Racing Form as a call-taker helping to produce DRF past performances as well as a commentator in the late 1980s on Santa Anita’s KWIN, an in-house radio and television broadcast that was a forerunner to modern simulcasting shows.
Born in New Jersey, Hudak worked at tracks in New Mexico and briefly in New Jersey in the late 1970s before moving to Southern California in 1980. He began clocking at Hollywood Park in 1981 and later composed the track’s morning line.
Hudak composed the morning line at Del Mar for much of the 2000s, and at Los Alamitos since 2014. Hudak scaled back his responsibilities in recent years.
“I backed away the last few years to work an easier schedule,” he said.
As a clocker at Hollywood Park, Hudak had early glances at such famous runners as Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year, and California Chrome, the Horse of the Year in 2014 and 2016.
“I remember Zenyatta coming on the track and you knew she was going to be a good one,” Hudak said. “What she did stands for itself.”
California Chrome was based at Hollywood Park as a 2-year-old in 2013. When that track closed, trainer Art Sherman relocated his stable to Los Alamitos where Hudak timed morning workouts.
At Los Alamitos, Hudak saw the early workouts of eventual Triple Crown winners American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018), who were trained by Bob Baffert.
With no middle-of-the-night alarms going off now, Hudak plans to take a slower pace to his mornings.
“I can stay in bed until 6:30,” he said last Sunday, his final work day. “I’m just going to retire. I have no plans to do anything big. I’ll kick back and enjoy life. Oddly enough, I’ll probably be at the races more as a spectator.”