John Russell, 67; Horse Trainer Won 2 National Titles With Susan’s Girl

John Russell, a thoroughbred trainer who won national championships with Susan’s Girl in 1972 and ‘73, died Wednesday at his home in Del Mar, Calif. Russell, 67, had been battling cancer.

A native of England, he took out a trainer’s license in 1958, and trained many years for the Ogden Phipps family and Fred Hooper, two of the biggest stables in the United States.

Russell, who launched a public stable in Southern California in 1980, retired from training in 1995.

He trained 55 stakes winners. In addition to Susan’s Girl, some of his other top horses were Majestic Light, Track Robbery, Intrepid Hero, Effervescing and Tri Jet. Russell saddled Precisionist in August 1988 when the horse ran a mile in 1:33 1/5, a Del Mar record that still stands.

Susan’s Girl was voted into the Racing Hall of Fame at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1976. In a 1999 poll by Blood-Horse magazine that rated the top horses of all time, she was ranked 51st.

Susan’s Girl won a third championship, for trainer Ross Fenstermaker, in 1975 and at the time of her retirement had earned $1.2 million, then a record for a female.

For Russell, Susan’s Girl won 16 races, including the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs in 1972 and the Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita in 1973. Under 129 pounds, she won the Santa Barbara Handicap at Santa Anita in 1973.

The son of a trainer, Russell left England in the summer of 1953 with plans to attend Stanford University. A month before school started, he hitchhiked to the old Tanforan track near San Francisco, sneaked onto the backstretch and landed a job galloping horses, leaving Stanford behind him. Among the first horsemen he worked for were the father-son team of Ben and Jimmy Jones, who trained for the powerful Calumet Farm.

After he quit training, Russell freelanced as a racing journalist and published a novel about racing. He also was active in finding homes for retired racehorses, working for the California Equine Retirement Foundation and Tranquility Farms in Tehachapi, Calif.

Russell is survived by his wife, Diane; and two sons, Jonathan and Tristan.