Thoroughbred racing has been Anne Russek’s career and passion since she was a teenager. She started hot-walking horses at the Monmouth Park track in New Jersey at age 16 for Warren “Jimmy” Croll.
Before long she was galloping horses, and soon she married Croll’s son Bill.
“When Bill and I divorced, I’d been the assistant trainer in the family operation. So I went out on my own. I got remarried and moved to Virginia. I still have my trainer’s license, and we race our own homebreds,” said Russek.
Anne Russek rode her 7-year-old off-the-track Thoroughbred gelding, Bamboozler, in the Rockbridge Hunt Hunter Pace in October. Photo by Bruce Detelfson.