Now coming up to his 88th year and in deteriorating health, Brian Russell is cutting back production of his email distributed publications Blood On The Track and Australian Thoroughbred following the mail out of the current editions.

Blood On the Track, a scaled down version of the Australian Thoroughbred sent to media outlets, ceases publication altogether and the Australian Thoroughbred hibernates until at least mid-year. 

Russell has plans for the future, if able, to research and write some history of Australian sires of last century and also review new sires.

Born in September, 1930, at Trundle, a small centre west of Parkes in western NSW, six weeks before Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup, and raised on his father’s farm, he developed a love of the horse at an early age, but never dreamed he would end up spending over half a century writing about them.

After 10 years on country newspapers, he joined the editorial staff of the NSW Country Life in 1960, a now defunct national weekly stud stock newspaper, as a sub editor.

In late 1962, following the death of their widely-respected thoroughbred breeding reviewer Frank O’Loghlen (wrote under the name of Eurythmic), he became the new producer of section.

After seven years in this position, he spent 10 as bloodstock editor of very popular monthly magazine Racetrack, one which has now also ceased to be published. 

Struck down in 1972 by an illness that left him ever since dependent on walking aids, Russell went into semi-retirement at Scone. 

Here in 1982, he launched a monthly magazine under the name of The Australian Bloodhorse Review, now conducted as Bluebloods by Andrew and Margaret Reichard, and in 1984 transferred to Richmond.

It can justifiably claim to be one world’s leading show windows for thoroughbred breeding.

In the early 1990s, Russell retired back up to the Upper Hunter and has been living with wife Deidree at Muswellbrook for the past quarter of a century. 

Here he developed the email publications Australian Thoroughbred (an extensive mailing list of more than 3200 people in breeding and racing) and Blood On The Track.

Breeding reviewing has been a love of life for Russell, providing him with the opportunity to visit and promote studs in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and southern Queensland. 

He has viewed such great sires as Star Kingdom, Wilkes, Better Boy, Showdown, Delville Wood, Biscay, Bletchingly, Vain, Marscay, Smokey Eyes and Danehill, to mention but a few.

His first big race meeting was Doncaster Day at Randwick on Easter Saturday, 1948. 

There were 83,000 in attendance and the big race was won by The Diver, a son of The Buzzard (GB) trained by Queensland’s iconic Tim Brosnan and strapped by his son Terry. 

The latter later became a very respected Sydney trainer.

From 1963 inclusive, Russell rarely missed a Sydney Saturday or holiday meeting over the next quarter of a century. 

He thrilled to the performances of Golden Slipper heroes Vain, Eskimo Prince, Baguette, Luskin Star and John’s Hope and to the prowess of Gunsynd, Kingston Town, Octagonal, Lonhro and so many others that make racing a pinnacle of enjoyment.

In the 1960s, he attended five Melbourne Cups, stirred in particular by the two-horse war between Light Fingers (the winner) and Ziema in the last 100m of the 1965 edition.

On the sale front, until the end of last century, he promoted and attended all the majors at Inglis Newmarket centre at Randwick and, in 1987, played a major role in the promotion of the inaugural Magic Millions Yearling Sale at the Gold Coast. 

That sale, one that had only 200 yearlings, produced one of its most important products, Snippets.

Russell, in an official capacity, promoted and covered his first yearling sale in 1963, the Inglis four-day Easter sale, one which saw new national records set for aggregate (546,905 gns), average (1031 gns) and most number sold at six figure prices, 1000 gns to a top of 7000 guineas.

The sale top price was paid twice for colts by Newhaven Park’s champion sire Wilkes (Fr), one of them, a three-quarter brother to queen of racing Wenona Girl, won the Champagne Stakes and finished second to Eskimo Price in the Slipper under the name of Farnworth. 

A representative of the first crop of inaugural Slipper winner, Todman, Eskimo Prince was also in that catalogue, selling at 6200 guineas. 

A guinea is the equivalent of two dollars ten cents.

The highest price at that 1963 sale should be less than the bottom price at the Inglis 2018 Easter yearling sale, but there has been a huge change in money value.