birth_place birth_date article_title name occupation
cheverly , maryland , u.s. december 03 , 1980 chris j. russell
 chris russell jockey
chris j. russell

chris j. russell -lrb- born december 3 , 1980 in cheverly , maryland -rrb- is an american thoroughbred horse racing jockey .
he grew up with no horse racing background .
he did not get on a horse till the age of 18 .
he learned to ride in south carolina breaking babies for frank `` gorrie '' smith .
after spending two years there he returned to california .
chris russell obtained his jockey 's license in december 2003 and began riding in california -lrb- where he won his first race at santa anita on february 23 , 2005 -rrb- before heading to the east coast of the united states where he rode at monmouth park racetrack in new jersey for a short time before ending up at laurel park racecourse -lrb- where he was involved in a november 2005 collision that sent both him and rosie napravnik to the hospital -rrb- .
in 2007 , he returned to a base in southern california and the following year began riding at los alamitos race course .
in june 2009 he left to ride the northern california fairs .
after the 2010 racing fairs ended in october chris returned to los alamitos race course and has done well .
russell won the top jockey award at the 2011 humboldt county fair meet in ferndale , california after having taken second place at the previous year 's meet .
