One of the stars of the just completed meeting at the Fair Grounds in New
Orleans was jockey Rosie Napravnik, who ran away with the leading rider title in
her first season at the Louisiana track. The 23-year-old native of Morristown,
New Jersey, rode 110 winners, 31 more than second-leading rider Shaun Bridgmohan.
“I had ridden a lot for Mike Stidham the past two summers at Delaware Park,”
said Napravnik, who was represented in New Orleans by Derek Ducoing, who will
have her book here and during Derby Week at Churchill Downs. “I got down there,
worked hard and our business really picked up.”
Now a lot of people that Napravnik rode for, including Stidham, have
relocated to Keeneland, where she will ride against arguably the deepest riding
colony in the country.
“It is very exciting to see what we can do,” said Napravnik, who is named on
five mounts on Friday’s opening-day card. “I have ridden against all of these
guys before, but never at a meet. It will give me a good perspective as to where
I am at.”
A jockey for six years, Napravnik considers herself to still be a work in
progress.
“I feel like I am improving all the time and I never want to get to the point
where I stop learning,” Napravnik said. “I look back after each year and I can
see where I have improved so much.”
Her biggest victory at Fair Grounds came in the $1 million Louisiana Derby
(G2) on Pants on Fire (Jump Start), who will give Napravnik her first chance to
ride in the Kentucky Derby (G1).
“I am very excited about him,” Napravnik said. “He is a great horse to ride
and he will be the easiest kind of horse to ride in a huge field. He’s got a lot
of heart.”
This year’s Derby will be a first for Napravnik on all fronts.
“I have never been to the Derby. I have been to a couple of Preaknesses (G1)
and the Breeders’ Cup, but I hear Derby Week is just crazy,” Napravnik said. “I
am very excited to have the chance to be there.
“I didn’t expect to be riding in the Kentucky Derby in 2011. I wouldn’t say
that riding the Derby is a dream of mine, but riding in those kinds of races are
part of my dream. I want to be at the level where I can ride those kinds of
races and do it more than once.”
One of the first items of business for Napravnik at Keeneland will be her
partnership with All In Stable’s WILLCOX INN (Harlan’s Holiday), whom she will
ride in the $750,000 Blue Grass (G1) April 16, in a bid to become the first
female rider to win the marquee race of the spring meeting.
She is scheduled to be aboard Saturday morning when Willcox Inn has his final
work for the 1 1/8-mile race.
“He is a really nice horse and his race in the Breeders’ Cup was very
impressive,” Napravnik said of Willcox Inn, who finished third in the Juvenile
Turf (G2). “He has a really big late kick and the first time I rode him he
closed a lot of ground (when second in the Grindstone). That race was only 7 1/2
furlongs and the mile and eighth (of the Blue Grass) should be to his
advantage.”
In other news involving probable Toyota Blue Grass runners Thursday morning,
Team Valor’s CRIMSON CHINA (Giant’s Causeway) galloped and will continue on that
routine leading up to the race, according to John Panagot, part of trainer
Graham Motion’s team.
“He will train up to the race with no works,” Panagot said of Crimson China,
who finished second in the Rushaway at Turfway Park on March 26.
Rushaway winner SWIFT WARRIOR (First Samurai), owned by James Covello and
James Dolan, galloped 1 1/4 miles under exercise rider Eliel De Jesus. The John
Terranova trainee is scheduled to work between Saturday and Monday.
West Point Thoroughbreds’ KING CONGIE (Badge of Silver) jogged a mile and
galloped a mile under Dan Blacker. The Tropical Park Derby winner is scheduled
to work this weekend.