Rosie Napravnik Returns to Fair Grounds for “New Vocations Day at the Races”

Former jockey and horse aftercare advocate Rosie Napravnik will join Fair Grounds host Joe Kristufek on the live feed for “New Vocations Day at the Races” at the New Orleans venue, the track announced on Tuesday. Napravnik, who won four titles at the Fair Grounds, will help build awareness, promote success stories, and inspire donations for Thoroughbred aftercare throughout the racing card.

“Rosie is one of our favorites and it's great to have her back at the Fair Grounds to help shed light on such an important cause and to share her valuable insight with the fans,” said Fair Grounds Senior Director of Racing Jason Boulet.

“Before and after my riding career, I've been exposed to a lot of the other things that horses can do, and that's a big part of the reason why I'm so passionate about it and why it's so important to me,” Napravnik said about Thoroughbred aftercare. “After riding so many of those horses and seeing how much they put out for us on the racetrack, it's just something I can't avoid making a part of my life.”

To make a financial donation to the Louisiana chapter of New Vocations and support the Fair Grounds Day at the Races, please go to https://horseadoption.com/donate.

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‘Ground-Breaking’ New ‘Right To Ride’ Exhibit Celebrates Female Jockeys At Kentucky Derby Museum

Fearless female jockeys and their journey to break down barriers in Thoroughbred racing take center stage in the Kentucky Derby Museum's new exhibit, “Right to Ride” opening October 16th. Join us as we celebrate Diane Crump making history 50 years ago as the first female jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby. “Right to Ride” puts a spotlight on the stories of female jockeys, from trailblazers like Diane Crump, to modern day jockeys like Rosie Napravnik and Donna Barton Brothers.

In conjunction with the Paulick Report, the Kentucky Derby Museum is sponsoring a four-part series examining the arrival of female jockeys in American horse racing – why and how they broke in to the sport when they did, and how racing has reacted. The first installment, available here, examines the historical context for the start of Kathy Kusner's legal fight to be allowed to ride races.

This series is sponsored by the Kentucky Derby Museum, which will open its Right To Ride exhibit on Oct. 16. The exhibit marks the 50th anniversary of Diane Crump's historic ride in the Kentucky Derby in 1970, when she became the first female jockey in the race. You can learn more about the exhibit and access current COVID-19 safety protocols for Museum visitors here.

Female jockeys of the 60s and 70s had one thing in common: they just wanted to ride horses. But they faced gender discrimination and rules that didn't allow for them to do what they loved. This exhibit centers around their stories of fighting for their Right to Ride in Thoroughbred racing. Between October 2019 and March 2020, the Museum's team amassed over 20 hours of oral history interviews with female riders who had an impact on American horse racing. The interviews form the centerpiece of the exhibit.

Accompanying the oral history footage are artifacts, photographs, and print media that provide deeper engagement with the personal careers of women in the saddle and the era which made their breakthroughs possible.

The exhibit features a retro 1960s and 70s-inspired motif that encourages guests to travel back in time to the era when women all over the United States were breaking out of the domestic sphere and into the workforce. The design includes wood paneling, mid-century modern style, and a retro kitchen, complete with an avocado green refrigerator. This kitchen is a place to discover stories in the exhibit, but also symbolic of what female jockeys went through. A handful of the jockeys recall having phrases yelled at them, like, “Get back in the kitchen!”

“This is a ground-breaking exhibit for the Kentucky Derby Museum with regards to the scope and stylized experience of feeling as if you are stepping back in time to relive these moments,” said Patrick Armstrong, Kentucky Derby Museum President and CEO. “These female jockeys fought so hard to not only raise the glass ceiling in their sport but to break through it. We are proud to tell their stories.”

“We are excited to honor these trailblazing women riders during the centennial of Women's Suffrage,” said Jessica Whitehead, Kentucky Derby Museum Collections Manager. “Their stories of dedication, perseverance, and remarkable skill reflect the same belief that all powerful women throughout history have had: that women were meant to contribute meaningfully to all facets of American public life. By pursuing their love of riding, these female jockeys defied expectations and proved themselves to be wonderful riders capable of competing against men at the highest level. They can be an inspiration to all of us to follow our hearts and do what we love.”
Clips of interviews with the female jockeys and pictures of the exhibit and its features may be used by media members with “Credit: Kentucky Derby Museum.”

Exhibit highlights include:

-Oral history theatre screen featuring high definition video selections from over 20 hours of exclusive interviews with trailblazing female jockeys

-Artifacts tracing the story of the first American female jockeys, such as Diane Crump's riding boots, Sandy Schleiffers' Jockeys' Guild ring, and the Barton family scrapbook

-Treasures from personal collections, including Patti “P.J.” Cooksey's gear from the 1984 Kentucky Derby and Rosie Napravnik's 2012 and 2014 winning Kentucky Oaks trophies

-Newspaper clippings and cartoons that depict how female jockeys were portrayed in the media

Exhibit runs through August 2021. Guests can experience “Right to Ride” with a general admission ticket. Tickets are $16 for adults, $14 for age 65+, $8 for children (ages 5-14). Children under five are free.

A ribbon cutting will be held October 16 at noon in front of the exhibit, with legendary female jockeys on hand to help celebrate.

To plan a visit, visit DerbyMuseum.org.

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Female Jockey Exhibit Opening at Derby Museum

The Kentucky Derby Museum will open the new “Right to Ride” exhibit Friday, Oct. 16. The exhibit features the history-making first female jockeys in the sport, with a spotlight on the stories of women facing gender discrimination as they fought to ride. Specifically highlighted are women riders who broke down the barriers, including Diane Crump, who was the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby 50 years ago. Over 20 hours of oral history video interviews with female riders who had an impact on American racing form the centerpiece of the exhibit, along with artifacts such as Diane Crump’s riding boots, Patti “P.J.” Cooksey’s gear from the 1984 Kentucky Derby, and Rosie Napravnik’s 2012 and 2014 winning Kentucky Oaks trophies.

“This is a ground-breaking exhibit for the Kentucky Derby Museum with regards to the scope and stylized experience of feeling as if you are stepping back in time to relive these moments,” said Kentucky Derby Museum President and CEO Patrick Armstrong. “These female jockeys fought so hard to not only raise the glass ceiling in their sport but to break through it. We are proud to tell their stories.”

The “Right to Ride” exhibit runs through August 2021. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held Oct. 16 at 12 p.m. ET in front of the exhibit, with legendary female jockeys on hand to help celebrate. For more information, visit DerbyMuseum.org.

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After ‘Tough’ Year, Kentucky Downs Meet Comes At A Good Time For Trainer Joe Sharp

The RUNHAPPY Meet at Kentucky Downs couldn't come soon enough for Joe Sharp.

The trainer has always done well at the all-grass meet. That includes winning at Kentucky Downs with the first starter after opening his own stable in 2014, with Holiday Drama ridden by Sharp's wife, Rosie Napravnik. He has won at least one race every Kentucky Downs meet since. Last year Sharp earned a share of the training title with Wesley Ward and Ian Wilkes at four wins apiece. That ended the run of four straight Kentucky Downs meet titles for Sharp's former boss, the track's all-time win leader Mike Maker.

Sharp has Midnight Tea Time and Hierarchy entered in Wednesday's $300,000 Tapit Stakes for horses who haven't won a stakes in 2020. Hierarchy was cross-entered in Saturday's $1 million Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup, one of five stakes on the showcase Calumet Farm Day card. Sharp also entered the stakes-winner Quebec in the $500,000, Grade 3 Real Solution Ladies Sprint and Fast Boat in the $700,000, Grade 3 RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint among his five entries Saturday. Fast Boat needs two scratches to run in the overfilled RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint, whose winner receives a fees-paid spot in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1) with the six-furlong stakes being a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series' “Win And You're In” race.

“Kentucky Downs has been a track that's been really good to us over the years,” Sharp said. “Being based here in Kentucky, you know what kind of horses to look for, what kind of distances to target over there.

“I was telling my wife, we can make our whole year this month. In a normal year, it's a really, really fun place to go to the races. You can bring the family and enjoy it. It's real casual. That's one of my favorite parts about it. I was saying my favorite day of the year is when they take entries for opening day at Kentucky Downs. The track just has a great feeling to it.”

This has been a difficult year for Sharp, to put it mildly. He had to undergo surgeries June 4 and July 24 connected to a brain tumor, with a procedure in between to insert a lumbar drain. The good news was that the tumor, known as an acoustic neuroma, was non-cancerous. The bad news was that in order to remove it, the surgeons also had to remove auditory nerves that had wrapped around it, rendering him deaf in his right ear.

Because the tumor was benign and he knew he was going to lose his hearing in an ear, Sharp said he delayed surgery for a year. Amid that, he had a rash of horses at Churchill Downs last fall and the Fair Grounds disqualified for testing over the limit for the dewormer Levamisole.

“It just keeps coming this year, for sure,” Sharp said. “But we're tough…. We're going on and doing our thing. We've always had a good reputation prior to that. It was just unlucky. I think if I had to guess after talking to veterinarians and specialists that most likely the horses were recontaminating the stalls. That's why it's carried on. There's no other explanation.”

Sharp said he almost had his surgery last November “but I chickened out… There's never a good time for that.

“I'd never even broken a bone,” said the 35-year-old former jockey, who until being grounded by the surgeries got on many of his horses in morning training. “So I've been very lucky. That being said, I'm not the best patient ever because I wasn't used to that. I've never been unfit since I was 16. I couldn't lift over 10 pounds for 90 days and then when I had my second surgery, that started over again. So like the kids, the barn, I can't bend down. That was the toughest part.”

One of Sharp's four wins last year at Kentucky Downs came with a maiden called Art Collector. Unfortunately for Sharp, one of his Levamisole disqualifications came in a subsequent Churchill Downs allowance race in which Art Collector finished first by 7 1/2 lengths. Owner Bruce Lunsford, who had sent Art Collector to trainer Tommy Drury to bring back off a layoff, opted to keep the colt with Drury. They are 4 for 4 since, including winning Keeneland's Grade 2 Toyota Blue Grass and the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby. After missing the Derby with a minor but untimely foot issue, Art Collector is being pointed for the Oct. 3 Preakness Stakes.

Sharp said he continues to have a good relationship with Lunsford and harbors no hard feelings about losing Art Collector. With his surgeries, he noted it would have been difficult to have a horse on the delayed Kentucky Derby trail anyway.

Mostly, Sharp is grateful just to be back at the track, returning a little more than two weeks ago. Midnight Tea Time got the scratch he needed to get into Wednesday's Tapit off the also-eligible list. In his last start he was second by a neck in a third-level allowance race won by He's No Lemon, an unusual result where both horses in the exacta are out of the same mare, It's Tea Time. (As an aside, He's No Lemon is entered in the Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup.) Midnight Tea Time won a second-level allowance race at Kentucky Downs last year by a nose over Combatant, who went on to win the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap.

Sharp said that a final decision will be made with owner Carl Moore but that they believe the Kentucky Turf Cup's 1 1/2-mile distance will suit Hierarchy. Hierarchy was a good second in the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup won by Factor This, who then was second in last Saturday's Grade 1 Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill Downs.

“He's a horse we've always wanted to try going that far,” Sharp said. “He ran really big going a mile and a quarter against Factor This, got a really big (handicapping) number. There are limited opportunities to find a race going a mile and a half. If he fires and runs his last two numbers back, he's very competitive with these horses. Obviously Zulu Alpha is in top form right now. Arklow's form isn't what it was last year at this time, but he's still consistent. Honestly I think it comes down to what distance is going to suit him better, because the Tapit came up pretty tough as well.”

Sharp believes firmer turf will help Quebec, a $105,000 purchase at Keeneland's November sale last fall, in the Ladies Sprint.

“She ran some really good races at Lone Star for us,” Sharp said of a pair of seconds before Quebec finished seventh in the Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf. “The day we ran her at Ellis Park, it was boggy. She's a California horse. They like to hear their feet rattle. So we're going to cut her back in distance to 6 1/2 furlongs. That uphill, I think she'll really like.”

Sharp's best finish opening day was a third but he's optimistic about the rest of the meet, saying, “I think our meet will get stronger as it goes, as far as entries are concerned.”

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