Jockey Rosie Napravnik,
already solidly ensconced as the Fair Grounds jockey champion this
winter and significantly the first female rider in New Orleans history
to accomplish that feat, exhibited
her equestrian skills to a more celebrative crowd of neophyte racing
fans when she rode four winners on Friday’s fourth and final
Starlight Racing program
at Fair Grounds this season – an evening series of racing programs
designed to expose of a whole new demographic of sports enthusiasts to
the world of Thoroughbreds.
The
23-year-old native of Morristown, New Jersey, who rode five winners at
the Crescent City oval last Saturday, took down winning honors in
the first race of the evening aboard Wayne Love’ Eli’s Deelite, came back to the winner’s circle in the third astride Michael Laurato’s
Severe Weather, returned again in the fifth aboard Valene Farms’
Social Princess and came right back in the sixth on Darren Fleming’s
Boltronic.
In the featured $51,000 allowance optional claiming race of the evening, Laconian Racing Stable, Steve Organ and Josie Carroll’s
Good and Lucky took command before the sixteenth pole and won by three-quarters of a length over Brent Gasaway and Ian Yarnot’s
Unbridled’s Heart, who had made the pace most of the way.
Good and Lucky, who won Fair Grounds’
Louisiana Handicap two years ago and finished second in last season’s renewal, was ridden by
Marlon St. Julien, trained by Josie Carroll,
accomplished the mile and 70 yard distance in 1:41.81 and
returned mutuels of $7.80, $4.60 and $3.40 while increasing his career
earnings to $567,110 with his 12th win in 36 lifetime starts.
After
establishing early splits of 23.21 and 47.01, Unbridled’s Heart saved
the place paying $7.60 and $5.20 while finishing a head to the good
of Darren Fleming’s Chef Eric, who returned $4.60 to show.