Photo: Jim McCue/MJC
After an
eventful 24 hours, jockey Rosie Napravnik returned to Belmont Park Saturday afternoon with her first
Grade 1 victory and a bit of racing history in tow. On Friday, the 24-year-old
piloted Believe You Can to win the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, becoming
the first female jockey to win the prestigious race for 3-year-old fillies.
“It’s just been a whirlwind – I
haven’t had a chance to sit down and relax yet,” said Napravnik, who finished
third aboard Wildcat Frankie in race 4 at Belmont, her first race at her new home base
since the historic victory. “After the [Oaks] I had over 100 text messages,
along with voice mails, Twitter, Facebook messages. We’ve been getting tons of
support.”
Napravnik’s trip back from
Louisville
Sunday morning was much more eventful than her trip in the Oaks, in which she
and Believe You Can outdueled newly minted Hall of Famer John Velazquez and
Broadway’s Alibi to win by less than a length. She arrived at the Louisville airport at 4:30 a.m. for her early morning
flight back to New
York, but after leaving the gate, the plane was forced
to return for repairs. After an hour delay, the plane left the gate again, said
Napravnik, but once again had to turn around and come back.
“Finally, we got a new plane,”
she said. “It was a bit of a rough morning. We wound up getting here three hours
late, and I arrived just in time for the fourth race. It was lucky for me that
my first two mounts today at Belmont were scratched, because I wouldn’t have
made it.”
Arriving straight from the
airport, Napravnik said she was thrilled at the enthusiastic welcome she
received from fans and her fellow riders.
“A lot of the fans were
congratulating me, [and] my peers in the jockeys’ room,” she said. “I’m really
happy to have everyone’s support. It feels great. I’m so happy to be riding here
today.”
Napravnik had been scheduled to
ride Mark Valeski in today’s Kentucky Derby, but the colt was declared from the
race by trainer Larry Jones after a sub-par workout earlier in the week. The
Louisiana Derby runner-up is being re-routed to the Grade 2 Peter Pan at
Belmont on May
12.
“I still have a really nice
[colt] in Mark Valeski, and he should be very tough to beat in [the Peter Pan],”
she said. “There are still plenty of races this summer for 3-year-olds, and
Larry is pretty adamant about making it to the Travers with him, so that’s
really exciting.”