ELMONT , N.Y. \u2013 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.
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\n\u201cIt\u2019s just been a whirlwind \u2013 I haven\u2019t had a chance to sit down and relax yet,\u201d 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. \u201cAfter the [Oaks] I had over 100 text messages, along with voice mails, Twitter, Facebook messages. We\u2019ve been getting tons of support.\u201d
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Napravnik\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/div>\n
\n\u201cFinally, we got a new plane,\u201d she said. \u201cIt 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\u2019t have made it.\u201d
\nArriving straight from the airport, Napravnik said she was thrilled at the enthusiastic welcome she received from fans and her fellow riders. \u201cA lot of the fans were congratulating me, [and] my peers in the jockeys\u2019 room,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m
\nreally happy to have everyone\u2019s support. It feels great. I\u2019m so happy to be riding here today.\u201d
\nNapravnik had been scheduled to ride Mark Valeski in today\u2019s 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.
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\n\u201cI still have a really nice [colt] in Mark Valeski, and he should be very tough to beat in [the Peter Pan],\u201d she said. \u201cThere 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\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ELMONT , N.Y. – 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[97,52,2044],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-events-magazine","category-events-magazine","category-magazine"],"yoast_head":"\n