Most people know Rosie Napravnik from her successful career as a professional jockey. She was the first female jockey ever to win the Kentucky Oaks and did so twice in three years. Rosie is only the second female jockey to win a Breeders’ Cup race and the only female to win more than one. Her 5th place finish in the Kentucky Derby, aboard Mylute in 2012, is the highest placing finish of the six female jockeys who have ridden the race. She is the only woman to have ridden in all three Triple Crown races and has ridden each race multiple times, and all in a single season.
Rosie grew up far from racing, riding in Pony Club in Bedminster, NJ. The daughter of well-known eventing coach, Cindy Napravnik, Rosie started competing at the age of 4. At the age of 7, she rode in her first pony race aboard her 12h Welsh Mountain Pony. For several years, Rosie competed in both junior pony racing and eventing. She also rode a serious campaign, with a pony who had been rescued from the slaughter pipeline, on the pony jumper circuit and finished 7th in the National Pony Jumper Finals in 2000. At age 12, in the last Horse Trials of her youth, she competed at the Training level, before turning her focus solely toward racing. At that point, Rosie got her first Thoroughbred and had tunnel vision of a professional jockey career.
Rosie retired from racing in 2014 and her main focus now is to develop and showcase OTTBs in the sport of Eventing and to source Thoroughbreds for riders who have felt the same appreciation for the breed at the top of their own sport. She is also a strong advocate for coaching riders from a young age to hone the skills needed to enjoy and excel riding intelligent, athletic and sensitive horses and ponies like the Thoroughbred.