June, 2018 - Anna Rose Napravnik - The Belmont Breeze

Anna Rose "Rosie" Napravnik (born February 9, 1988) began her career in 2005 at Pimlico and has been regularly ranked among the top jockeys in North America in both earnings and total races won. She initially rode under the name "A.R. Napravnik" to conceal her gender. She acknowledges the struggles for equality that women riders in earlier generations had to face were greater than her own, but notes that women jockeys still "fight a battle.“ In her early career, she simply tried to "blend in" with the male riders, but nonetheless encountered some owners and trainers who refused to hire a female jockey. She later said, "I was very conscious when I raced against their horses—and when I beat them.“ Napravnik has encountered harassment from male jockeys on the track when other riders would deliberately bump her or pen in her horse from all sides. In a 2013 interview with 60 Minutes, Napravnik said that she has heard hecklers at the track yell at her to "go home and have a baby," or "go home and stay in the kitchen.“ In 2011, she won the Louisiana Derby for her first time, and was the first female winner, and was ninth in the 2011 Kentucky Derby, the sixth woman to ride in that race. In 2012, she broke the total wins and earnings record for a woman jockey previously held by Julie Krone, in the process becoming the first woman rider to win the Kentucky Oaks, riding Believe You Can, winning the race for a second time in 2014 on Untapable. She then rode in the Belmont Stakes for the first time, finishing fifth aboard Five Sixteen. Later that year, she won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile aboard Shanghai Bobby, becoming only the second woman jockey to win a Breeder's Cup race. She is the first to win more than one, also winning the 2014 Breeders' Cup Distaff on Untapable. Napravnik's fifthplace finish in the 2013 Kentucky Derby and third in the 2013 Preakness Stakes on Mylute are the best finishes for a woman jockey in those two Triple Crown races to date, and she is the only woman to have ridden in all three Triple Crown races. She is also the first to have run in all three Triple Crown races in the same year, doing so in 2013 and 2014. After her win in the 2014 Breeders' Cup Distaff, Napravnik announced she was seven weeks pregnant and taking a "retirement" of "indefinite" duration from race riding following the 2014 Breeders' Cup. She continues to assist her husband in training race horses, including 2017 Kentucky Derby contender Girvin. 

The Drink:

The Belmont Breeze - official cocktail of the Belmont Stakes 1997-2010
1.5 oz bourbon
.5 oz dry sherry
.5 oz lemon juice
.5 oz simple syrup
splash of orange juice
splash of cranberry juice
5 mint leaves

Drinkability: 3
Drunkability: 3.5
Accessibilty: 4
Taxic Diversity: 4
Priority for Conservation: 4

Comments: 

From "Women Jockeys" hosted by Fluffy Ruffle