Anna Rosie Napravnik has 221 victories in 51 weeks, making her the fifth-winningest jockey in the country this year ? and she can?t even legally drink a beer to celebrate.
With flaming red hair and a sassy attitude, the 18-year-old apprentice sensation is the talk of the industry after winning the riding title at Laurel Park in the spring and leading the roster now at Pimlico.
Sitting in the women?s jockey room at Pimlico on a recent afternoon, Napravnik looks like the typical teenager. She fiddles with the sunglasses perched on her head and checks for missed calls on her pink cell phone, which is clipped to the waistband of tight blue jeans. Platform wedge sandals show off her pink-painted toenails.
But Napravnik is the first to admit she?s not typical.
“Not at all,” she says. “But I don?t think I?m the typical high school dropout, either. ”
The decision to leave school after two years at Hereford High was a tough one, but Napravnik says it wasn?t regrettable; she?ll take her high school equivalency test in July. Her version of the real world includes a lot of attention and money ? her earnings total more than $4 million and she?s looking for a house to buy ? but she?s sometimes lonely.
“I didn?t have any friends in Hereford,” she says. “I was too tired and grumpy for friends.”
Now with a serious boyfriend, she said she spends even her off time with friends from the track, talking about the track. But even that time is limited: On busy days, she races as many as nine times before returning to her Laurel apartment, eating dinner and heading to bed.
The Laurel race season spans January through April and, at Pimlico,April through July. In the summer, she works the Timonium Fair circuit and a summer meeting at Pimlico in August. On off days, she travels to Delaware Park to race.
“I don?t have a lot of time to spend doing nothing,” she said. “It?s very tiring.”
THE HOMESTRETCH
With a brother named Colt, horses must run in Napravnik?s family.
Charles Napravnik said Colt was his only child who didn?t get interested in the horses on the family?s organic farm outside Asbury, N.J. Rosie and her older sister, Jasmine, helped her mother, who trained horses and managed a boarding business. The family didn?t have a television ? too much junk on it, Charles says ? so horses kept the girls busy.
“After school, they went to the barn,” he said. “They did pony club, horse shows. There wasn?t time for much else.”
When Napravnik was 15, she took a year off from horses to try her hand at just being a teenager.
“I was sick of it,” she said. “I decided I wanted to have nothing to do with horses for a year.”
When Napravnik?s parents divorced two summers ago, Rosie, 16 at the time, moved to northern Baltimore County to live with Jasmine, who was assisting local trainer Holly Robinson. Rosie began helping Jasmine, 23, and Robinson, heading to the barns at 4 a.m. while balancing schoolwork at Hereford.
After her junior year ended last June, Napravnik decided she was ready to race professionally and mounted Ringofdiamonds for her first start.
She won.
In Laurel Park?s winter meet, she won 99 races in 72 days, earning $1.6 million ? $600,000 more than her nearest competitor.
Despite her instant success, two agents turned Napravnik down before Pimlico trainer Richard Small introduced her to John Faltynski. She says they just saw her as another girl jockey who wanted to ride with the boys.
But Faltynski, a longtime agent, marked his turf as an industry legend when he took on Julie Krone, who became the only woman to ride a winner of a Triple Crown race (Colonial Affair in the 1993 Belmont) and retired as the all-time winningest female jockey with 3,545 victories.
Faltynski, 52, takes girls seriously.
“I just looked at [Napravnik?s] physique and saw how pretty she is, and I knew she would be so sellable,” Faltynski said. “It was a match made in heaven.”
Though Faltynski acknowledges Napravnik gets feisty at times ? after a brief losing streak one recent afternoon, she grumbled about the presence of several reporters clamoring for her photograph ? he insists she?s a “pleasure” to work with.
And while some jockeys work out wrapped in plastic on hot summer days, Napravnik says she maintains her 108-pound frame by working out on the horses. Some nights, Faltynski said, she tells him she?s too exhausted after racing to work other horses, but she will be in before the sun is up the next morning.
Faltynski credits Napravnik?s success to that dedication and sheer love for horses.
“She gives me my space, and I give her hers,” he said. “I?m a fan, totally a fan. I can?t believe I get to work with a kid like this.”
BLINKERS ON
On a recent day, Faltynski said seven owners listed Napravnik to ride their horse in the same race.
Napravnik jokes that she pays Faltynski “the big bucks” to choose which horse she rides in each race, evaluating past mounts, temperaments and odds. Choosing which horse to put his client on is what Faltynski called the toughest part of his job.
“You hurt people?s feelings every day,” he said. “One owner is going to be elated ? because that one?s going to the winner?s circle.”
Napravnik, meanwhile, is slowly learning to adjust to life in the spotlight. She?s developing a keen sense of image ? she hides a box of cookies in her locker ? and smart business sense.
In an interview with The Examiner, Napravnik chooses her words carefully and is cautious not to divulge too much about her personal life.
“I don?t think it?s smart for business,” she says. “The longer I stay around, the better I can establish myself and get my name out there. Every decision you make impacts your career.”
Meanwhile, she just keeps winning.
In March, she won the Private Terms Stakes on a horse with 74-1 odds. On Preakness Day, she won the Grey Goose turf race, which came with a $100,000 purse. This season at Pimlico, she captured 56 wins, more than double that of her closest competitor.
So what?s next for the young star?
“The sky?s the limit,” Napravnik said. “I just want to keep this up.”
