Mare on a mare

Joe Drape has the story in The New York Times:

The girl was on horses before she could walk, and grew up following her mother around barns in her native New Jersey. She quickly grew out of pony racing and into thoroughbreds, first galloping horses in the mornings on Maryland racetracks. She got a jockey’s license when she was seventeen and earned her first victory with her first mount, Ringofdiamonds, on 9 June 2005.
To get horses, she rode under the name A. R. Napravnik. “I didn’t want anyone to know I was a girl,” Anna Rose Napravnik said.
More than a thousand victories later, Rosie Napravnik will be aboard Pants on Fire for the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby, only the sixth female jockey in the Derby’s history. She has already become the first woman to win the Louisiana Derby, aboard Pants on Fire, and is intent to show that neither she nor her colt are mere historical footnotes. “I got a live mount, and I’m an accomplished rider,” the 23-year-old Napravnik said. “I know the racetrack is still a man’s world. Every day I hear a trainer or owner say: ‘I don’t want to ride a girl' or 'you’re not strong enough.’ But I also can tell you I’m riding horses now for a lot of those guys I heard it from.”
Napravnik is too talented to have to hide the fact that she is a woman. She has captured riding titles in Maryland, Delaware, and, most recently, the Fairgrounds in New Orleans, where her 110 victories were more than thirty more than the jockey who finished second. Napravnik said that better than the titles was the respect she earned from her colleagues. “The guys down there tested me when I first got there,” she said. “They tried to intimidate me a little. But I kept my mouth shut and pushed back. You have to prove you’re tough. I think the toughness is what a lot of the young female riders lack. Eventually, they found a respect for me, and I appreciate that, because a lot of times when you do well, you don’t have friends.”
Diane Crump was the first woman to ride in the Derby, in 1970, and Rosemary Homeister was the last in 2003. None have finished higher than eleventh. Julie Krone, the only female rider in the Hall of Fame, became the first woman to capture a Triple Crown race when she won the Belmont Stakes on Colonial Affair in 1993.
Two years ago, Chantal Sutherland, who had been the regular rider for Mine That Bird in Canada, was replaced when the colt was sold to new owners for a Triple Crown bid. It was Calvin Borel who guided the fifty-to-one shot home in the 2009 Derby. Kelly Breen, who trains Pants on Fire, said it never occurred to him to replace Napravnik. “I’d rather have her on our side than have to run against her,” Breen said. “She is tough and competitive and is a natural on a horse. When she loses, she’s not happy.”
Racing has taken its toll on Napravnik. She often has found her 5-foot-2, 111-pound frame on the losing end of a battle with a 1,200-pound thoroughbred. Napravnik has missed almost a year in the saddle, healing from a long list of injuries, including a fractured vertebrae and a broken leg. Her mother, Cindy, who trains three-day eventing horses, was the first to put Rosie on a horse. She says she remembers the day that a seven-year-old Rosie Napravnik hopped off a Welsh Mountain pony named Sweet Sensation and told her exactly where fast horses were going to take her: “I’m going to the Kentucky Derby, mom"
Now, however, Cindy can hardly watch her daughter race. “It’s a thrilling thing to do what we do on horseback, but I also know how dangerous it is,” said Cindy Napravnik. “I didn’t want to miss this, but I really can’t bear to watch her through a day of races.”
Napravnik is engaged to Joe Sharp, an assistant to the trainer Michael Stidham. They met when Sharp put her on one of his horses in Delaware. He knew A. R. Napravnik was a woman, and told her what she wanted to hear. “I told her I knew she wanted to be a top rider, not just a top female rider,” Sharp said. Eventually, they want to start a family. They have talked about what that might mean to her riding career. No hard decisions have been made.
For now, Napravnik is enjoying her moment as one of the nation’s top riders. She showed she belonged once more in the Kentucky Oaks, bringing the long-shot filly St. John’s River rolling down the stretch to finish second to Plum Pretty. “This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” she said. “All the hard work has brought me here. I have earned my way here, and I’m going to enjoy it."