Five time Champion Jockey of the New Orleans Fairgrounds, Rosie Napravnik returned to the Winner's Circle for the 2025 season in her new vocation raising awareness of a program for retired racehorses. Pictured here with Jockey Jose Ortiz, Rosie presents the winners plate in honor of winning horse Montalcino.
Kylie Wellington, pictured here in green silks, was among three women jockeys competing in races on New Vocations Day at the Fairgrounds. The number of women riders that day is one of Rosie Napravnik's lasting legacies at The New Orleans racetrack and beyond. Napravnik was the . rst woman to win the Fairgrounds riding title and went on to score many nationwide triumphs and . rsts for women riders including a Grade One stakes victory in Kentucky. Photos by Chris O'Connor
Napravnik, whose career as a jockey is the stu of legend, never forgets who brought her to the Winner's Circle. One of Rosie's post race pursuits is to assist retired race horses in . nding new homes and purpose. Rosie was kind enough to pose with a picture a Gazette photographer snapped of her in her racing days. Rosie is pictured with Anna Ford, program director at New Vocations, which is dedicated to rehabilitating, retraining, and rehoming horses once their racing career has ended.
Rosie Napravnik returns to the Fairgrounds Winner's Circle and shares how you can be a horse race champion, too. No betting involved!
Rosie Napravnik, the winningest jockey of multiple seasons at the New Orleans Fairgrounds in the last decade, made a post retirement visit to the Crescent City race track this year. The historic venue named February 22, 2025 New Vocations Day at the Races to highligh…
