“Here is the perception: female jockeys cant ride. Theyre too weak. They dont have the fight in them. They cant close not like men, anyway. Down the stretch, you need a jockey to carry the horse to the end, rally the winded animal and squeeze speed out of weary legs. Female jockeys cant do that. Or so goes the explanation for why, almost 50 years after women first fought legal battles to become jockeys, there are so few top jockeys who are women.
“Then theres Rosie Napravnik.”
Napravnik would be the sixth woman to jockey in the Kentucky Derby’s 139 year history. Her mount: Mylute.