Legends

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Rosie Napravnik: Exceeding Expectations On and Off the Racetrack

After Rosie Napravnik rode Untapable to victory in the 2014 Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff, she made a stunning announcement on national television. She was seven weeks pregnant. She was retiring.

She had worked so hard to build her career since 2005. She had finally become a go-to jockey for many prominent trainers. She had been the leading rider at Fair Grounds every year from 2011-2014 and topped the standings at Keeneland in 2013 and 2014.

And now she was retiring? At age 26? At the top of her game?

Jockey Anthony Hamilton, pictured aboard Pickpocket, dominated racing like few other riders.

The World-Traveling Career of Jockey Anthony Hamilton

During the late 1800s – before the Kentucky Derby had any special prestige, before the Triple Crown races had any significance, and before the Daily Racing Form had published its first issue – African-American jockey Anthony Hamilton was in the midst of dominating the sport of racing like few riders before or since.

Frank E. 'Jimmy' Kilroe: The Toughest of Handicappers

Once upon a time, carrying high weights to victory was the mark of a champion racehorse. Great horses won great races carrying great weights. It was the duty of track handicappers to allocate weight assignments that would produce competitive finishes, theoretically giving every horse an equal chance to win.

Alice Chandler: Forging a Bluegrass Legacy

Alice Chandler has a life motto that has served her quite well.

“Take care of the horse, and it will take care of you.”

Those words surely describe Chandler’s life, especially in the years since 1962 when she founded Mill Ridge Farm and built it into one of Kentucky’s leading breeding farms.

Maestro Alex Solis Turned Dream into Hall-of-Fame Reality

Hopes and dreams carried Hall of Fame jockey Alex Solis far.

He had grown up poor on a farm in San Carlos, Panama and was determined to change that for himself and his family when he left his homeland for South Florida in 1982. He can still remember the tears his mother, Isabelle, shed the day he left.

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