Big race for Untapable, big announcement by jockey Rosie Napravnik

They were a couple of strong females, and boy, did the Santa Anita crowd of 37,205 at Friday’s Breeders’ Cup hear them roar.

Untapable, the female equine, won the $2-million Distaff. Her rider, Rosie Napravnik, announced immediately afterward that she was pregnant and retiring.

Whatever happened to the days when the jockey had a picture taken, waved to the crowd and walked over to the scale?

This was Hollywood stuff in Hollywood. All they needed was for Helen Reddy to conduct the post-race interview on TV.

The events went something like this:

Napravnik, who is so good at what she does that plenty of male, old-school, racetrack regulars bet on her all the time, broke from the 10th pole position, She and Untapable were odds-on favorites in the Distaff, the richest race for fillies and mares in North America.

Untapable and Napravnik, starting so far from the rail, needed to close down toward the inside gradually to save ground. They did so, coasting along three horses wide on the backstretch until it was time to turn for home in the mile-an-an-eighth race.

“She was very powerful underneath me,� Napravnik said, “and she started to take me when she was ready to move.�

They went past Iotapa, fought off bids by Don’t Tell Sophia and Ria Antonia and won by a length and a quarter. That paid $5.20, $3.40 and $2.60.

To that point, it was pretty normal stuff. The favorite takes hold at the end under a veteran ride and wins. Cue the commercial.

But, after the parading and picture-taking in the winners’ circle, they ushered Napravnik, owner and breeder Ron Winchell and trainer Steve Asmussen to the TV interview platform. The microphone got to Napravnik, who said she was announcing her retirement and that she and her husband, Joe Sharp, are starting a family.

She had made sure her mother, Cindy Feherty Napravnik, had joined her on the stage so she could be nearby for the news. A stunned grandma-to-be got a hug on national TV.

“I had no idea. I really didn’t know,� Cindy said later. “You know, she’s like that. She’ll just spring things on you.�

Napravnik, 26, has been married to Sharp since October, 2011. Sharp is 29 and a former jockey himself. He has a 9-year-old daughter from a previous marriage. Two months ago, after working for trainer Mike Maker, he set out on his own in the training business.

“I’ve been planning the retirement since I found out I was pregnant,� Napravnik said. “I’m about seven weeks pregnant.�

She said her plan was to wait until after the Breeders’ Cup weekend here to make her announcement, but she said the moment was too perfect.

“I just couldn’t resist,� she said, “because they asked me how much it meant to me.�

She called the retirement “indefinite� and said she will stop riding after her four mounts in Saturday’s grand finale of the Breeders’ Cup.

Among the things the veteran Asmussen said in the aftermath of the race was, “We’re fortunate enough to be around a true champion.�

It was uncertain whether he meant the horse or the rider.

This was the race expected to be won, for the second consecutive year, by Richard Mandella’s Beholder, but the Hall of Fame trainer had to scratch Beholder with a fever. Untapable, despite a dreadful race here in last year’s Juvenile Fillies — one of only two times in her 11-race career that she has finished out of the money — moved easily into the favorite role with her victory in the Kentucky Oaks this year.

In addition to the heartwarming, post-race, maternal moment, the victory by Untapable could put Asmussen’s filly into the running for horse of the year, should neither Shared Belief nor California Chrome win Saturday’s $5-million Classic.

Asked if he thought Untapable might be horse of the year, Asmussen said, “She is for me.�

The $2-million purse is broken down with 60% going to the owner. That’s $1.2 million.

The jockey normally gets 10% of the owner’s take. For Napravnik, that’s $120,000.

It’s also a lot of baby formula.

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