Louisville, Kentucky: After a blunder at the starting gate unnerved the fillies and unseated a few jockeys, Rosie Napravnik displayed the kind of steady nerves that allowed her to make history two years ago in the Kentucky Oaks.
Riding the overwhelming favourite Untapable, who easily stormed past her rivals for a 4-1/2-length victory at Churchill Downs, Napravnik secured her second Oaks victory.
In 2012, Napravnik became the first female jockey to win the race aboard Believe You Can.
Untapable surged past My Miss Sophia in the homestretch and completed the 1-1/8-mile race in 1:48.68 seconds, the second-fastest Oaks in history. Unbridled Forever was third.
“We got into a great position,” said Napravnik.
The start of the race was delayed for several minutes when Empress of Midway reared up in the starting gate and was unloaded. The rest of the fillies were then unloaded and reloaded.
Empress Of Midway was eventually taken out and scratched. Her jockey, Corey Nakatani, escaped injury and the other horses and jockeys were taken out and reloaded.
The incident seemed to affect several horses, especially Gary Stevens’ Fashion Plate, who finished 11th.
“As soon as the gate opened [and Fashion Plate didn’t respond], my race was over,” Stevens said. “It was very disappointing.”
Untapable’s trainer, Steve Asmussen — who also secured his second Oaks victory, having won in 2005 with Summerly — is under state and federal investigation after accusations of various forms of cruelty, including administering drugs to horses for non-therapeutic purposes and having a jockey use an electrical device on the animals.
Asmussen, who has been cordial but mostly non-committal to reporters this week, called the charges against him by animal rights organisation Peta “horribly misleading”.
He also hinted at a possible lawsuit against Peta.
“The anxiety level once they backed them out and reloaded them took it to a whole new level, but once she was away smoothly, it was all good from there,” he said of Untapable.
Jockey Mike Smith, who lost his Derby ride on Thursday when Bob Baffert scratched Hoppertunity because of a sore left front foot, got something out of his trip to Kentucky when he won the Grade III Eight Belles on Fiftyshadesofgold.
