Keeneland Winners, Stakes Performers, Leading Jockey Among Entrants in Next Week's Thoroughbred Makeover

Horses that competed at all levels at Keeneland and the track’s former leading jockey Rosie Napravnik are among the entrants for the $100,000 Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium Presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America, to be held Oct. 12-17 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Keeneland is a major sponsor of the event designed to inspire the retraining of racehorses for other activities. The competition features disciplines such as jumping, working ranch, polo, trail riding, dressage, barrel racing and free form of choice.

Three horses entered in the competition each won two races at Keeneland: Bellarmine, Granny’s Kitten and Proven Warrior.

Bellarmine raced for eight years and made 75 starts before retiring with a record of 14 wins and earnings of $542,362 for several connections, including Magdalena Racing and Kenny McPeek at Keeneland. The son of Magna Graduate, now 11, notched his first career win at Keeneland’s 2013 Spring Meet and returned the following April to capture an allowance race. He won the 2016 Borgata Stakes at Delta Downs.

Granny’s Kitten, a 9-year-old son of Kitten’s Joy, won allowance races at the 2016 Spring and Fall Meets for breeders Ken and Sarah Ramsey and trainer Mike Maker. He won six races in 32 starts with earnings of $480,928. He won the 2017 Col. E.R. Bradley (G3) at Fair Grounds and 2016 Alphabet Soup at Parx Racing.

Proven Warrior, an 11-year-old son of Yes It’s True, competed for eight years and made 74 starts. He banked $316,770 with 19 wins for a variety of owners and trainers. Ackerman Racing and Chuck Peery had him for the Keeneland victories.

Another Makeover entrant with Keeneland connections is Imperative, who was unplaced in the 2018 Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) in his lone Keeneland start during a 50-race career in which he earned more than $3 million with seven wins. Half of the Bernardini gelding’s earnings came via triumphs in two runnings of the Charles Town Classic (G2) in West Virginia. He had several owners and trainers throughout his racing career, most recently Paolucci Racing and Imaginary Stables and trainer Anthony Quartarolo. Imperative is 11.

Napravnik, the leading rider at Keeneland during 2013 and 2014 Fall Meets, has focused on retraining Thoroughbreds since retiring in late 2014. A regular participant in the Thoroughbred Makeover, she is based in Simpsonville, Kentucky. 

At the Thoroughbred Makeover, Keeneland again is sponsoring the Arrival Exam and Finale Jogs, the most prominent equine safety and welfare initiatives at the event. The Arrival Exam requires each horse to have proof of current vaccinations, vitals (temperature, respiration and heart rate) within a normal range, be scanned for a microchip that has been registered with The Jockey Club, pass a walking soundness exam and score a 4 or higher on the Henneke Body Condition Scale (the industry standard for assessing a horse’s condition and fat coverage).

More than 100 entrants will be offered for sale via private contracts between buyers and sellers at the on-site Makeover Marketplace. https://www.tbmakeover.org/rrp-tb-makeover-classifieds/buy-a-tb-makeover-horse

For more on the Thoroughbred Makeover, visit https://www.tbmakeover.org/