Napravnik signs marketing deal with Octagon

Global sports and entertainment marketing leader Octagon has announced a

strategic partnership with top jockey Rosie Napravnik. Octagon will work with

Kelly Wietsma of Equisponse, a leading marketing and public relations firm in

Thoroughbred racing, to enhance her unique potential in the sport with Octagon's

primary focus centered on corporate partnerships.

"I've been fortunate to have worked with and represented some of the greatest

stars in Thoroughbred racing," Wietsma said. "I've worked with Rosie for the

last two years and have watched her develop into a world class athlete. I've

never seen a young jockey with so much potential, and who commanded such

broad-based attention. It was important for us to align ourselves with an agency

with experience marketing athletes beyond their particular sport.

"Octagon has shown its marketing creativity, and will, no doubt be a great

asset in helping us maximize Rosie's marketing potential. She's the

highest-ranked female rider in the history of the sport, and at 25-years-old,

there are many "firsts" she could accomplish during her career."

In a predominantly male sport, Napravnnik is setting records and climbing to

heights no other female jockey in the history of the sport has achieved.

Currently, she is the nation's leading jockey with 72 wins, recently acquiring

her 100th win at the current Fair Grounds meet. She won a total of 193 races in

2012 and broke Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone's 20-year standing record of

single season earnings for a female jockey, with her mounts earning more than

$12 million.

Napravnik rode Eclipse Award champion Shanghai Bobby to victory in the 2012

Breeders' Cup Juvenile and became the first woman to win the prestigious

Kentucky Oaks in its 138-year history when guiding the aptly named filly,

Believe You Can. At the young age of 23, she became the first female rider to

win the $1 million Louisiana Derby in 2011 and was the first woman to be crowned

with the meet title at Fair Grounds that same year. She followed that

unprecedented accomplishment with her second consecutive title in 2012 and is

well on her way to an third title this year.

"Every now and then, an athlete emerges in a sport and exhibits the potential

to do things that have never been done before," said Peter Carlisle, Octagon's

Managing Director of Olympics and Action Sports. "This sort of excitement

quickly transcends the particular sport, and has the potential to captivate a

much larger audience. Rosie's tremendous competitive success, coupled with her

unique story, amounts to a great opportunity, not only for Rosie, but

potentially for the sport of horse racing as well."

A native of Mendham, New Jersey, Napravnik grew up around the barn as her

mother managed a boarding and training facility. Competing ever since she was

three when she began participating in Pony Club events, her older sister Jasmine

led her into the faster-paced events before Napravnik climbed the ranks of

racing.

A trail blazer of the sport, Napravnik began racing under the name A.R.

Napravnik, in an effort to keep her female identity unknown. With aspirations

since the age of seven to be the first woman to win the Triple Crown, Napravnik

hopes to contend for the title in 2013. Shanghai Bobby became an early favorite

for the 2013 Kentucky Derby after Napravnik rode the Eclipse Award champion to

five straight victories and a second place finish in the January 26 Holy Bull

Stakes. She is one of only six women to ride in the coveted Kentucky Derby and

only the second woman to ride in the third jewel of the Triple Crown, the

Belmont Stakes.

Octagon's Olympic & Action Sports Division is a full service representation

group whose clients include Alana Blanchard, Mitchie Brusco, Kelly Clark,

Natalie Coughlin, Apolo Anton Ohno, Dusty Payne, Michael Phelps, Aly Raisman,

Kevin Rolland, Hannah Teter, and Seth Wescott among others. For more

information, visit

octagonoas.com.

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