Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Game on.
José Ortiz, riding the momentum of Belmont Park’s spring-summer meet title, threw down the gauntlet when he won the opener of the Saratoga meet on Thursday. He adroitly piloted Bustin Bay to victory for trainer Linda Rice.
Older brother Irad Ortiz, Jr. countered by taking the eighth race with Mark Casse-trained My Sea Cottage. He also had the last word with long shot Thundara for trainer Philip Antonacci in the finale.
Anyone following the action left with the distinct feeling that the Saratoga riding crown will feature this sibling rivalry and that the Angel Cordero Jr. Award may well bear the Ortiz surname after the last race of the prestigious 40-day meet is run.
“It’s very hard to tell, but I’m here to win,” José said. “I’ve been the leading rider three times. I don’t see why it can’t be four.”
José swept three Saratoga meets in a four-year span, topping the standings in 2016, 2017 and 2019. The winner in 2018? Irad. And now Irad, 30, is the defending Saratoga champion with his fourth Cordero Award overall as part of his march to a fourth Eclipse as North America’s leading rider.
José brought home his lone Eclipse in 2017, underscoring how difficult it is to keep to Irad’s torrid pace. “He sets the bar very high,” José said, adding, “We really have fun. We love what we do.”
The success of the ultra-aggressive Irad is a major part of what drives his sibling. “He wants to be at Irad’s level or beat him as he did at Belmont,” said Taylor Ortiz, José’s wife. “He doesn’t like to take a back seat to his brother.”
Taylor went on, “It’s definitely a healthy competition. If they’re not in a race together, they’re rooting for each other. If they are racing against each other, they definitely want to beat the other.”
José edged Irad in victories, 59-58, with the Belmont meet coming down to Irad’s mount in the last race. It said everything about their relationship that José wanted Irad to best his competition.
“He’s my brother before everything. I love him with all my heart,” José said. “I’ll never root against him.”
When José felt he was not achieving the results he wanted in recent seasons, he made a difficult decision last August and hired Steve Rushing, Irad’s long-time agent, who now represents both elite jockeys.
“We all know Steve is one of the best agents in the game. It’s not a secret,” said José, 28. “He took my book last year. We had a great meet at Kentucky Downs. We had a great meet (at Gulfstream Park) in Florida over the winter and then we went to Belmont and had a great meet.”
A key to his Belmont Park success was how well he teamed with Rice. “I won 25 races for her. She was leading trainer,” José noted. “Steve made that happen. I wasn’t riding for her much before Steve.”
Taylor Ortiz, a former jockey, could see her husband’s confidence grow as spring turned to summer. “Everything was just clicking. Everything was going in the right direction,” she said. “You put horses in the right spots and you’re winning races, you get more comfortable making those decisions. He was making the right ones and it was all going the right way.”
When the Belmont title was secured on Sunday, there was not the celebration one would expect. José and Taylor have three children: Leilani, 6; Derek, 4; and Nikolai, 2. That meant there was a great deal of packing to do if they were to keep to their schedule, all part of a hectic lifestyle that Taylor describes as a “traveling circus.”
They reached Saratoga on Tuesday morning, allowing José ample time to prepare for his regular duels with Irad and many of the nation’s other top jockeys this summer.
