SARATOGA SPRING, N.Y. — Expect the status quo to rule when it comes to the jockey and trainer standings at Saratoga Race Course in 2023. In the past eight years, brothers Jose and Irad Ortiz, Jr. have combined to top the Spa rider standings seven times, while Chad Brown has led the trainers in wins five of the past eight years with Todd Pletcher atop the leaderboard the other three.
The Ortiz brothers are both in top form as the Saratoga meeting opens today. After a close competition with brother Irad throughout the 40-day spring/summer meet at Belmont Park, Jose Ortiz secured the leading riding title on the final day, finishing one win ahead with 59 total victories. A 29-year-old native of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, Jose Ortiz has topped the Saratoga standings three times in his career (2016, 2017, 2019).
Belmont highlights for Jose Ortiz included Grade 1 wins aboard Marketsegmentation in the New York and with Far Bridge in the Belmont Derby Invitational. He also posted Grade 3 victories in the Intercontinental aboard Poppy Flower and in the Soaring Softly atop Queen Picasso.
Jose Ortiz said he is looking forward to carrying that success into Saratoga.
“I think it’s great to have momentum to go up there. He (Irad Ortiz, Jr.) is going to head there as the favorite, we all know. But I’m going to try to beat him again,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz, Jr., who won 14 stakes at the Belmont meet, including Grade 1s in the Man o’ War (Red Knight), Just a Game (In Italian), and Manhattan (Up to the Mark), won the Saratoga title in 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2022. He has won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in four of the past five years and currently leads all North American riders in wins (216) and earnings ($18.7 million).
The Ortiz brothers will have plenty of competition from a deep and talented jockey colony at Saratoga. Luis Saez, the 2021 Saratoga riding champ, will be at the Spa along with standouts such as Flavien Prat (second in the standings in 2022), Joel Rosario (who won a record 12 graded stakes wins at Saratoga last year), Hall of Famers Javier Castellano (winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby and Belmont) and John Velazquez (winner of the Preakness), and accomplished veterans Junior Alvarado, Dylan Davis, Manny Franco, Tyler Gaffalione, and Jose Lezcano, among others.
On the trainer side, Brown will be seeking his sixth Saratoga title while the Hall of Famer Pletcher will be going for his unprecedented 15th. Like the jockey colony, the Saratoga trainer ranks are loaded with proven commodities. Linda Rice, the only woman to lead the Spa standings when she accomplished the feat in 2009, is coming off winning the Belmont spring meet title, her fourth consecutive NYRA circuit meet title. She secured the Belmont crown with 34 wins, unseating Chad Brown from a seven-year reign at that meet.
Rice earned her 11th overall meet title on the heels of a strong showing last year and early this year at Aqueduct, where she won the fall, winter, and spring meet training titles with a combined 77 wins. Other top trainers expected to make big impacts at Saratoga this summer include Hall of Famers Steve Asmussen, Mark Casse, D. Wayne Lukas, Shug McGaughey, and Bill Mott, as well as Christophe Clement, Brad Cox, David Donk, George Weaver, Michael Maker, and Wesley Ward.
![LATHAM, N.Y. — Picking up the program’s first-ever postseason victory? Check. Senior Prom right after? Check. That was the schedule for several members of the Shaker High School Blue Bison Flag Football team, as after chipping in to a 59-19, Section 2 Division 1 Championship Quarterfinal victory over Troy, they had to head off for a night at the other, big dance. Anneliese Schneider was one of such seniors, as she had to step away with just under 10 minutes to go in the second half and her team ahead, 46-19. Schneider had a juggling, touchdown grab halfway through the […]](https://www.saratogian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/015_b2917a.jpg?w=620 "LATHAM, N.Y. — Picking up the program’s first-ever postseason victory? Check. Senior Prom right after? Check. That was the schedule for several members of the Shaker High School Blue Bison Flag Football team, as after chipping in to a 59-19, Section 2 Division 1 Championship Quarterfinal victory over Troy, they had to head off for a night at the other, big dance. Anneliese Schneider was one of such seniors, as she had to step away with just under 10 minutes to go in the second half and her team ahead, 46-19. Schneider had a juggling, touchdown grab halfway through the […]")
