irad ortiz jr | Horse Racing Free Tips

Firenze Fire Sharp In Seasonal Debut, Takes Runhappy Stakes For Second Time

Making his first start since a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Stakes at Gulfstream Park in December, Mr. Amore Stable's Firenze Fire tracked pacesetter Chateau through the opening five furlongs, then took command inside the eighth pole en route to a 3 1/4-length victory in Saturday's Grade 3 Runhappy Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

Ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., the Kelly Breen-trained 6-year-old Florida-bred by Poseidon's Warrior traveled six furlongs in 1:09.76 and paid $3.80 as the favorite in the field of five seasoned older runners.

Chateau, the 7-5 second wagering choice who set fractions of :22.59, :45.51 and :57.48 under Kendrick Carmouche, easily held second by three-quarters of a length, with Town Classic edging Stan the Man in a photo for third. Drafted trailed the field. Going into the Runhappy, the five runners had each averaged 32 career starts.

“I knew the other horse [Chateau] was going to go and no one else was going to be close with him, so I decided to be close and not have to be in a rush,” said Ortiz. “It's only six furlongs. I didn't want to let him relax too much and then make a run from the three-eighths pole. I just let him be closer and waited as long as I could to start going.

“When I asked him, he responded really well. The tank was full. He kept coming and kept moving forward. He feels great. I think this is going to be a good year for him. He can be right there in the conversation with all the good sprinters.”

Firenze Fire was winning for the 13th time in 32 starts and has won graded stakes at 2, 3, 5 and now 6. This was his second Runhappy Stakes victory, the first coming in 2019 when the race was not yet graded. The Runhappy was upgraded to Grade 3 in 2020 but was not held because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prior to March 2020, Firenze Fire was trained by Jason Servis, who is now facing federal criminal charges in connection with the FBI probe into racehorse doping.

Since joining Breen's stable, Firenze Fire has won three of eight starts, including a pair of G2 races at Belmont, the True North and Vosburgh Invitational.

“There were a couple other races we could have pointed towards; the undercard of the Derby [G1 Churchill Downs], this race or a race over at Pimlico, but Ron [owner Ron Lombardi] said let's go to his home track at Belmont,” said Breen. “There's no such thing as a soft spot. We locked up Irad [Ortiz, Jr.]. All the things just kept on clicking.

“The horse wintered well in Florida,” Breen added. “They took good care of him. He shipped up here and got to breeze a couple times right out of his stall. We didn't have to ship. Everything worked out to plan and it doesn't always work out that well.

“In the paddock, he looked very picturesque. Maybe a tad bit heavy,” Breen said. “That happens to us when we get older.”

“He broke well. He sat right there and ran a very professional race. The horse that was in front [Chateau] is a nice horse and has been running well and is in form. We're coming off a layoff and I was definitely concerned about him getting away from us, but we showed up.”

Breen said the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar will be the year-end goal for Firenze Fire.

“I'll assume at the end of the year he'll be going to stud, but Ron loves running in the Breeders' Cup Sprint,” said Breen. “One day at a time and I'm happy he came back as strong as he did. He looked great.”

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Colonel Liam, Domestic Spending Dead-Heat In A Turf Classic Thriller

A pair of Grade 1-winning 4-year-olds – Colonel Liam from the barn of Todd Pletcher and the Chad Brown-trained Domestic Spending – hit the wire together in Saturday's Turf Classic Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., producing the first dead-heat in the 35-year history of the Grade 1 grass fixture run immediately prior to the Kentucky Derby.

Colonel Liam, ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., seized command from front-running Smooth Like Strait in the final sixteenth of a mile in the nine-furlong race, but Flavien Prat and Domestic Spending were in full flight after boring through a narrow opening in mid-stretch and switching to the outside. Domestic Spending was gaining ground with every strike and just caught Colonel Liam when the photo finish camera clicked at the wire. Time of the race on a firm turf course was 1:47.99.

Smooth Like Strait was a neck back in third, with Count Again 1 1/2 lengths further back in fourth in the field of nine older runners, edging Digital Age, Ivar and Cross Border in a photo finish, Masteroffoxhounds and Ride a Comet completed the order of finish.

Owned by Robert E. and Lawana Low, Colonel Liam paid $2.80 to win as the 7-5 favorite. Klaravich Stables' Domestic Spending, sent off at 5-1, paid $5.80 for a $2 win bet.

Umberto Rispoli guided Smooth Like Strait to the lead and set soft fractions of :24.40 for the opening quarter mile and :49.17 for the half. Colonel Liam was sitting in third position, saving ground along the inner hedge, with Domestic Spending near the back of the field and off the rail in the run down the backstretch.

Rounding the stretch turn after six furlongs in 1:12.83, Ortiz switched Colonel Liam to the outside and drew up alongside the front-runner at the furlong pole, the mile clocked in 1:36.22. He edged past that stubborn rival and looked to be on his way to victory.

Domestic Spending, meanwhile, had just two horses beat turning into the stretch. Prat had to guide his mount through a narrow opening, drawing alongside Brown stablemate Digital Age, switched to the outside and Domestic Spending kicked into high gear as both Smooth Like Strait and Colonel Liam were drifting out in deep stretch.

Photo finish for the Turf Classic win

For Colonel Liam, the win was his fourth in a row, dating back to his first stakes victory in the Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream Park Dec. 26. He then scored a rich victory in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Jan. 23 and came back to win the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds on March 20.

The 4-year-old colt by Liam's Map, a $1.2 million 2-year-old purchase at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s April sale, has now won six of eight career starts. He was bred in Kentucky by Phillips Racing Partnership.

Domestic Spending, a 4-year-old Kingman gelding bred in England by Rabbah Bloodstock Limited, has won five of six career starts, including the Saratoga Derby Invitational last Aug. 16 and the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar Nov. 7. The Hollywood Derby was the most recent start for Domestic Spending, who trained at Palm Meadows in South Florida over the winter.

First run in 1987 after Churchill Downs installed a turf course, the Turf Classic has been won by three horses that would go on later in the year to Eclipse Award honors: Bricks and Mortar in 2019 (also voted Horse of the Year), Wise Dan in 2013, and Paradise Creek in 1994. It has been a Grade 1 since 1996.

The Turf Classic field drives toward the finish at Churchill Downs, with Domestic Spending (red and white cap) and the gray Colonel Liam dead-heating for the win

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Jose Ortiz Claims Jockey Title During Aqueduct Spring Meet; Brown Tops Among Trainers

A short spring slate at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y., saw familiar faces finish atop the leaderboards for the jockey and trainer standings, as Jose Ortiz outlasted his brother, Irad Ortiz, Jr., by a 24-17 win margin after the boutique 11-day meet's finale on Sunday.

Trainer Chad Brown recorded 10 wins to pace all conditioners, while Peter Brant and Noda Brothers each compiled four wins to tie for the top owners mark.

The Ortiz brothers dominated the standings in the three-week meet, combining for 41 victories out of the 95 total races contested.

Jose Ortiz' winning campaign was bolstered by his April 11 effort in which he won with 5-of-6 mounts, including piloting Regal Glory to victory in the featured $100,000 Plenty of Grace. Ortiz won with his first four mounts on the day and teamed with Brown to capture the Plenty of Grace.

It marked the first meet title for Ortiz on the NYRA circuit since the 2020 Belmont Park fall meet. Ortiz, who was New York's leading jockey for the entire 2020 campaign, compiled a record of 24-10-10 in 68 mounts and earnings of more than $1.3 million for the spring meet.

Ortiz capped the meet on a high note by winning Sunday's $200,000 NYSSS Park Avenue aboard Shaker Shack.

“It's a big deal,” Ortiz said. “We're happy with where we are and it sets us up for the Belmont meet.”

Ortiz, 27, last won the Aqueduct spring meet in 2014, which was the first of his now 10 individual meet titles.

“It's nice to win and I'm also happy for Irad; he's had a great start of the year,” Ortiz said about finishing 1-2 with his brother. “He congratulated me earlier and said he's proud of me, and that means a lot.”

Ortiz, Jr. posted a valiant runner-up effort despite riding at Keeneland from April 7 – 11, traveling to Churchill Downs to breeze Kentucky Derby-contender Known Agenda on April 16 and to Oaklawn Park on April 17 to pilot Letruska to victory in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom.

The 28-year-old Ortiz, Jr. won with a record-tying 6-of-11 mounts on the Wood Memorial Day card, including the meet's lone Grade 1 aboard Mischevious Alex in the $300,000 Carter Handicap along with Grade 3 scores in the $250,000 Gazelle with Kentucky Oaks-contender Search Results and with Drain the Clock in the $200,000 Bay Shore.

“It's been more of the same from them: immense natural talent combined with tremendous work ethic,” said Brown of the Ortiz brothers' success. “When those two things meet, you're going to win a lot of races.”

Third-place finisher Kendrick Carmouche, who finished with 12 wins, guided the Pletcher-trained Calumet Farm homebred Bourbonic to a record 72-1 upset in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino to earn his first Kentucky Derby mount in the 100-40-20-10 point qualifying event.

Brown, a four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer, also notched his first meet title since the Belmont fall, compiling a record of 10-4-4 with 31 starters for a 32.26 winning percentage. Brown's horses earned $766,450. Todd Pletcher was second with six wins while Linda Rice was third with five.

Brown, who last won the Aqueduct spring meet in 2018, got off to a quick start, saddling Search Results to victory in the Grade 3, $250,000 Gazelle for sophomore fillies on Wood Memorial Day April 3. Search Results, piloted by Ortiz, Jr., earned 100 qualifying points to the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks for her 2 3/4-length effort in the 1 1/8-mile contest. It was the third time in his career Brown won the Gazelle.

“I'm very appreciative; it was a long winter just preparing for this meet,” Brown said. “Our program is tailored around NYRA, mostly, just getting the horses ready all winter. After missing a lot of last year, this year's start has been more traditional for us. It feels good and gives us a sense of normalcy to get back on track with how we point our horses to begin their seasons in April in New York.”

The 42-year-old Brown also compiled stakes wins on back-to-back days, starting with Delaware's triumph in the Danger's Hour on April 10 and following with Regal Glory in the Plenty of Grace. Brown is the defending leading trainer in New York for the last six years, finishing atop the standings in every campaign since 2015.

“New York is our home base, so we try to have the horses ready to run here,” Brown said. “All the credit goes to my team for having these horses ready for this meet. I'm also thankful for our owners, who have been extremely patient. They pay a lot of bills all winter to not run much, but they trust the process of coming up to New York and running for generous purses on nice, fresh racing surfaces.”

Brant saw half of his starters earn winner's circle trips, compiling a 4-1-2 record in eight starts with earnings of $205,950. The meet-leading troika of Brant-Brown-Ortiz made up the winning connections of Regal Glory in the Plenty of Grace. Brown trained all of Brant's winners, including non-stakes scores with Brazillionaire, Kuramata and Flighty Lady.

Noda Brothers, comprised of trainer Orlando Noda and Jonathan Noda, went 4-0-2 in 10 starts for earnings of $111,185. Orlando Noda trained all of the partnership's winners, with Choose Happiness, Vintage Hollywood and Daria's Angel giving the duo three wins in three days from April 15-17 to secure a tie with Brant.

Thoroughbred action shifts to Belmont Park for the 48-day spring/summer meet that runs from Thursday, April 22 through Sunday, July 11.

The spring/summer meet will offer its highest ever overnight purse schedule supported by significant monetary increases across most race categories, including maiden special weight races featuring a purse of $90,000, while horsemen participating in the claiming ranks will compete for purse money ranging up to $100,000.

A total of 59 stakes races worth $16.95 million in purses will highlight the meet, including the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes set for June 5.

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Familiar Faces Atop Aqueduct Spring Standings

Jockey Jose Ortiz defeated his brother Irad Ortiz, Jr. 24-17 to come out on top of standings for Aqueduct's 11-day spring meet. Leading trainer Chad Brown recorded 10 victories, while his owner Peter Brant tied Orlando and Jonathan Noda's Noda Brothers with four wins to share the owner's title.

“It's a big deal,” Ortiz said. “We're happy with where we are and it sets us up for the Belmont meet… It's nice to win and I'm also happy for Irad; he's had a great start of the year. He congratulated me earlier and said he's proud of me, and that means a lot.”

Irad Ortiz currently leads all jockeys in the nation by wins and purse earnings.

“I'm very appreciative; it was a long winter just preparing for this meet,” said Brown, the New York Racing Association's leading trainer for the last six years. “Our program is tailored around NYRA, mostly, just getting the horses ready all winter. After missing a lot of last year, this year's start has been more traditional for us. It feels good and gives us a sense of normalcy to get back on track with how we point our horses to begin their seasons in April in New York.”

Racing on the NYRA circuit now moves to Belmont Park for the 48-day spring/summer meet that runs from Thursday, Apr. 22 through Sunday, July 11.

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