Tag: jose ortiz

Pletcher Filly Romps In Off-The-Turf Maiden At Saratoga

When Todd Pletcher entered Miz Sense (Street Sense) in Sunday's first race at Saratoga, a maiden special weight race carded for a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf, he wasn't so much thinking grass. He wanted to run the Kentucky-bred in a route race, which they don't card during the Saratoga meet for 2-year-olds on the dirt. So when the race was washed off the turf course, Pletcher never hesitated to go ahead and run her in a race in which there were six scratches. It proved to be the right move.

Ridden by Jose Ortiz, Miz Sense sat fifth early before finding a open path on the inside near the top of the stretch. From there, she drew off from her five rivals to win by a comfortable 4 1/4 lengths. The race was run at one mile out of the Wilson Chute.

“She is a typical Street Sense filly, so we thought she wanted to run long,” Pletcher said. “We entered her to run on the grass but she wound up on the also-eligible list. We got lucky. With the rain the race came off the turf and were able to run her long first time out. I think this is the first year they've run the mile out of the chute for two-year-olds. I'm glad they did it because it worked out for this filly. This win gives us some options.”

Pletcher also sent out first-time starter Life's An Audible (Audible). The pair were sent off as the 6-5 betting favorite. Life's an Audible flashed early speed but faded late and finished fourth. She was beaten 21 1/4 lengths.

Miz Sense is co-owned by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable and was a $500,000 Keeneland September purchase. She was bred by Stonehaven Steadings.

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Ortiz Returns After Friday’s Spill…and Wins Three

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.  – Jockey Jose Ortiz's return to competition at Saratoga Race Course Wednesday was very rewarding with three victories…and taxing.

Ortiz was unseated and fell hard to the ground when his horse clipped heels in the first race of Friday's card. He was sent to Albany Medical Center where he was found to have bruised ribs. Ortiz took off his mounts Saturday and Sunday and was ready to ride again Wednesday, the start of the third week of the meet.

In his comeback, Ortiz won with three of his five mounts. All of the wins were for leading trainer Linda Rice: Ichiban (Street Sense) in the sixth, Amanda's Folly (Mendelssohn) in the eighth and Indian Mischief (Into Mischief) in the 10th. Indian Mischief came out in the stretch and appeared to interfere with runner-up He's a Lucky Guy (Street Boss), but the stewards did not change the order of finish.

Ortiz has 11 victories at Saratoga this summer and has ridden eight of Rice's 13 winners. They were the leading jockey and trainer at the spring meet at Belmont Park.

Ortiz and Ichiban Wednesday | Sarah Andrew

After willing Ichiban to win the sixth race by a head with a hard ride through the stretch, Ortiz took part in the post-race winner's circle photographs, did a television interview and–clearly needing a breather–sat down.

“I feel better,” he said. “This filly made me a little bit tired. I had to ride her a lot, but I'm just glad to be back.”

Ortiz said he got on horses Sunday and Wednesday mornings and was no longer dealing with pain from the injuries.

“I'm pretty good about the ribs,” he said. “Just a little bit winded now. She was very lazy today.”

Ortiz was aboard for Ichiban's maiden-breaking seven-furlong victory on July 15, when she was up on the pace. In the mile and an eighth, two-turn race Wednesday, she was four lengths behind the leader at the top of the stretch and looked beaten. Ortiz pushed her and she responded.

“I was a little bit worried because the other horse opened up on me,” he said, “but I'm just glad we got there first.”

Ortiz came off Same Old Fears (Uncle Mo) near the finish of the program opener Friday. He stayed on the ground for several minutes, was helped to his feet and was able to walk off the course. At that point, it appeared that he might have some serious injuries.

“I was feeling a lot of pain when I left here, so I thought I cracked a rib or something,” he said. “I'm just happy to be back.”

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Rice off to a Fast Start at the Spa

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After nine days of racing, Linda Rice has already had a Saratoga season most trainers would consider a roaring success.

Rice starts the third week of the meet Wednesday atop the trainers' table with 10 victories, one up on two-time defending champ Chad Brown and two ahead of Todd Pletcher, a 14-time Saratoga titlist. She is winning at a 32% clip and her 31 starters have finished in the top three 22 times, an impressive 70.9 %.

How does it feel to be Linda Rice these days?

“Pretty good,” she said. “Pretty good.”

Adding to the positive vibe, jockey Jose Ortiz, who rode Rice's first five winners of the meet and was named on the last four before he was injured in a spill Friday, will return to competition Wednesday. Ortiz suffered bruised ribs when he fell after his horse clipped heels in the first race, took off his mounts Saturday and Sunday. He is entered in six of the 10 races on the program. Three of them are on Rice horses, all of whom are the morning-line favorites.

While trainers are typically ranked on wins and purse money earned, Rice's in-the-money percentage is noteworthy. Her victories have come for eight different owners.

“We try to put them in a position where they're going to be effective,” she said. “They're not always going to win, but hopefully, they'll pick up a nice check for my clients, pay the bills, keep moving forward.”

Rice's stable had been on a very good roll since last fall. She finished second to Brown at the Belmont-at-Aqueduct meet following Saratoga and has won the last four meets–three of them at Aqueduct–since.

At the Belmont Park spring meet, Rice topped the trainers' standings, while Ortiz edged his brother, Irad, 59-58, for the riding title. According to Equibase, Ortiz rode 25 of Rice's 34 victories at Belmont. Together with 80 starters, they compiled a 25-12-11 record–a 60 % in-the-money strike rate–and earned $1.318 million of the $1.996 million Rice's stable totaled at the meeting. The six races they won during the first week of July helped clinch their championships.

In a preview of what was ahead in the first two weeks at Saratoga, Rice and Ortiz took the first race on opening day with Winning Move Stable's Bustin Bay. They won another on the second day of the meet, two more on the third and their fifth on the fourth day of the season.

Maintaining momentum from one meet to the next is difficult, Rice acknowledged.

“You're always concerned about that,” she said, “that you have used up your stock, and they will have to rebound and take some time to come back together and used up a lot of conditions, you may win at the next meet.

“That happens every meet, if you have a big meet. Obviously, we were running hard at Belmont. I wasn't sure that we would pull it together so quickly at Saratoga. But, frankly, it's gone very well.”

Some 2 1/2 weeks since the end of the Belmont season, Rice said her stable is in the midst of  replenishing its lineup.

“They're coming back into form,” she said. “Some of them need time. Some of them are older, mature and can run back on short rest. But we only do that when it's a good opportunity.”

With 99 wins so far in 2023, Rice has already eclipsed last year's total of 96. Sometime this week, possibly on Wednesday, she will pass last year's purse earnings total of $5,774,619. Her season career bests of 145 wins and $7,258,064 in earnings set in 2019 appear to be within reach.

Rice, who saddled her stable's first starter in 1987, made history in 2009 when she became the first woman to win the Saratoga training title. Even with the great start this summer, she said it would be very difficult to finish in the top spot again. She did not say if she had a win number in mind when the Spa season opened on July 13.

“I was sure we would win some races,” she said. “Last year, we won 14. When I won the meet her in '09 I won 20, but over the course of that last decade, the first and second trainers have had 40 by the end of the meet. That's a tall task. Right now, we're two weeks in and we've got 10 wins, so I'm pretty pleased where we are. I try to set goals that we can reach. I don't want to set the bar too high for me or my staff.

“When I came in here I was thrilled. We had a great winter. Last fall was good. Belmont was terrific. I came in here thinking 'let's just have a good meet.' We're going to win some races. I knew that. But that bar in the last decade with these large outfits has become pretty high.”

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Sam’s Treasure Switches to Dirt and Romps in Saratoga Maiden

by Bill Finley & Patrycja Szpyra

As he often does with his 2-year-olds, trainer Wesley Ward started Sam's Treasure (Munnings) off in a grass race, in this case a five-furlong maiden on May 11 at Belmont. She finished second, 2 3/4 lengths behind the winner–Cynane (Omaha Beach) had the distinction of being her sire's first winner and was Royal Ascot-bound for a time–but there was nothing about the performance to suggest that she could develop into a top horse. Maybe Ward should have been thinking dirt all along.

In a much improved effort, Sam's Treasure dominated nine rivals to win the $136,500 six-furlong race by 5 3/4 lengths. She tracked pacesetter Life's Joy (Mitole) down the backstretch, took over on the turn and then drew clear of her rivals to post a dominant victory. After being steadied early and losing ground, Colonial Rose (Constitution) managed to recover well enough to safely secure runner-up honors, but long behind the winner.

Sam's Treasure was ridden by John Velazquez, who was subbing for the injured Jose Ortiz.

The field included Camera (Curlin), a first-time starter from the Todd Pletcher barn who cost $1,050,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale. The daughter of MGISP Cassies Dreamer (Flatter) bobbled a few steps out of the gate and never recovered. She finished ninth as the 70-100 favorite.

“Earlier on we had her on both surfaces,” Ward said of Sam's Treasure. “I just thought she's a big filly. She came to hand early but the races at Keeneland are at 4 1/2 furlongs and a horse needs to be a little quicker than she is to win those. The Belmont race came up. I like to run horses on grass there because it's a kind and forgiving surface. If she didn't win, I thought that would still set her up nicely for Saratoga and it did.”

Sam's Treasure, also a Fasig-Tipton Saratoga graduate, was picked out at the sale by the team of Ben McElroy, Ward and Mike Hall, the managing director of the owner, Breeze Easy LLC. She sold for $700,000.

 

“She was beautiful here last summer at the Saratoga sale,” Ward said. “We went around and looked at all the horses and this was Ben McElroy's pick as well. We kind of pushed Mike Hall into buying her because it was a lot of money for her.”

At the time of the sale, Hall's partner in Breeze Easy was Sam Ross. Ross died in September at the age of 79.

“Unfortunately, Sam died last year so Mike Hall named her Sam's Treasure after Sam,” Ward said. “And Sam's Treasure came through for him today. Sam is shining down on us. Mike is someone you really want to get behind and win for. It's so hard to win, especially here at Saratoga. To have a filly as promising as this, I'm really excited.”

Bred by Baron Thoroughbreds in Kentucky, Sam's Treasure is the second offspring for her dam, Malibu Treasure, but the first to make the races ahead of elder half-brother Buckeye Don (Speightstown). The mare had back-to-back colts by Promises Fulfilled, a yearling and a 2023 foal. Hailing from a Graded stakes-placed and multiple stakes-winning half-sister to G1SP & MGSW Choctaw Nation, Malibu Treasure can also claim GSW Her Temper; GISW El Deal (Munnings); and GSW Thunder Achiever as members of her extended female family.

6th-Saratoga, $105,000, Msw, 7-23, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:11.22, ft, 5 3/4 lengths.
SAM'S TREASURE (f, 2, Munnings–Malibu Treasure, by Malibu Moon) Sales history: $700,000 Ylg '22 FTSAUG. Lifetime Record: 2-1-1-0, $75,750. O-Breeze Easy, LLC; B-Baron Thoroughbreds, LLC (KY); T-Wesley A. Ward. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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