Tag: People

After a close battle with brother Irad Ortiz Jr. through the final days of the 40-day spring/summer meet at Belmont Park, jockey Jose Ortiz secured the leading riding title on Sunday at the Elmont, New York oval, finishing the meet one win ahead with 59 total victories.

Ortiz, a 29-year-old native of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, celebrated his 12th overall meet riding title. He was also the leading rider on the NYRA circuit in 2016, 2020, and 2021.

Ortiz closed out the meet with a record of 246-59-44-38 and total purse earnings of $4,921,926, putting him at a win rate of 23.98 percent and in-the-money percentage of 57.32.

“It was very fun – it's great,” said Ortiz, who also won the 2021 Belmont spring/summer title with 59 wins. “I work very hard in the mornings and I receive good opportunities from the owners and trainers and I'm very thankful for that.”

Meet highlights for Ortiz included Grade 1 triumphs aboard Marketsegmentation for leading owner Klaravich Stables in the New York and with Far Bridge in the Belmont Derby Invitational. Ortiz also posted Grade 3 victories in the Intercontinental aboard Poppy Flower and in the Soaring Softly atop Queen Picasso, as well as an additional trio of stakes with Eye Witness [Paradise Creek], Maker's Candy [Mike Lee] and Gold Sweep [Tremont].

“It was a lot of wins, but definitely the Belmont Derby yesterday has to be my race of the meet,” said Ortiz. “It was a great trip, a great ride, and I had the horse – that was important.”

Ortiz said it was special to win several races for the meet's leading trainer Linda Rice, who is the aunt of Ortiz's wife, retired jockey Taylor [Rice] Ortiz.

“I've been riding for Linda a long time and this meet I basically rode first call for her,” said Ortiz. “I'm glad she got leading trainer and we did a pretty good job. Hopefully, we can continue doing so in Saratoga.”

Ortiz added he is looking forward to carrying his good form into the upcoming 40-day Saratoga Race Course summer meet.

“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, with a laugh.

Irad Ortiz, who won 14 stakes at the meet that included Grade 1 scores in the Man o' War [Red Knight], Just a Game [In Italian], and Resorts World Casino Manhattan [Up to the Mark], finished second with a record of 213-58-34-23.. Manny Franco finished third with a record of 223-31-37-41.

Both Jose Ortiz and Irad Ortiz are represented by agent Steve Rushing.

Rice paced all other trainers at the meet to land her fourth consecutive training title at a NYRA track and the second of her career at Belmont after sharing the 2011 spring/summer meet with Todd Pletcher [25 wins]. She secured the title with 34 wins, unseating Chad Brown from a seven-year reign atop the trainer standings for this meet.

Rice, 59, earned her 11th overall meet title on the heels of a prosperous showing late last year and early this year at Aqueduct Racetrack, where she claimed the fall [20 wins], winter [37 wins] and spring [17 wins] meet training titles. This meet, she enjoyed a record of 34-18-23 from 140 starts and  purse earnings of $1,996,693, good for a win percentage of 24.29 and in-the-money rate of 53.57 percent.

“It's exciting – it's a lot of fun to win a Belmont title,” said Rice. “We had a good winter at Aqueduct and usually the spring meet gets a little stronger, and we managed to win that. We had no thoughts we would win the spring meet here, so I'm delighted.”

Among Rice's accomplishments was a stakes victory with Downtown Mischief in the New York-bred Bouwerie on May 29. She also enjoyed two allowance-level triumphs with the mare Movie Moxy and three consecutive wins with Pioneering Spirit.

“Pioneering Spirit was a good claim,” said Rice. “He's a little 800-pound horse and he did well when we switched him to the grass. I got frustrated going to the 2-year-old sales and always getting outbid, so I decided to start claiming more about two years ago and it's gone very well.”

Rice echoed Ortiz's sentiments and said keeping much of her success in the family has been special.

“Jose has ridden a lot for me this meet and he's won a lot of races for us,” said Rice. “He's married to my niece, so it's nice.”

Chad Brown finished second in the standings with a record of 117-28-21-19 while Mike Maker finished third with a record of 108-19-15-17.

Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables won their 22nd owners' title at a NYRA track for a meet that saw them earn 11 victories, capped by graded triumphs with Marketsegmentation in the Grade 1 New York and Grade 3 Beaugay, along with two allowance-level scores with Portfolio Company. Klaravich Stables ended the meet with a record of 41-11-9-7 and purse earnings of $1,358,078.

David Jacobson, who posted a record of 33-7-3-5, tied for second with Winning Move Stable, who completed the meet with a 19-7-2-3 record.

Live racing resumes Thursday at Saratoga Race Course for Opening Day of the 40-day summer meet, which features 71 stakes worth $20.8 million.

The post Jose Ortiz, Rice Secure Respective Jockey, Trainer Titles At Belmont Spring Meet appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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By Leo Schlink

Zac Purton will continue his pursuit of Douglas Whyte's towering Hong Kong career record for the most wins by a jockey after surpassing Joao Moreira's mark for the most victories in a single season at Sha Tin on Sunday.

Further cementing his status among Hong Kong horseracing's galaxy of stars, Purton eclipsed Moreira's 2016/2017 record of 170 wins from 710 rides with a quartet.

Purton drew level on 170 with his 689th ride with success on David Hall-trained Ka Ying Victory and then secured the outright record with his 171st win at his 693rd ride with Manfred Man-trained Magic Supreme's victory in the Class 4 Arculli Trophy Handicap.

Purton crowned a landmark meeting in style by adding two more wins, striking with Hall's Flying Mojito in the Class 4 Chow Silver Plate Handicap  and John Size's Helios Express in the Class 3 Philip Chen Trophy Handicap to boost his tally to 173.

Revealing he had ignored advice from a doctor regarding a foot issue at the start of the season, Purton finished the meeting with a total of 1,604 wins – a tally bettered only by 13-time champion jockey Whyte's 1,813.

At 40, Purton plans to continue his Hong Kong career indefinitely, fitness permitting.

“My body will tell me how far I can go. Obviously, I will come back next season and strive to ride as many winners as I can and as long as I continue to get the support, then obviously my position will remain here for as long as that takes,” he said.

“If we have another good season next season, I won't be too far off that (Whyte mark.) It's a little bit realistic (to break Whyte's record) but at the end of the day, I'm getting a little bit older. It's not as easy to get out of bed every day and I have listen to what my body tells me.”

Paying tribute to the owners, trainers and stable staff, Purton said: “It feels very satisfying. It's been a long season. At the start of the season, I got told by a specialist I needed to put my foot in a moon boot for three months and I wasn't allowed to put any weight on it – here I am, I didn't follow that advice, obviously.

“I've worked hard and it hasn't been smooth sailing all of the way. I sort of lost my focus through the mid-stage of the season with plenty of things that were going on. Once I cleared the fog and got my mind back onto the job, I was behind in the run chase there, I needed something to happen and fortunately for me, the ball started bouncing my way and it's just continued to roll since.

“I appreciate all the support I get. The Club giving me the opportunity to come here, the owners and trainers who support me and also the people behind the scene – the mafoos, the track riders who prepare the horses and the people who give me the chance.

“It's a team effort from everyone. I can stand up here and collect the accolades but I can't do it without everyone else who plays their part…without their patience and support, I wouldn't have been able to get to these numbers.”

In an incredible display of sustained dominance, Purton's colossal season reached a peak with a seven-timer at Sha Tin on 9 October and has also included two quintets, eight four-timers and 18 trebles.

The post Purton Eclipses Moreira’s Single-Season Win Record At Sha Tin appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Joe Orseno was so connected to Monmouth Park from the late 1980s to the early 2000s that he bought a condominium in nearby Long Branch, New Jersey that became his home during those years.

After a nearly 17-year hiatus, the 67-year-old trainer is back on a full-time basis, ready to make an impact once again on the Jersey Shore.

During Saturday's 12-race card he will send out two starters for D. J. Stable – the debuting 2-year-old Horsepower, by Good Samaritan, and Irish-bred Exuma, a 5-year-old Galileo gelding – and then will add two stakes contenders from Florida to his 17-horse stable at Monmouth. One, 2-year-old colt Mattingly, by Bucchero, is being pointed to the Tyro Stakes on July 30. The other, Beauty of the Sea, a 3-year-old Bucchero filly, is headed to the Blue Sparkler Stakes a week from Saturday.

For the meet so far, Orseno has two wins and two seconds from seven starters – with much more to come, he says, as he closes in on his 2,000th career victory. He is eight wins shy of the milestone.

“When my stable cut down six or seven years ago I had to rebuild and I decided to stay in South Florida,” said Orseno, who serves as the president of the Florida Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and has been a Gulfstream Park mainstay the past two decades. “I thought it would be the best way to build my stable back up because there are a lot of breeders in Ocala and there are a lot of people there who knew me and said, 'If you're going to stay in Florida then we'll send horses to you.'

“I was down in numbers and I wasn't sure if I had enough to travel with so I decided to stay in one place. Now I have it going again. My stable is probably in the best shape now that it has been in a few years. So I'm back at Monmouth Park, a place I love.”

Orseno, who started on the Garden State and Atlantic City circuit in 1977, gradually made his return to Monmouth Park two years ago, winning with three of his 27 starters. He was 3-for-19 at the Monmouth Park meet a year ago.

He said he will be a more frequent visitor to New Jersey in July and August, flying in from Florida often, with long-time assistant Stacy Pryor currently overseeing his division at Monmouth Park.

“Two years ago I sent some to Monmouth Park and it didn't work out,” he said. “Last year we were much more organized when we went there. I was hoping to have 20 horses here last year and we only had about 10 but we felt it was working.

“So this year we decided to go full tilt with 20 stalls.”

Orseno, who won the Garden State Park training title in 1988, enjoyed his best year in 2000, when Red Bullet won the Preakness (G1), Macho Uno won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), and Perfect Sting captured the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1), with his earnings coming in at $6,673,714 for the season.

He has trained five individual Grade 1 winners.

Orseno said that winning his 2,000th race will fit in nicely with those other achievements.

“I've been setting goals my whole life,” he said. “It's a goal that I set a while ago – 2,000 wins. It's an accomplishment. It's a lot of wins. It's not going to change anyone's idea of who I am but it will mean a lot to me personally.”

The post Orseno Back ‘Home’ At Monmouth Park Looking To Make Impact As He Nears Career Milestone appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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