Coglianese /NYRA Photo Photo

Q&A: Irad and Jose Ortiz

by NYRA Press Office

Sitting down earlier this week, top New York jockeys Irad Ortiz, Jr. and Jose Ortiz discuss their meet so far this summer at Saratoga. Irad, 25, was the top rider in the 2015 Saratoga meet and coming into this summer fresh off the riding title for the Belmont Park spring/summer meet. Reigning Saratoga leading jockey Jose, 24, has won the last two Angel Cordero, Jr. Awards and earned the Eclipse Award as Outstanding Jockey in 2017.

1.How important is it to come into the Saratoga meet with momentum?

Irad Ortiz, Jr.: It’s good because all the trainers, if you win the title - I won the title at Belmont - it’s because they gave me the opportunity and they rode me a lot. It’s good to have the momentum and just keep going. It’s a little easier I think, but everything is different [at Saratoga]. You have some new jockeys from out of town and new trainers, so it’s still a little hard, so we have to go out there and work.

Jose Ortiz: And it’s great. Like you said, I got a lot of momentum. I won the Eclipse Award, but that was last year, you know? I’m working this year now. It’s not a very good start. The last two days, I haven’t won any, but I’m confident that we’re going to keep trying and we’re going to win a lot of races in the meet.

2. Which horses are you most excited about this summer?

IO: Hofburg. I get to ride him back, and he’s a nice horse. He ran well in the Belmont, he finished third, and I think he’s going to win big races this year and next year.

JO: I’m excited about Good Magic coming back and going to the Haskell; Gronkowski coming back from the Belmont; and Elate, who just came back. The reason why is because I think they’re all really, really nice horses, so I think they can win big races this year.

3. What’s the most challenging thing about riding at Saratoga?

JO: Just the colony, really. You have a very tough colony of jockeys here and, like he said, trainers come from out of town with their own jockeys and stuff like that, so it makes it a little harder for everybody. There are a lot of horses and big fields, horses dropping in class. It’s very tough competition here.

IO: It’s not easy. We keep working hard. Here, you have trainers drop horses to claiming bottom just to win a race and it’s a little hard. Sometimes you think you have a live horse in the race and somebody comes up with a horse from $50 [thousand] to $20, $16 [claiming levels] and you know, it’s hard to beat them. They all have the class, and it’s tough like that.

4. What’s the most gratifying thing about riding here?

JO: For me, it’s the history of the racetrack. It’s a very short meet and there’s a lot of people here, which is great, cheering you on or cheering on your horse or some other guy and the quality of racing is great. There’s a lot of stakes running, you run a stake almost every day, which I love. It’s just the history of the place that makes it special.

IO: It’s very special. There are a lot of good races here. We have a lot of Grade 1s, Grade 2s; it’s fun. You want to be out there, you don’t want to sit in the jocks’ room when it’s time to run those races. If you have a horse, if you’re out there, you have a chance to win one of those races. We really like to be out there it’s thanks to all the owners. It’s special because we have a lot of people out here the whole week. Every single day, we have how many people here? It’s a lot, and they love horses. I like that.

5. Aside from the rider’s title, do you come into a meet with any specific goals?

JO: You just want to win as much as you can, which means you’re going for the title. You’re trying every race you can, that’s the main goal.

IO: Yeah, just win races. If you win races, you’ll be all right.

JO: It’s important, especially here, to work a lot of babies and try to get lucky and land on a good one. That’ll set you up for the fall. You get a nice baby here, probably [run in] the Hopeful and if you win the Hopeful and happen to go to the Champagne, which is another Grade 1, and then the Breeders’ Cup, which is great. Fillies, same thing: Spinaway, Frizette, and Breeders’ Cup. That kind of sets you up for the end of the year. It’s really important to have luck and land on the right kind of horses, like babies, and those horses will carry your momentum through the year, I think.

6. Which races do you still most want to win?

JO: Kentucky Derby would be number one. Other than that, I want to win the Preakness. We’ve already won the Belmont.

IO: Dubai.

JO: Yeah, Dubai World Cup, Royal Ascot. The Pegasus would be nice.

IO: Yeah, stuff like that. I’d love to win the [Breeders’ Cup] Classic, too. The Breeders’ Cup, any time I win, I’m happy, but we fight for all of it. We want to win everything.

JO: It’s tough. You have to have racing luck and be on the right horse on the right day. You try.

7. In general, do you prefer dirt racing or turf racing?

JO: I like both. I really like the turf. You have to save more ground and the dirt is kind of different, but you still need a nice horse and you have to ride well to get to the wire first. If I had to choose, I’d rather [ride on] turf. I think you’ve got to ride a little bit smarter. Probably on the dirt, you can make a mistake and get away with it. On the turf, maybe you can get away with it, but if you move a little soon, you can get caught and stuff like that. It’s realy tricky. I think you’ve got to ride way smarter than on the dirt. You still have to ride a good race on dirt, don’t get me wrong, but that’s the way I see it.

IO: The pace is different [on the turf]. You have to read the pace, I think that’s the most important thing. You have to know where you are in the race and how the race is going. If they go fast, I can be a little far back and know they’re going to come back to me, things like that. Saving ground, that’s important, and have the right trip. If you have a good trip on the turf, no matter what horse you have, you have a chance to win.

8. What’s the main thing on your mind when you walk into the jocks’ room each day?

JO: Just come back safe, that’s the main thing for me. Try to win as many races as I can and ride safe. Ride safe for me and for my fellow riders in the jocks’ room.

IO: Yeah, come back home safe.

9. You both attended the jockeys’ school in Puerto Rico, how do you think that has benefitted your careers?

IO: It helped a lot. I learned a lot over there. I got racing practice, then I started riding over here in about 3 ½, four months, and that helped me a lot. We learned something different every day, and that’s good for me. I think in the two years in the school I learned a lot. When I got there, I had gotten on horses, but never on a racehorse. Every single day I got up on 10, 12, 15 horses, and I think that’s when you get some experience. You learn from the horses.

JO: I think that the school helped me a lot, because it’s a great program. It’s a two-year program. In the second year, I think I galloped over, I would say, 2,000 horses in one year, so you have a lot of practice to polish your skills. And then we got 20 practice races: 10 in the morning and 10 in the afternoon, and I think that helps a lot because not just galloping and breezing horses helps you, but if you ride 20 races before you even start riding, you are 20 races ahead of another bug boy hasn’t rode ever, just galloped horses in the morning and breezed. If you gallop, breeze, and have 20 races under your belt, you’ll be better than the other ones. I mean, not all of them, but if you put a guy that rode 20 races and a bug that has run zero, the guy that rode 20 races has an advantage. I didn’t win too many [practice races], to be honest. I think I won like two races, maybe, out of 20. But it doesn’t matter if you win. It just matters that you learn and look good. If you look good and do everything right, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose. You have teachers that watch the film and you get a grade. Sometimes, the guy that wins can get a C and you finish last and get an A because you rode much better than he did. It’s just important to do the right thing in the race.

10. What’s the most important thing that you’ve learned from riding horses?

JO: I think you learn how to be a good loser, because in this game, you lose more than you win. If you're a 20 percent rider, that means you’re really good. To win more than you lose, you have to be at 51 percent and nobody has that percentage, so I think you have to learn how to lose.

11. Is there one jockey that has influenced your riding style more than anyone else?

IO: Some jockeys take you aside and tell you things to do and if you made a mistake, they teach you. I talked to Ramon [Dominguez] yesterday about some things. He gave me some tips that work for horses.

JO: For me, Johnny [Velazquez].

IO: When I see Johnny, I really like him. I like his style. He's great, one of the best I've ever seen. He does everything so perfect. He doesn't move too much, he can hand ride, he can hit the horses and go back to a hand ride. It’s hard to do. It looks easy on TV, but it’s not easy. When you’re going through the stretch and you know somebody's coming, you just want to hit them, keep hitting them. He wants to win so badly, but he rides with patience. He doesn’t go crazy on the horses and I really like that. It’s hard to do that, even for me sometimes. I just want to win, I start screaming, start hitting them, but that's not the best thing sometimes. You have to be connected with your horse. If you connect with your horse, you’ll be all right. I just like that about him.

12. In all the races you’ve won, which do you think was your personal best?

IO: Creator in the [2016] Belmont Stakes.

JO: Me too, the Belmont Stakes [in 2017]. That's a tough race to win, so tough. You’ve got to have the right trip and you’ve got get the distance. It’s very weird. I have won a lot of good races, but I think in the one on Tapwrit, everything worked out perfect. And the horse was doing well. I put the horse right where Todd [Pletcher] told me to put him, and everything worked out well and he won. I think that was the perfect race.

IO: Stephanie's Kitten, too. I loved that one at Keeneland [the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf]. Everything was perfect. From the gate I did everything I wanted, the way I wanted. Everything came out right. I broke out of the gate, I didn't want to take back right away so I let her be. I knew I was going to be last or probably second to last, but I don't want to take anything out of her by dropping in. So, I let them break, go into the first turn going back slowly, let everything get up, and then when they passed me, I went inside. From there, I went to the rail, and split some horses, went back into the rail. It was very tight in there, and I split some horses into the stretch and it opened up. I knew she was going to give me a good kick because I knew she really liked the soft ground and that day was soft. I rode her with confidence and she showed up. Everything worked out good for us.

13. At what age did you decide that you wanted to become jockeys? And, did you imagine then that you would have accomplished as much as you have at this point?

IO: You never know, but you have to work for it. Like they say, dream big. At a young age, we ride horses, and I always said I wanted to be a jockey. Mom has tapes of us at the house riding. I always wanted to be a jockey.

JO: I wanted to be a jockey, but not so badly when I was 10, 11, 12. I was more into playing baseball and stuff like that. I liked the jockey part, but I wasn’t really into it. We had horses and I really liked horses and I loved to ride, but I was more into baseball. Then, I figured out I wasn’t big enough and I turned 14 or 15 and Irad went to the school and I started going with him a couple of times when I had free time out of school and I fell in love more than I was. That’s when I really said this is what I want to do with my whole life. I didn't expect to be successful so fast, but we worked very hard for it and we’re just enjoying it. We try to keep going, be more successful.

IO: It's fast, but I don't think about it. With every opportunity they give me, I try to do the right thing. You keep going. Don't think about it. Whatever happened yesterday is past. Keep going.

14. Is it surreal to find that young jockeys or aspiring jockeys now look up to you?

JO: It's very nice. Every young kid wants to be like us like we wanted to be like Johnny or somebody else. Just to hear that they want to be like you is very nice. It gives you more of a push to want to keep going harder and harder every day. That means a lot of me.

IO: We go sometimes to Puerto Rico and the students in the school, they see us as somebody big. I feel really good about it. Sometimes you think about it, that you’ve got to be an example for those guys, and you know have to do the right thing. It keeps you straight.