When Peyton and Eli Manning faced off on the football field, the interfamily rivalry was the main media story. When Serena and Venus Williams play each other, no matter the stature of the tournament, it’s a major tennis event. Of a recent visit to their native island, Irad said, soberly, “It was very different after the hurricane. Perhaps as a direct result of their success, most of José and Irad’s family are on the US mainland with them and were, fortunately, largely unaffected when Hurricane Maria hit last fall. Now the Ortizes’ parents are both here, their father working in one of the barns at Belmont. His grandfather, who, like one of their uncles, was also a jockey, worked the New York tracks. Irad came straight to New York, and, predictably, family played a major role in that. Ordinarily, jockeys begin their careers on lower-level tracks, where they’re more likely to get rides and the experience and education that comes with them. Irad met his partner, Meliza Betancourt, seven years ago while he was in jockey school in Puerto Rico, making them the racetrack equivalent of high school sweethearts. They’re family men, close to their parents, with long-term partners and soon, each will have a couple of kids (Taylor Rice, also a jockey and José’s wife, is expecting their second child later this year). It’s impossible to find anyone on the New York backstretches who has a bad word to say about them. They’re brothers who’ve come to the US to fulfill the American Dream, succeeding by dint of an unbeatable trifecta of character, effort and talent. They should be a marketer’s dream come true. So why doesn’t anybody outside the Thoroughbred racing niche know their names? Irad Ortiz (Susie Raisher) At ages 24 and 25, the Ortizes are poised to inherit the mantle of Hall of Fame riders such as Angel Cordero, Jr. Since then, the brothers have racked up a combined 3500 wins, 22 riding titles, 2 Belmont Stakes wins and 5 Breeders’ Cup victories, along with spotless reputations. He won with his first mount in North America, Corofin, on March 21 there. At first, he rode only a few races a day-sometimes just a single one-but it didn’t take him long to get his first win: That came on May 18, 2011, four days after he set up shop there, on his fourth mount, Grande Roja.īy the following spring, José Ortiz had followed his older brother-José’s 14 months younger-north from Puerto Rico, arriving at the end of the Aqueduct winter meet. He then returned to riding at Hipódromo Camarero in Canóvanas, Puerto Rico, before coming back to New York in May to ride full-time at Belmont Park. Ortiz had made his New York debut earlier that year at Aqueduct Racetrack on April 22, finishing fifth on a horse named Straddler in a low-level claiming race. He was quiet, too not entirely comfortable speaking English, the Puerto Rico native was respectful and amiable, communicating often with the warmth of a smile that’s no less genuine today, as he’s at the top of the New York jockey colony, than it was then, when he was an apprentice, or, as it’s known around the track, a bug. He looked impossibly small and young he was 18 years old, and any bouncer on Caroline Street would’ve laughed if he’d attempted entry at a local watering hole. Irad was there with his agent at the time, not so much to show off his bowling skills, but to show his face and support the cause, just two months after he’d begun riding in New York. It was opening weekend of the 2011 Saratoga Race Course meet, and the New York Race Track Chaplaincy was holding a fundraiser at the Saratoga Strike Zone on Ballston Avenue. A replacement rider has not yet been named.I remember the first time I saw Irad Ortiz, Jr., when he wasn’t on the back of a horse. was set to ride Known Agenda in Saturday's Belmont Stakes. and ultimately needed to be stretchered off the track. hit the dirt, he was then kicked in the head by a trailing horse. his horse stumbled and bucked the rider to the ground. It's all quite frankly incredible, given just how gnarly the accident was.įootage from the track showed as Ortiz Jr. but is expected to make a full recovery in a matter of days. needed 6 stitches in his head and 5 in his arm. "I told him I don’t know what brand of helmet you have, but make sure you get another one." Irad Ortiz is currently scheduled to ride #6 Known Agenda in the Frankie 'WHISPERS' Fantasy□□⚾️□□□□ J said he felt better today, than he did last night," Rushing told Daily Racing Form. Thoughts & □ for after getting thrown off his mount today at Belmont Park in the 5th race.
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