They’re happy when they see me and I respect everyone, so I’m here to do our thing and win the most races we can.Originally from Trujillo Alto in Puerto Rico, Ortiz is a graduate of that country’s Escuela Vocacional Hípica, a school for prospective jockeys. I love the people, they give me such big support and I love everyone here. 26 highlighted by a pair of $100,000 turf stakes – the Tropical Park Derby for 3-year-olds and Tropical Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies – and runs through Sunday, April 2.

The 71-day Championship Meet opens Monday, Dec. No matter how good the horse is that you have, everything has to go the right way. You can have the favorite by far, but something happens at the break or any part of the race, you could get beat.

You want to do it but it’s not that easy, like people think. We’ve been having a great year so let’s finish strong. “I just go out there and try to win every single race. Retired Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey holds the single season record with 55 graded victories. Leading rider at Belmont Park’s spring-summer meet as well as Saratoga, Ortiz has set a personal high with 49 graded-stakes wins in 2022, including his second Belmont Stakes (G1) in June with Mo Donegal. He finished third last winter with 80 wins from just 297 mounts, but topped all riders with more than $5 million in purse earnings after sweeping the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) with Life Is Good and $1 million Pegasus Turf (G1) with Colonel Liam. He won the Eclipse Award as North America’s champion jockey three straight years from 2018 to 2020, and is a leading candidate to add a fourth statuette this season.Īt Gulfstream, where he rode his first full winter in 2017-2018, Ortiz won three consecutive Championship Meet titles from 2018-2019 to 2020-2021, the latter with a track record 140 victories. Ortiz began riding professionally in 2011 and is approaching 3,400 career victories, having reached 300 or more wins every year since 2015. I wake up and go out there and try to do my thing and get on horses every single day.” I’ve been working since then right up to today. “It’s something that’s very exciting and very special for me because I’ve been working at it since I started. He set the bar with $34,109,019 in 2019 and raised it again this year with more than $36 million and counting. Less than a month earlier, thanks to his victories in Kentucky and New York, Ortiz surpassed his own North American record for single-season earnings. “Garrett Gomez was someone we respect so much, a great rider,” he added. It’s not easy, but let’s try.’ Everything worked out great,’” Ortiz said. I said, ‘Wow.’ We were only 10 behind so I said, ‘Let’s try for it. “I didn’t even realize I was close until Breeders’ Cup week when my agent told me. 21 at Mahoning Valley to set him up for the chance to pass Gomez, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 44. 6 at Aqueduct as well as the Youngstown Oaks and Mahoning Distaff Nov. Ortiz swept the Nashua (G3) and Tempted Nov. 4 and 5 – the Juvenile (G1) on Forte, Sprint (G1) with Elite Power and Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) aboard Goodnight Olive – to push his career total to 17.

Once considered an unapproachable mark, Ortiz began closing in on Gomez starting with three Breeders’ Cup wins at Keeneland Nov.

They give me such good support and thank God everything worked out good. “My agent, Steve Rushing, does a great job and the trainers and owners give me great opportunities, a lot of good horses. Thank God first for keeping me healthy and sound and in one piece to be able to keep doing it every day, keep trying,” Ortiz said. 79 with Viburnum in the $100,000 Via Borghese Dec. It was his 78th stakes victory of 2022, two more than the previous single-season record of 76 set by late Hall of Famer Garrett Gomez in 2007. On his first day, Ortiz won the Wait a While on Gulfstream’s new turf course aboard Junipermarshmallow Dec. Ortiz, 30, arrived in South Florida in mid-December in a familiar position – leading all jockeys in North America in both wins and purses earned, having topped the 300-win mark for an eighth straight year. is back at Gulfstream Park looking for a strong finish to what has been an historic, record-breaking season. HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – With the 2022-2023 Championship Meet days away, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. Rider Set Single-Season Marks for Purse Earnings, Stakes Wins

Irad ortiz jr.