Jose Ortiz Wins 5 Races at Aqueduct

Jose Ortiz was on the winning end of 5 out of 6 races on a card featuring 9 runs at the Aqueduct Racetrack on Sunday, April 11.

The feat sees the jockey head to the top of the spring meet standings, with his races including a profitable holding of the reins aboard Peter Brant’s Regal Glory in the $100,000 Plenty of Grace Stakes. Ortiz acknowledged having done well at Aqueduct in the past, lauding the New York trainers, whom he claims are a big part of his support group.

It’s imagined that plenty of Ortiz’s fans took to placing a few bets on his races and anyone to have done so in the expectation he’d see as much success would have also done well to make use of an easy horse racing betting calculator.

2017’s Eclipse Award-winning jockey rode his first 4 mounts to victory –  he won his first race of the day atop Always Carina. 4-time Award-winning trainer Chad Brown also shared the pleasure of watching Carina get across the line first.

Another Ortiz-Brown venture saw Regal Glory claim a 1/2-length score in the 1-mile turf test for older fillies and mares. Regal Glory made the important push by getting past leading ace Platinum Paynter in deep stretch.

Regal Glory did not take all that kindly to Ortiz’s handling going into the first turn but she settled down after that, with the jockey noting she loved the wet conditions laid out by Sunday’s weather.

“I had to take a hold of her and she doesn’t like when you take that hold,” he explained. “As soon as I put her in the clear, she relaxed a little. From the backside on, it was a beautiful trip. My filly loves the soft ground and always runs well on it. When I ride her, I love to see some rain in the forecast.”

Ortiz got into some business with trainer Orlando Noda after the Plenty of Grace, riding Rainbow Gal to take a fifth win in a state-bred maiden-claiming sprint. He rode Three Jokers to a 7/1 upset for trainer John Terranova in a 1-turn mile allowance a race later before ending the day by riding Big Tony’s Girl to a maiden claimer for trainer James Ryerson in the card’s last race.

The only race Ortiz failed to win was one in which he was atop Spitball, who finished fourth.

“You want to win every meet that you can but Irad wasn’t here this week and I’m sure he’ll come back and be competitive next week,” he said. “I have to keep the momentum going. I had a good beginning of the meet. Hopefully, I can finish up strong.”

Ortiz now has 16 total wins after Sunday’s 5-victory haul, putting him 4 ahead of his brother Irad Ortiz Jr.

Given the jockey’s history at the Aqueduct, folks should have gone into Sunday’s event suspecting he was good for a win or 2. He ended up with 5. Of course, predicting horse races is right up there with guessing who will be Premier League goal leader at the beginning of every top-flight season. But there’s always going to be a favorite.