Ortiz mentally, physically ready to begin riding again

Irad Ortiz Jr. believes he’s fit physically and – perhaps more importantly – mentally ready to return to race riding Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

Ortiz, the two-time reigning Eclipse Award-winning jockey, is named on nine horses on Saturday’s 12-race card, including Dr Post in the $75,000 Unbridled Stakes for 3-year-olds.

Ortiz has not ridden since March 19, owing in large part to the requests of his family, in particular his wife, Meliza, who is pregnant with the couple’s third child.

“They wanted me to stop so bad,” Ortiz said this week in a phone interview from his home in Florida. “A lot of innocent people were dying, I felt like we had to show some respect. I felt so bad for those families losing innocent people . . . we had to stop to see what’s going on.”

Ortiz said daily reports in March of the increasing number of cases and deaths as a result of the coronavirus especially weighed on him emotionally, which also led to him to want to stop riding. He basically spent his time with his wife and their daughters Sarai and Saeli.

“I wasn’t mentally right, too. I wasn’t a hundred percent thinking of my business and I don’t like to ride like that,” Ortiz, 27, said. “I wanted to take a step back, think about it, spend some time at home and see what’s going on and now finally I’m ready. I’m fit, keep working out, but I’m just now mentally 100 percent. I feel like I can come back.”

Ortiz said Gulfstream Park has been “doing a good job” conducting racing with no spectators and making sure the riders are kept far apart from each other to comply with social-distancing protocols. Ortiz said some jockeys are in the regular jockeys’ room, some are in the lady’s jockey quarters, and another group are in the trainers’ lounge.

Ortiz finished the Gulfstream winter meet – which began Nov. 29 and ended March 28 – as the leading rider with 115 wins, two more than Luis Saez. For the calendar year 2020, Ortiz ranks first among all riders in purse money won in North America with $5.2 million. His 90 wins are third behind Saez (103) and Juan Hernandez (91), the leading rider at Golden Gate Fields.

Ortiz said his plan is to ride at Gulfstream until the New York Racing Association opens at Belmont Park, which could happen in late May or early June. Ortiz said his family will likely not come north because Meliza Ortiz is due to give birth sometime in June.

“They don’t want to move from here, to be honest,” Ortiz said. “I don’t think they’re going to go [to New York] if I go.”

Those are decisions that will made later. For now, Ortiz is just looking forward to getting on the back of a horse again.

“Can’t wait,” he said.

– David Grening

King Guillermo hits the road

Tampa Bay Derby winner King Guillermo will say bon voyage to South Florida for the better part of the next month when he boards a van bound for Oaklawn Park along with stablemate Trophy Chaser at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Approximately 12 hours earlier, he turned in the last in a series of very impressive works in preparation for the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on May 2.

Working shortly after the track opened at 5:15 a.m., King Guillermo officially worked four furlongs in 48.18 seconds, completing his final quarter in 23.20. But as was the case the previous week, it was the gallop-out that stole the show, as the Tampa Bay Derby winner was timed in 1:00.60 for five furlongs and 1:12.80 for six furlongs before pulling up a complete mile in 1:39.40.

“Excellent, perfect, I couldn’t be happier,” trainer Juan Carlos Avila exclaimed a short while later. “Everything is going very good since his last start. I think he’s doing even better now than before he won at Tampa.”

Trophy Chaser, who’ll compete on the Arkansas Derby undercard in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Park Handicap, also turned in another strong move under the cover of darkness Wednesday. He breezed four furlongs in 47.77, shading 23 for the final quarter before galloping out five-eighths in 1:01.

Avila will accompany both King Guillermo and Trophy Chaser on the long van ride to Oaklawn.

“I prefer putting them on a truck rather than a plane because I can be with them the whole way,” Avila said.

Under Oaklawn Park’s current policy during the coronavirus pandemic, only trainers or assistant trainers – not grooms – are permitted to accompany horses shipping to the track for stakes races. And while trainers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Louisiana, or outside the continental United States are required to quarantine for 14 days before being allowed on the grounds at Oaklawn, those accompanying horses from Florida are not on that list.

Barring a change in Gulfstream policy, Avila’s horses will have to be quarantined for 14 days in Florida after they race, but outside of designated track grounds or stabling facilities, before they’ll be allowed to return to their stalls at Gulfstream Park.

– Mike Welsch

Pletcher picks Dr Post

Trainer Todd Pletcher nominated five 3-year-olds to Saturday’s $75,000 Unbridled Stakes and ultimately decided to enter just one, Dr Post, in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds. The Unbridled, an overnight stakes created by Gulfstream to help fill the dearth of races for 3-year-olds with many jurisdictions shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, drew a field of seven.

Dr Post, a son of Quality Road owned by Vinnie and Teresa Viola’s St. Elias Stable, is coming off a 1 1/4-length victory in a seven-furlong maiden race March 29. That was his second career start. He debuted last July 4, finishing fourth behind Green Light Go.

Dr Post was off the work tab until late December before working twice at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland. He joined Pletcher’s Florida division at Palm Beach Downs shortly after the first of the year.

Breaking from post 12 in his return, Dr Post was parked four wide throughout under John Velazquez. He brushed with stablemate Nocturnal in upper stretch before edging clear late. Dr Post covered seven furlongs in 1:22.37 and earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

The remainder of the Unbridled field includes Attachment Rate, Americanus, Necker Island, Soros, South Bend, and Relentless Dancer.

– David Grening