2019 Eclipse Awards: Jose Ortiz

You know things are going your way when you can win the Kentucky Oaks aboard one horse in May then five weeks later choose to ride a different horse and beat the Kentucky Oaks winner in another Grade 1 race.

That summed up Jose Ortiz’s 2019, a year in which he won the Kentucky Oaks on Serengeti Empress and then the Grade 1 Acorn on Guarana, beating Serengeti Empress by six lengths. Those were two of Ortiz’s seven Grade 1 stakes victories in 2019, a year in which Ortiz won 58 stakes, 27 of which were graded.

:: Full list of 2019 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Ortiz, 26, won the Eclipse Award in 2017 and was a finalist last year. He is a finalist again this year after finishing second in purse earnings with $27,529,006, slightly more than the figure he had in 2017. That doesn’t include money earned winning the $2 million UAE Derby aboard Plus Que Parfait or the $1.5 million Godolphin Mile on Coal Front.

Ortiz ranked fourth nationally in victories with 274 and won his second straight Saratoga riding title by seven wins, 60-53, over his brother, Irad Ortiz Jr. He can thank his brother for his lone Breeders’ Cup victory in 2019, that coming aboard Structor. Irad Ortiz Jr. had ridden Structor to victory in the Grade 3 Pilgrim, but chose to ride Decorated Invader in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Jose Ortiz won three Grade 1 stakes at Saratoga, including the Coaching Club American Oaks on Guarana, the Alabama on Dunbar Road, and the Hopeful on Basin.

Ortiz was the leading rider at the rich Kentucky Downs meet with 10 wins from 33 mounts.

In 2019, Ortiz had four win days at Gulfstream Park, Belmont Park, Delaware Park, and Kentucky Downs.