Jockey Hernandez making most of his Arlington opportunity

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The 21-year-old jockey Harry Hernandez had just gotten to Finger Lakes, where he was ready to settle in for another summer of riding. Two mounts into his meet, he got a call from jockey Jose Ortiz that totally changed his plans.

“He told me that my agent here at Arlington, Ben Allen, had a lot of business and was a good agent, and he needed a rider, if I wanted to try it out,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez didn’t think twice. He hightailed it out to Arlington, and Allen already has put him on four winners after five racing days at this meet.

“I just wanted to give myself a shot,” Hernandez said. “I didn’t want to wonder what would’ve happened if I hadn’t tried it out.”

Hernandez, like Jose Ortiz and his brother Irad, is a Puerto Rican native and began his career there, and he said he’s known the Ortiz brothers for about a decade. Jose Ortiz is married to the former jockey Taylor Rice, who rode for a spell at Hawthorne, where Allen booked her mounts.

Last summer, Allen represented Santo Sanjur and Chris Emigh at Arlington, but Sanjur is spending this summer at Indiana Grand, and Emigh switched agents when he returned to Chicago from New Orleans this spring. That’s how the connection was made, and now Hernandez is trying to make good. He came to the U.S. in 2015 and rode most of last year at Finger Lakes before two collarbone fractures put a premature end to his season.

“I’m here to work, and I want to do well and make a name for myself,” Hernandez said.

So far, so good.