Ortiz physically, mentally ready to resume riding

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.

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“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.