Ortiz rides five winners on Sunday card

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Irad Ortiz Jr. rode five winners from nine mounts Sunday at Saratoga, coming within one victory of tying the track record for wins on one card.

It was the first five-win day at Saratoga for Ortiz and fourth at a New York Racing Association track in his career. Ortiz had ridden four winners three previous times at Saratoga, most recently last Sunday. It also was the first five-win day at Saratoga for any jockey since Javier Castellano did it Sept. 2, 2013.

A jockey has won six races at Saratoga three times – Ramon Dominguez twice and John Velazquez once. Ortiz had a chance for a sixth win in the nightcap, but his horse, Grey Stark, a first-time starter by Tapit, finished fourth after breaking slowly.

Ortiz won the first on Andalusite ($10.40). After finishing second on the 3-5 favorite Stay Tuned in the second, Ortiz won the third on Drama King ($7.90) and fourth on Unbridled Daddy ($6.20). He won the seventh on Fundamental ($7.30) and the eighth on Ack Naughty ($3.50), both for Chad Brown.

Ortiz’s five-win day gives him a meet-leading 34 victories, seven more than Javier Castellano.

“So far, so good, thank God I’m healthy and the owners and the trainers are giving me the right opportunity,” Ortiz said. “I think they help me a lot.”

Ortiz will be flying Thursday to England to ride the 2-year-old filly Acapulco in the Group 1 Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes at York, where she will face older males and females in a five-furlong turf race.

“If you want to ride good horses – and I want to do that – I have to do whatever I have to do,” said Ortiz, who turned 23 Aug. 11. “Yesterday, I went to Arlington and back, and now we’re going to England. It’s a lot of airports and flights. I don’t love that, but we have to do it. It’s part of the business.”