Red-hot Ortiz rides Possiblemente to Turf Sprint victory on scorching day
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FRANKLIN, Ky. – The mercury in the thermometer brushed 100 mid-afternoon Saturday at Kentucky Downs, but it had nothing on jockey Jose Ortiz.
In the day’s sixth race, the $1,747,025 Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint, Ortiz rode his fourth winner on the card, piloting Possiblemente through a perfect pressing trip and on to a 1 1/4-length victory. Golden Afternoon rallied well from seventh to nab second, no match for the winner but 1 1/4 lengths ahead of third-place Mondogetsbuckets, the very surprising pacesetter who held third by a head over We’re In Trouble.
Ortiz, at the time of the Grade 2 Turf Sprint, was tied atop the Saratoga jockey standings with 66 wins but chose to vacate upstate New York and take his talents instead to tiny Franklin, Ky. The money at Kentucky Downs is as big as the town is small, and Ortiz, after the Turf Sprint, had won eight of the last 13 races here.
“Obviously, I was doing so well at Saratoga, but we have good horses here, too,” Ortiz said.
Possiblemente ($28.95 per $5 win bet, the base wager at Kentucky Downs), only became a really good horse earlier this year after Joe Sharp, who trains the gelding for Taylor Logan’s T and E Racing, changed the way Possiblemente went about his business. Following his sprint debut, Possiblemente had run in 27 straight route races, but Sharp saw him hanging late while running long and decided to try him short. Possiblemente immediately responded, went on a run, now has won four of his last six starts, including two graded stakes, and punched his ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint with his Saturday victory, this race being part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series.
Possiblemente might ideally suit sprints in this six-furlong range, and the BC Turf Sprint at Keeneland is run over 5 1/2 furlongs. But Sharp reasonably wondered if the horse, having adapted now to sprinting, might better suit a shorter dash than he did in May, when Possiblemente kicked into gear too late and finished fifth in the Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs.
Possiblemente had done all his best work stalking or closing, but Ortiz said his mount broke like a shot Saturday. In a matter of strides, he was right up on the pace alongside Mondogetsbuckets. Neither of those horses looked like they’d lead, but the quickest horse in the race, John the Beer Man, broke flat-footed, stalked around the turn while wide, and never came close to the front.
Even as Possiblemente was getting an ideal trip, nudging to the lead at about the quarter pole, Sharp felt concern. Possiblemente had hit his peak by relaxing behind horses and chasing them down. This was a totally different setup.
“When he was out there on point, I was a little nervous, like, is he going to take a deep breath?” Sharp said.
Sharp kept looking back into the field for closers mounting a move. There were none.
Possiblemente clocked 1:09.28 for six furlongs over a very firm course, the temporary rail set at 25 feet.
Golden Afternoon, trainer Nick Vaccarezza said, had been dealing with irritation in his mouth while turning in subpar performances his last two starts.
“He loves it here. I had pointed him to this race since January,” said Vaccarezza.
Golden Afternoon’s connections also will consider their horse for the BC Turf Sprint, Vaccarezza said.
That race came up for the Possiblemente camp after their horse won the Grade 3 Jacque Cartier on May 30 at Woodbine. Logan had claimed Possiblemente, a son of Tale of Ekati and the Not Bourbon mare Internal Bourbon, for $50,000 last October, turning him over to Sharp during the winter.
“He’s like, ‘I know it sounds like a dream, but we’d like to try and target the Breeders’ Cup,’ ” Sharp said. “And I was like, well, there’s gonna have to be a few races that hit just right to get us there.”
Jose Ortiz kept hitting them out of the park Saturday at Kentucky Downs. Possiblemente is on his way.
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