After a close battle with his brother through the final days of the 40-day spring/summer meet at Belmont Park, jockey Jose Ortiz secured the leading riding title on Sunday at the Belmont oval, finishing the meet just one win ahead with 59 total victories.
Ortiz celebrated his 12th overall meet riding title. He was also the leading rider on the NYRA circuit in 2016, 2020 and 2021.
Ortiz closed out the meet with a record of 246-59-44-38 and total purse earnings of $4,921,926, putting him at a win rate of 23.98 percent and in-the-money percentage of 57.32.
“It was very fun–it's great,” said Ortiz, who also won the 2021 Belmont spring/summer title with 59 wins. “I work very hard in the mornings and I receive good opportunities from the owners and trainers and I'm very thankful for that.”
Ortiz added he is looking forward to carrying his good form into the upcoming 40-day Saratoga Race Course summer meet.
“I think it's great to have momentum to go up there. He [Irad Ortiz, Jr.] is going to head there as the favorite, we all know.” “But I'm going to try to beat him again,” Ortiz said, with a laugh.
Trainer Linda Rice paced all other trainers at the meet to land her fourth consecutive training title at a NYRA track and the second of her career at Belmont. She secured the title with 34 wins.
“It's exciting–it's a lot of fun to win a Belmont title,” said Rice. “We had a good winter at Aqueduct and usually the spring meet gets a little stronger, and we managed to win that. We had no thoughts we would win the spring meet here, so I'm delighted.”
Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables won their 22nd owners' title at a NYRA track for a meet that saw them earn 11 victories.
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