Puerto Rico's Young Guns Taking Over

Take a look at the top of the current Belmont Park spring/summer meeting jockey standings and you'll quickly recognize a few common threads. For one, Jose Ortiz (63 wins), Irad Ortiz, Jr. (43) and Manny Franco (43) are all under 24 years old. More importantly to Angel Cordero, Jr. though, they're all natives of Puerto Rico.

Cordero was a pioneer for Puerto Rican jockeys in the United States at a time when the vast majority of riders were either native-born or hailed from South America. He won over 7,000 races, was the first jockey from the island commonwealth to capture all three jewels of the Triple Crown and, in 1988, became the first Puerto Rican to be elected to racing's Hall of Fame. 24 years later, then a jockey's agent, Cordero watched with pride as his longtime student, friend and client, Puerto Rican pilot John Velazquez, was enshrined.

Now 73, Cordero has a new reason to be proud of the trail he blazed, as the Ortiz brothers, Franco and 19-year-old Eric Cancel have begun to usher in an era of achievement for Puerto Rican jockeys unlike anything their sport has ever seen.

“Those four guys are the future of racing,” Cordero predicted. “Two to three years from now, they'll be the ones at the top. There ain't no doubt about it. They're the most talented, the youngest, and the ones who want it the most.”

Irad, the elder Ortiz, came stateside as an 18-year-old in 2011 and settled in New York, experiencing some success early on as an apprentice. The following summer at Saratoga, he celebrated a signature win when his mount Questing (Hard Spun) dominated the GI Alabama S. by nine lengths. Not looking back since, he has already found the winner's circle 1,262 times in his nascent career en-route to over $80 million in purse money earned.

Jose, one year younger, joined Irad in the States in 2012 and won with his first mount aboard a gelding named Corofin (Flashy Bull) at Aqueduct that March. Somewhat overshadowed by Irad's accomplishments for most of four years, he is enjoying a breakout season, having already captured both Aqueduct riding titles, as well as 11 graded stakes, equal to his total from all of last year.

Franco, 21, is also having his best campaign since arriving in New York in 2013 and has eclipsed his win total from last year's Belmont spring/summer meet by 18 victories with several weeks still to go. Cancel is going through a bit of a sophomore slump, but was far and away New York's leading apprentice rider in 2015.

“They were like when you train horses and you get a nice 2-year-old,” Cordero said, “then you get another one, and another one. They all came back-to-back. I'm very happy and very proud of them. To come to the big circle and hit it big that quick, not too many people can do that.”

All four riders are graduates of the Escuela Vocacional Hipica, Puerto Rico's state-run jockey academy. The school teaches a soup-to-nuts approach to horsemanship that Cordero says is key to the young riders' development.

“It helps them know how to deal with the horses in every aspect,” Cordero explained. “As a groom, as a hotwalker, as a jockey. They learn to love the animal and to know the sacrifice that it takes for a horse to get to a race.”

At the same time, there's no teacher like experience, and getting thrown into the fire riding against some of the top jockeys in the world in New York is what Cordero says ultimately forges greatness.

“What they've got in themselves now, the talent mixed with the knowledge, they got that over here in the United States,” he explained. “There's no school or anything, they just got it from riding against the best riders in America. They came into the major leagues straight from college.”

Once a father figure to Velazquez, Cordero has now seen Velazquez turn around and fill the same role for the new wave of Puerto Rican riders, something he says is both indispensable and unbeknownst to most people.

“Johnny's like an idol to them,” Cordero says. “He's not only a great rider, but he's such a good friend that he welcomes them and helps them out a lot. Whatever they need, he'll get it. He's not one of those guys who does something and everybody knows about it. He's very quiet, never says anything to anybody. I only know because the guys will come and say 'Johnny bought me a saddle,' 'Johnny got me a pair of boots' or 'Johnny got me a helmet.' He's like a hero to these kids. To be able to compete with him and be able to be his friend, it means a lot to them.”

Natural talent, schooling, competition and the positive influence of mentors have proven to be a potent combination for this group of ascending stars. But there's one more thing they have in common: a love for their home.

“They visit Puerto Rico a lot,” Cordero related. “On their days off, they say 'I don't want to ride anywhere else, I'm going to Puerto Rico.' They like that.”