Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. continued his successful run at the Saratoga Race Course summer meet by capturing five races on the July 22 11-race program.
"It's great. It's an amazing feeling. We show up every day positive, trying to win as many as we can. We had an amazing day today having five winners," said Ortiz, who leads the meet with 19 wins, 11 more than his closest pursuers.
Ortiz, 30, secured the early double, piloting 2-year-old Noted (race 1, $3.50) to a second-out maiden score over the inner turf course for Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher before returning to the winner's circle after guiding Paddington (race 2, $4.70) to an 8 1/2-length score in a 1 1/8-mile starter allowance for leading trainer Linda Rice.
He piloted Undervalued Asset (race 5, $4.50) to victory in a seven-furlong allowance event for fillies and mares for four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown. One race later, he captured the $200,000 Caress Stakes (G3T) for older fillies and mares going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf aboard the Christophe Clement-trained Roses for Debra (race 6, $5.50).
Ortiz teamed up with Brown once more in a six-furlong allowance test aboard Accretive (race 10, $3.70).
"Sometimes you look at the program and see that you have some live mounts and you might not win any of them or you might win one that you didn't think you had a shot on, but that's the way the game goes," said Ortiz.
