Yomar Ortiz Jr. after his first career win at Keeneland. Photo by Coady Media
Yomar Ortiz Jr. did not expect to be riding this Saturday, when Churchill Downs will host the $1.2 million Claiming Crown for the fourth time in five years.
After all, the 17-year-old Ortiz had only ridden in 40 races over a span of 3 1/2 weeks when entries were taken this past Saturday for the 12-race, Nov. 14 card. The nine Claiming Crown races carry purses ranging from $100,000 to $200,000, not counting additional money for registered Kentucky-breds. That’s big-time cash for horses that either are (or at some stage were) claiming horses, with the Claiming Crown the annual day to celebrate American racing’s unsung heroes that fill out the programs.
Trainer Joe Sharp, who has provided the largest share of Ortiz’s mounts, gave no indication he planned to use the apprentice jockey. In fact, Ortiz thought he might use Saturday to serve a one-day suspension he’d received for a whip violation. But to Yomar’s surprise and delight, when the entries came out, he was named to ride seven Claiming Crown races and nine overall. And why not?
Yomar is the hottest jockey riding at Churchill Downs, his 10 wins out of 27 mounts put him second in the standings behind Luis Saez’s 14. That 37-percent win clip is easily the highest among any jockey with more than two mounts. (Yomar is not related to the standout Ortiz brothers Jose and the currently sidelined Irad, though they are close to the young jockey and share the same agent in Steve Rushing.)
“Honestly, I didn’t think I would be riding that day — or that I would be riding very many,” Yomar Ortiz said Sunday morning at Churchill Downs.“But when the entries came out, I was like, ‘Wow!’ I’m excited. I ride a couple for Mike Maker, a couple for Joe. Then I got a couple for Saffie (Joseph), and one for Joanne Shankle. She’s known me since I was a little kid.
“It’s like a big day for like cheaper horses that try and deserve to be on that big stage. I’m just very excited, and I think it’s going to be a good day.”
(That suspension? A second infraction extended it to three days, but he is appealing and will be able to ride.)
Sharp and his wife, former record-setting rider Rosie Napravnik, have mentored Ortiz for most of a year, with Yomar not only working for Sharp as an exercise rider but living with the couple and their two young sons.
“I’ve watched a lot of races my whole life, and I’ve never seen somebody look like him at this stage,” Sharp said. “He knows all of our horses. I never question whether he’s going to fit a horse or not. He’s at home in our barn, so I’m glad to give him the opportunity.”
There’s an additional perk to riding Ortiz in the Claiming Crown, where the races are conducted under starter-allowance conditions, meaning the horses must have competed for a certain claiming price or less within a designated period of time. Even with their stakes-quality purses, mounts ridden by Ortiz under his apprentice allowance conditions can carry seven fewer pounds than they otherwise would. Such weight concessions are not permitted in stakes.
“I feel like the seven pounds are just really a gift with his ability,” Sharp said. “The seven pounds is a bonus. He’s giving 110 percent. He’s doing all his homework, and he’s making the right calls. So, at this point, I think he’s being recognized for his ability more than his weight break.”
Ortiz, who has 11 wins overall in 46 mounts after starting out at Keeneland, said he’s just grateful to be in the top five in the Churchill Downs standings amid arguably the world’s toughest assembly of jockeys. “That’s a big goal,” he said. “Especially against this jockey colony. It’s not easy.
“It’s been great,” he said of officially being a jockey. “I started the second week of Keeneland. We were planning a start here (at Churchill), but we wanted to get the ball rolling for Turfway. I’m trying to learn every day with all my rides.”
Ortiz is from Maryland, literally growing up in the Mid-Atlantic track’s jocks rooms as the son of jockey Yomar Ortiz Sr., who graduated from Puerto Rico’s famed jockey school with Jose Ortiz.
As long as he can remember, young Yomar wanted to be a rider, too, including participating in pony races at an early age. The day after he turned 16 (the minimum age), he got his exercise license and began galloping horses at Laurel Park. Three months later, he started working for Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey before going with Sharp to the Fair Grounds in New Orleans last winter. (Moms and dads out there will be pleased to know that Ortiz said he graduated from high school in January after taking online classes.)
Sharp and Napravnik have been instrumental in preparing Ortiz for a career as a jockey, nurturing Yomar as if he were a third son. The original plan called for Ortiz to begin riding this Churchill Downs meet to set him up for a big winter at the Fair Grounds. The launch date was moved up to Oct. 14 at Keeneland, where Sharp gave Yomar his first mount. Ortiz rallied to finish second after Eli’s Promise hopped at the start. Ten days and 13 mounts later, he came up a narrow opening on the rail to earn his first victory aboard the Sharp-trained Hard Champ.
“I never had any reservations about his ability,” Sharp said. “At the same time, you had to see what he did when he got out there on the track. He’s really just continued to impress us. I was texting with his dad last night, and we’re just really, really proud of him. If he sees something that he’s unhappy with in his riding, he’ll come home and talk to Rosie, talk to me, talk to whoever else. And then he goes right back out the next day and fixes it.”
Sharp acknowledges he didn’t expect his protege to win so much so soon. In Kentucky, apprentice jockeys get a 10-pound weight concession until they win five races. Then they get a seven-pound allowance until they’ve won a total of 40 races, at which time they get one year from that date to benefit from a five-pound allowance before their apprenticeship concludes. However, Louisiana doesn’t have a seven-pound “bug” – the nickname for apprentice allowances because they used to be designated in the program with either three (10 pounds), two (seven) or one (five) asterisks, looking like, well, bugs.
For that, and because the purse money is far better and apprentices do well there, Ortiz now will ride all winter at Turfway Park, where Sharp will run a lot of horses, along with trainers such as Maker and Brad Cox, for whom Yomar already has won. Yomar also plans to ride at the Fair Grounds on Sundays when Turfway isn’t racing, he said.
His biggest fans include Jose Ortiz. In fact, Jose said they would have lived together had the young rider gone to the Fair Grounds to ride. The reigning Kentucky Derby winner said Yomar comes to him after virtually every race to be critiqued.
“He’s very well-prepared,” Jose Ortiz said. “He was very patient, and he didn’t ride until he was ready. His determination to be great is amazing. The last rider I’ve seen that polished since the first day was my brother, and that was in 2011. It took 15 years to see another ‘bug’ so polished, so it doesn’t come around very often. It’s very nice to see, and him being so close to us and being Puerto Rican as well, we are very proud.
“The good thing about Yomar is that everybody loves him. At Keeneland, you can see Johnny V (Velazquez) telling him stuff. Irad, (Tyler) Gaffalione, everybody is trying to help him. Plus, he has Rosie and Joe at home.”
About Yomar Ortiz’s Claiming Crown mounts …
He starts off at the top, riding two-time defending champion Concrete Glory in the $100,000 Ready’s Rocket Express in the Claiming Crown kickoff (race 4) for Joseph, for whom the jockey won Sunday on 10-1 Just Deeds. Concrete Glory would be the first horse ever to win three Claiming Crown races.
“Back home in Maryland, I always wanted to be a jockey, so I would always watch the races, and I would always see that horse on TV winning races,” Yomar said. “And now to know that I’ll get the chance to ride him, it’s crazy. Saffie has been naming me on a couple, so I’m very grateful for that. And I’m just gonna try to make the best of it. And let’s hope he can make history.”
Ortiz rides Ginger Girl for Maryland-based Shankle in the $100,000 Glass Slipper (facing the Sharp-trained likely favorite Coquito); Artemus Citylimits, winner of three of his last four starts at Woodbine before being sent to Sharp for the Claiming Crown, in the $150,000 Canterbury Tom Metzen Memorial; Try to Make Cents, in his first start for Sharp after being based at Parx, in the $125,000 Rapid Transit; Urban Planner in his first start off the $80,000 claim for Maker, in the $200,000 Jewel; and Warrior Officer in the $175,000 Emerald nightcap in another first-off-the-claim ($50,000) for Maker.
“That’s a good kid with a bright future,” Maker said. “His record speaks for itself. He’s riding well, and you get seven pounds. The few races I had watched, he rode a good race, looks great on a horse and is not making any mistakes.”
It would take four scratches by 8 a.m. Saturday, but Ortiz could also ride also-eligible Alinao Forever in the $100,000 Iron Horse Kent Stirling Memorial for Dante Zanelli.
Ortiz thought it a huge deal Nov. 4 when he won two races, one for Sharp and one for Brad Cox. Two days later, he won three (two for Sharp and one for Matt Shirer).
“The other day when I won two, I was like, ‘Wow, that was nice,’” he said. “Then (Friday) I was in shock. I’m still in shock. Even this morning (Saturday), all the support that I’ve been getting from back home from Maryland, so many people texting me, it’s shocking. It feels great. I’ve been trying to just watch the replays and see what I can do better.”
In its 28th year, the Claiming Crown is a production of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association in conjunction with the host track (Churchill Downs) and its HBPA affiliate (Kentucky HBPA).
Story by Jennie Rees, National HBPA communications
On National HBPA Youtube: Hear from Yomar Ortiz (and Sharp, Maker)
Video: Discover the heart of the Claiming Crown
Click here for Claiming Crown overnight entries
Previously
Claiming Crown: “This is what it’s about”
Retired Racehorse Project named official charity of 2026 Claiming Crown
