USA: Jose Ortiz will make a flying visit to Royal Ascot next week believing that Breeders’ Cup winner Pizza Bianca has given him his best chance yet of riding a winner at the historic fixture.
Former US champion jockey Ortiz, who rode two fifth-place finishes on his last trip to the meeting seven years ago, is set to partner the Christophe Clement-trained filly who is owned by celebrity chef Bobby Flay in the Coronation Stakes on Friday June 17.
The G1 contest promises a stellar line-up featuring all three of Europe’s major 1,000 Guineas winners Homeless Songs (Ireland), Cachet (Britain) and Mangoustine (France) plus last year’s leading juvenile filly Inspiral.
Reigning Eclipse Award winner Joel Rosario is also set to jet in for Friday’s card, where Clement is set to field Slipstream in the G1 Commonwealth Cup.
Pizza Bianca, set to be joined in the Coronation by unbeaten US compatriot Spendarella, already has one verdict over Cachet, who was back in fourth when she captured the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf at Del Mar.
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“I think she is a better ride than my previous rides at Ascot,” said Ortiz, who won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding jockey in 2017.
“She has run with Cachet already in the Breeders’ Cup,” he added. “Cachet has become a very nice filly now and should be one of the favourites.
“We know it’s a tough race but we have a nice filly so hopefully she shows up. This race will be round a bend but for us it’s the wrong way so it will be the first time she has gone that way [right-handed]. It won’t be easy but we are going to try.”
“I was always going to go if Pizza Bianca went to Ascot as it doesn’t happen often that they take horses from here to there, so when the opportunity comes you have to take it and try to win it. It would be a dream come true to win a race there.”
Ortiz, 28, is likely to spend just one day at Ascot because of commitments in New York while older brother Irad, 29, will be around all week to ride the Wesley Ward challengers. The Puerto Rican siblings are set to meet on the track with Irad, who will be riding at the royal meeting for the first time, also in line to partner Graham Motion-trained Spendarella.
“I haven’t told Irad what to expect,” said Jose. “He’s a professional. He’s won a lot of races and ridden in Dubai. He will do his own homework and I am sure he is going to do well.”
On his last visit Jose Ortiz finished fifth in both the Queen Anne Stakes and King’s Stand Stakes, each run over an unfamiliar Ascot straight. “The last time I was there it was great,” he said.
“Riding on a straight was a little different but I studied the races and tried to follow the other jocks that knew the track very well. I think I gave them good rides and it was a great experience. I really loved the track and the environment and the people there are very classy.”
Ortiz won his second Triple Crown race when guiding Early Voting to victory in last month’s Preakness Stakes. That colt does not contest the Belmont Stakes so the jockey will switch to the Todd Pletcher-trained filly Nest on the Saturday before Royal Ascot.
Ortiz, who won the Belmont in 2017 on Tapwrit, said: “She will be the only filly in the group but she ran second in the Kentucky Oaks. She is a really nice filly and I feel like we’ve got a very good shot.”
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