He has won four of the last five Eclipse Awards as North America’s outstanding jockey and has averaged 320 wins annually the last eight years. At age 30, Irad Ortiz Jr. has risen to the top of his profession. Ortiz also has developed a reputation as an aggressive rider, who in his quest to win walks the tightrope of daring and dangerous. “I’m very competitive, but I would never try to put somebody in danger,” Ortiz said. “Everybody who knows me, knows how I am. I am very competitive but I’m not going to try and drop somebody, that’s for sure.” Ortiz wins so often in large part because he regularly rides for Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher, two of the top trainers who have some of the best horses in the game. Ortiz is the regular rider of Forte, who on May 6 will start as the favorite in the 149th Kentucky Derby, one of the few major races Ortiz has yet to win from six mounts. Forte is trained by Pletcher, the eight-time Eclipse Award winning trainer who has teamed with Ortiz to win 144 races since 2021. “I think he’s improving in that area, but also what makes him great is his competitive, aggressive style,” Pletcher said. “It’s a matter of fine-tuning it without changing too much.” :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2023: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Asked if he’s had any conversations with Ortiz regarding his aggressiveness, Pletcher said, “I’ve just told him you’re going to win a lot more races when you’re not suspended.” Adds Steve Rushing, Ortiz’s agent: “It’s better to lose one race than five days. In the heat of battle, he just wants to win so much.” Ortiz has reduced his number of infractions. In December 2021, Ortiz received a 30-day suspension for incidents on consecutive days at Aqueduct. In the first, Ortiz allowed his horse to bump another one, unseating jockey Omar Hernandez Moreno, who fortunately was uninjured. The next day, in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes, Ortiz, aboard Mo Donegal, tightened things up late on Zandon and John Velazquez near the wire. Mo Donegal won by a nose. Since then, Ortiz received a pair of suspensions for careless riding in 2022 for which he served three days, one at Saratoga, one at Keeneland. He served a three-day suspension earlier this year at Gulfstream Park. “I try to do better every day. If I make some mistakes, I try to fix it,” Ortiz said. Ortiz and Rushing both indicated that jockeys John Velazquez and the retired Ramon Dominguez have advised him over time on correcting those mistakes. This will be the third straight year Pletcher has entrusted Ortiz with a top Derby mount. In 2021, Ortiz rode Florida Derby winner Known Agenda to a ninth-place finish. Last year, Ortiz rode Wood Memorial winner Mo Donegal to a fifth-place finish. In both cases, Ortiz had the disadvantage of the rail post position, one that hasn’t won the Derby since 1986. “With Mo Donegal it hurt a little,” Ortiz said of the post. “We all know he doesn’t have that much speed early. He broke a step slow. I tried to get a position. They right away start coming over. I had to take a hold and I was last maybe. After that I had to be after him the whole time and still only got beat five lengths. I think with a better post he probably could have won.” Five weeks later Mo Donegal came back to win the Belmont Stakes, Ortiz’s second victory in that classic event. Forte overcame post 11 at Gulfstream to win the Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 1. Ortiz said he did not work out the type of trip he was hoping as two horses he expected to be forward to his inside instead stayed relatively in place next to him. He had to take a hold of Forte and found himself farther back than he wanted. Forte got passed by Mage approaching the quarter pole and re-rallied to pass that horse by one length in the stretch. “When [Mage] went by me that was the first time I showed him the stick and he jumped on the bit right away,” Ortiz said. “In my mind I was like, I can get there for sure. He kept coming and he got there.” :: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. Ortiz has ridden Forte in all seven of his races, six victories, including four Grade 1 stakes wins. He said the biggest change in the 2-year-old champion from 2022 is his mentality. Instead of wanting to run with horses, Ortiz said Forte is happy to run away from them. “I thought he was going to be the same horse I rode last year, but when I worked him the first time he was totally another horse,” Ortiz said. “I said let’s see what happens next time and he did it again. Then he come back and win the Fountain of Youth easy. You could see his mind changed a lot. He knows what he’s doing. He’s sharp and he wants to do it.” Ortiz, a native of Puerto Rico, wants a Derby trophy on his mantel. He first rode the race in 2013 on 30-1 shot Uncle Sigh, who finished 14th. He rode favored Improbable in 2019 and finished fifth without excuse. “I’ve been dreaming of that race since I go the first time. I fell in love with it,” Ortiz said. “Hopefully, we can make it happen.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.