Riccio, Ortiz Ride Fate, Hard Work to the Top of the Game

[Wandering Eyes]

Growing up the son of a successful racehorse owner has its perks. Days hanging around the backstretch, getting to know and experience the animals up close, seeing firsthand the fast-paced roller coaster that is a racing life. But also attached to the deal is the heft of living in your father’s shadow within the game, particularly if you happen to share his name.

Jimmy Riccio, Jr., beginning with a push from dad, taking off from one chance encounter and soaring via a lot of elbow grease and teamwork, has achieved his own dream and established an independent legacy for himself and his client, a young man who has broken out of an elder’s shadow in his own right.

“I actually loved racing pretty much my entire life,” Riccio said in between fielding calls while sitting on a bench at the east end of the Belmont grandstand. “My dad’s been an owner and I used to follow his horses and go to the track and root for them. One summer when I was still in college, my dad came up with a brainstorm, and he’s the reason I became an agent. It was his idea.”

Riccio, Sr. had a string of runners at Monmouth Park and he approached Nick Santagata, a regular in New Jersey and the mid-Atlantic who racked up over 4,000 wins in his 30-year career, in that summer of 1997.

“Nick needed an agent, so my dad said, ‘Why don’t you take my son? He has a huge passion for the game. I think he’d be good. I have a bunch of horses and you could ride those,'” Riccio recalled. “I started out doing it while I was still in college, but once I did it, I knew, this is what I wanted to do.”

Riccio even threatened to quit college and become an agent full-time, but his parents insisted he finish his degree. Once that was done, he jumped in with both feet and picked up the book of emergent apprentice Julian Pimentel in 2001. It didn’t take long for Riccio to make a national impact alongside the young Colombian. The pair compiled 145 wins and over $4 million in earnings that year, which led to an Eclipse Award nomination for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey, with the top honor ultimately going to Jeremy Rose.

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Riccio established himself in the business thanks in large part to that whirlwind first-year of accomplishment. While doing well enough over the next decade, he saw nothing close to what he was about to embark on when sitting by the training track at Belmont one morning in the fall of 2012.

Jose Ortiz, like Jimmy Riccio, grew up in a horse racing family. His grandfather and uncle were both jockeys in Puerto Rico, and he and his brother Irad’s most memorable Christmas gift was a pony from their father when Irad was five and Jose was four. They learned to care for the pony as kids, connecting them inextricably with horses and facilitating their dreams of becoming the family’s next generation of riders.

After completing training at the Puerto Rico’s state-run Escuela Vocacional Hipica jockey school, Irad Ortiz, Jr. made the leap to America in 2011 and caught on almost immediately as a bug rider on the New York Racing Association circuit. Meanwhile, Jose continued his training and waited for his opportunity while keeping close watch on Irad’s early success.

“It was great, I was very proud of him,” he said. “Not just that he left Puerto Rico, but that he came to New York, to the Mecca of racing and was doing okay, so I was a proud brother. I was in the jockey school and it was great to, at lunchtime, turn on the TV and watch him win a couple of races.”

After honing his craft at Camarero in Puerto Rico, Jose Ortiz got on a plane to the United States in March of 2012 and rode a handful of winners at Parx before following in his brother’s footsteps to the NYRA circuit. Business was chugging along for the apprentice, but he had yet to truly break through in the ultra-competitive colony and was agent-less by that October.

Sitting in his car, Jimmy Riccio saw Jose Ortiz pull up next to him. There was no one else around, so the two of them started talking. Riccio had heard Ortiz was looking for an agent and seized the opportunity.

“I gave him a pitch as to why I thought me and him would be a great team,” Riccio recalled. “He listened to me and said he would run it by his brother, Irad. A little while later, they called me. We met, and they discussed what my plans would be, and would I stay with him after he lost his bug. And I told him, ‘Look, I think we’re going to do great,’ and told him what I thought we could do, and it’s worked.”

That’s quite an understatement. After spending a few years as the lesser-known Ortiz brother, Jose broke out in 2016, earning his first Saratoga riding title and finishing third in the voting for Eclipse Champion Jockey. A year later, he reached the top of the mountain, ringing up over $27 million in earnings, capturing his first Classic aboard Tapwrit (Tapit) in the GI Belmont S. and taking home the top rider award at the Eclipses this January. In an emotional speech, he thanked both his brother and his agent for getting him to the pinnacle of racing.

“I never thought it would be this fast and in our wildest dreams to do what we’ve done,” Riccio said. “He’s just a special person. When he gave that speech and thanked me at the Eclipses, it brought a tear to my eye. He’s someone who means a lot to me, more than just a business relationship. He’s become part of the family. We hang out a lot. He’s friends with my dad, they’re buddies. We love his daughter and his wife. And my family, my wife and kids, they all just click, and it’s a special thing.”

Riccio points to one recent example to demonstrate the quality of person Ortiz is. Monmouth Park hosted a charity basketball game to raise money for children with special needs, and Riccio called to see if his client and friend would be interested.

“I asked Jose to come on a Monday from [Belmont], which can take three hours in traffic,” he said. “He didn’t blink an eye, said, ‘I’ll be there.’ He showed up, he played, he had the time of his life.”

That enthusiasm and positivity makes Riccio feel a more paternal joy for Ortiz’s success than he would for a regular client.

“This isn’t like working,” Riccio said. “I feel like I just want the best for him, you know? And of course, we’re making money along the way, which is always good, but there’s more than that. I just enjoy seeing him succeed and that smile. You see it, when he smiles, when he wins and he’s petting that horse, that’s just Jose. It’s sincere.”

Who knows what would have happened to each of their careers had Jimmy Riccio and Jose Ortiz not happened upon each other that fateful morning on the Belmont backstretch? Perhaps they would have found similar success elsewhere, but likely not. And Riccio thanks his lucky stars every day for that chance encounter, the one that’s taken the son of a successful owner and the 25-year-old from Puerto Rico to unimaginable heights.

“It was just unbelievable that he pulled up right next to me when I was hoping to talk to him,” Riccio reflected. “I feel like someone helped me out, you know? Just, someone was looking out for me.”

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