Jose Ortiz Steps In, Wins True North With Firenze Fire
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Elsa Lorieul
Firenze Fire wins the True North Stakes at Belmont Park
A slight wave in the air of the riding crop at the finish line by Jose Ortiz said it all.
That quick gesture was one brother's sign of love and affection for another as Jose sent a message to his older brother, Irad Ortiz Jr., while crossing the finish line first with Firenze Fire in the June 4 $300,000 True North Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park.
In a perfect world, Irad would have been aboard Firenze Fire, as he was for the 6-year-old's last two starts. But a June 3 spill that will sideline the older sibling for about two weeks ended those thoughts and opened the door for Jose to step in and ride the grade 1 winner for trainer Kelly Breen.
"I'm just happy I didn't mess it up," Jose said.
The younger Ortiz, winner of the 2017 Eclipse Award for outstanding rider, had a pretty good safeguard against that in the classy and remarkably durable Firenze Fire. Perhaps better than ever at 6, Mr. Amore Stables' homebred son of Poseidon's Warrior made it two straight graded stakes wins to start 2021 and kick start his drive for a fifth straight appearance in the Breeders' Cup.
Kelly Breen (left) and Ron Lombardi lead Firenze Fire into the winner's circle following the True North Stakes at Belmont Park
"He's unbelievable," owner Ron Lombardi said about his homebred. "He's great now."
As happy as Lombardi was after the victory, his thoughts also turned to Irad who has been a partner in much of Firenze Fire's success.
"I want to wish Irad a speedy recovery," he said. "It was great having his brother aboard him today but this is Irad's horse. He rode him a little differently than Irad, putting him on the lead instead of coming off the pace, but he did the job. Jose knew he had a lot of horse and he did what he needed to do."
Regardless of who has ridden him, Firenze Fire has been "a lot of horse" since he won the 2017 Champagne Stakes (G1) with Irad aboard. In a 33-race career, the son of the Langfuhr mare My Every Wish has won 14 times with four seconds and three thirds and earned $2,484,350.
"He may not win every time," Lombardi said, "but he always delivers. He recovers well from a race. There hasn't been a race where he didn't try."
Lombardi said the July 4 John A. Nerud Stakes (G2) at Belmont would be the next start for his horse for two main reasons. He's now 7-for-10 at Belmont Park and the Nerud offers a free spot in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) to the winner.
"He's 2-for-2 this year and the goal is to get to the Breeders' Cup again," said Lombardi, whose 6-year-old won the Runhappy Stakes (G3) to open 2021. "That was the decision we made after last year, when we decided to continue racing him. I wasn't sure what his stud fee would be since his pedigree is not the best, so the Breeders' Cup is where we want to go."
Ortiz sent Firenze Fire ($4.10), the 6-5 favorite, out for the lead and quickly engaged in a duel on the front end with Lane's End Racing and Hronis Racing's Flagstaff , the 7-2 co-second choice in a field of seven.
It was a two-horse race from there with Firenze Fire leading narrowly through fractions of :22.71 and :45.39 before he put away Flagstaff in the final furlong and drew off to a 1 1/2-length win in 1:15.52 for the 6 1/2 furlongs over a good racetrack that turned sloppy minutes after the race due to an intense rainstorm.
Flagstaff, a son of Speightstown trained by John Sadler, was 2 1/4 lengths ahead of Sanford Goldfarb, Irwin Goldfarb, and Estate of Ira Davis' American Power , a 6-year-old offspring of Power Broker trained by Rob Atras.
Firenze Fire is the first of five foals for My Every Wish, who also produced the stakes-placed Firenze Freedom. She also has a weanling full brother to Firenze Fire.