Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem Nov. 9, 2026

A good Monday morning to you all! I wanted to write today about the quick ascension of apprentice jockey Yomar Ortiz Jr. at Churchill Downs and about apprentice riders in general. The 17 year-old has burst onto the scene scoring his 10th win on Sunday after a riding triple earlier in the week. He’s already graduated from a 10-pound apprentice to a seven-pound apprentice and is hitting at over 20% while riding for some very good barns. He’ll be a seven-pound apprentice until he wins his 40th race, which at the rate he’s going, might be early on in the Turfway Park holiday meet that starts in a few weeks. 

He’s represented by Steve Rushing, who is one of the top jockey agents around. That will obviously help him not only in his apprenticeship, but beyond that when he becomes a journeyman. The next year or so will be a chance for Yomar to showcase and improve his abilities while he has the weight break advantage before becoming a journeyman. His five-pound apprenticeship will last for a year after his 40th career win.  

Almost all jockeys go through the apprentice ranks, although I have heard of some riders who struggled with weight just wave the allowance weight break from the start, but honestly only remember seeing riders at really small tracks or fair tracks doing that. But the journey is an interesting one to follow because it’s filled with a lot of hope, and for some, a lot of winners. I remember working in the racing office and some trainers would come in and just ask who the apprentice riders were, because to them, saving the five pounds was more important than who specifically was riding their horse. As a handicapper I rarely ever considered weight before that, but since then I always at least check it out when looking at a horse, figuring if it was that important to the trainers it must mean something. I always just kind of assumed five pounds extra on a thousand-pound animal just wasn’t going to make that much of a difference, but maybe it does? 

One interesting point about apprentice riders is how long does it take for them to get name recognition from the betting public. For Yomar Ortiz Jr., not only has he gotten off to a fast start, but he’s riding for big name barns and has already had a decent push of press releases and stories about his career getting underway. For some players, I think there’s a bit of dismissal of riders they haven’t heard of. I’ve told the story many times of a friend who was a trainer and had saddled an apprentice jockey to ride for him. When they were in the paddock the owner looked at the trainer and said, “I’ve never heard of this jockey,” to which the trainer replied: “Well the good news is he hasn’t heard of you either.” It’s a funny little story, but I think it just points out how sometimes people are dismissive or concerned about a rider if they don’t know the name or don’t know much about them. 

I’ve talked to many apprentice riders on the podcast over the years and one thing that’s so exciting about this part of their career is the optimism and potential. These young riders have their whole careers in front of them. Some will go on to great success, and some will probably just wither into a tiny window of history within the game. Most of them are eager to ride as much as possible and at as many tracks as possible. Laurel always seems to produce a lot of really good apprentice riders and I think part of that is the year-round racing but also the fact that there’s a half dozen tracks within a couple hours drive for riders to go and get more mounts and take advantage of that apprenticeship window. What an exciting time in their lives. 

Have a good week everyone!