John Ortiz picked up his first graded-stakes win of the year Saturday when Brightwork scored in the Grade 3 Prioress. His 2-year-old filly Quietside finished second in the next race, the Spinaway (G1).

Those results were part of a successful run at the Spa, where he won half of his 12 starts.

Ortiz, who began training on his own in 2016, seems comfortable with his stable.

“Everything overall is going really well,” he told Horse Racing Nation on Tuesday. “We’ve picked up lots of 2-year-olds. We pick up 3-year-olds every spring, we go to the yearling sales and work diligently there to create some of these athletes in the fall, spring and summer. We picked up a couple new clients, a lot of local breeders. That’s always good. It feels like we get an endless supply of horses rolling in each year. Couple new guys in the business as well. So we’re happy.

“I think the key has been we’ve been very patient with a lot of horses and placing them in the right spots this year,” he said. “You see the quality of horses keeps continuing to grow in our barn, and as you can tell, I can’t complain when you have such a great Saratoga meet.”

He has about 60 horses in training and sees that as the sweet spot for his operation.

“We’ve been maintaining between 50 and 60 heads. It’s kind of the number that we like. We’ve grown up to 89 horses in the past, and then we get a little strung out too much. And I like to be hands on. It’s hard for me to be everywhere at once. But having the right help has helped, between my brother (Daniel Ortiz); Lindsey (Reynolds), my main girl; my main assistant Sandra Washington, those three have really kept this barn alive a lot in the eight years I’ve been training.”

Like many trainers, Ortiz credits his team. “All the riders that help, and everybody’s just a big team effort, the hot walkers to the grooms to everybody that’s involved in our barns, just such great team players. And that’s all I really asked for to help us succeed.”

Unlike many trainers, Ortiz pays his workers on salary, rather than by the job or the hour. The result, he said, is that “everybody’s happy. They get a fixed salary for the year. They do the right work because they’re not worried about what their next checks look like.”

Ortiz lives in Lexington, Ky., and considers Keeneland his home track. He said he’ll have about 30 to 35 horses in Louisville this summer.

“I have 15 at Churchill. We’re going to get ready to move to Trackside, open a barn there,” he said. “… We keep our Keeneland barn all spring for 2-year-olds and horses legging up and in preparation for Saratoga. … Would love to be year-round at Keeneland, but Rice Road stalls are limited.”

Ortiz discussed some of the top horses in his stable for the latest in HRN’s Barn Tour series.

Brightwork. The 3-year-old Outwork filly’s rallying win by a half-length in the Prioress was her first start of the year. She started her career with four straight wins, including in the Spinaway, then she was fifth in the Alcibiades (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, her only starts longer than seven furlongs. “She laid it all out there (in the Prioress),” Ortiz said. “It was incredible seeing that kind of effort first off the 10-month break. She’s been ready to run for about two months now. We had her pointed toward the Test, and she was just right going into that race. (She was scratched in the paddock after she reared up and lost her footing.) So we took an extra three weeks, I guess, to get her ready for the Prioress. And it all worked out. It all fell into plan, as it should. And just to see that big effort, those two fillies coming down the stretch. Kudos to (runner-up) Two Sharp. Because after breaking her maiden like that (with an 11 1/4-length win at Saratoga) and stepping up like that, especially towards a proven filly, a Grade 1 filly, I think she’s going to be something to look out for in the future. But this was also Brightwork’s first off the bench. And I think we have a lot to improve. I think she’s just getting started. To see that transition from a 2-year-old to a 3-year-old off a big break and such a big effort speaks volumes to her quality.” He expects her next start to be at Keeneland, perhaps in the Raven Run (G2).

Quietside. The 2-year-old daughter of Malibu Moon won her debut at Saratoga by 6 1/4 lengths before her runner-up effort in the Spinaway. “What a great effort, so proud of her. Obviously disappointed in the results, but you can’t be disappointed in a horse that tries that hard. She ran all seven furlongs that day and more because she got caught wide. … Quietside, she does remind me a lot about Brightwork, how talented she is, and kind of a little bit of the same frame at this point. But I think she’s a little bit soft, she’s still a little physically immature. And I can’t wait to see her develop. She’s running on pure talent and ability. I think there’s a lot more room for her to grow. And being a Malibu Moon filly, I think that there’s definitely some room for us to stretch her out.” That stretch-out could come in the Alcibiades (G1) at Keeneland. “I think it’s a good track to try your horses two turns first time out. You have a short stretch from going into the first wire, and I think that really does benefit horses that like to sit off the pace.”

Crown Imperial. The 3-year-old Classic Empire filly won her debut and then won only one of her next nine starts, all stakes. She was third last out in an Ellis Park allowance. “She’s doing great. She’s been at Ellis Park this summer. We wanted to just give her a little bit of a break, class relief. She broke her maiden, and she’s been in a stakes race ever since. So we dropped her back down to the allowance level to get her a shot to get herself together. She’s a very small horse, and we thought this early in her career that what would happen with her was she’s going to get outgrown and her races would become a little bit more difficult. And I think we were right about that. But we decided to sprint her back at Ellis Park, and she ran a good third in an open 3-year-old race in preparation for the Music City, Grade 2, straight 3-year-old fillies.”

Happy Is a Choice. The 4-year-old gelded son of Runhappy is 3-for-6 this year after finishing third in the black-type Jeff Hall Memorial Stakes at Ellis Park last out. “He’s doing fantastic. He stayed locally at Churchill all summer as well. He ran a race at Ellis Park. He ran a third, just kind of got taken out of the race a little early and never was able to make that running move that he normally does. But he’s doing fantastic. I think we’re going to look at Churchill with him and run him in the Louisville Thoroughbred Society” on Sept. 14.

Unsung Melody. The 4-year-old daughter of Maclean’s Music won her last two starts, the Saylorville at Prairie Meadows and an optional-claiming allowance at Saratoga last out. “Unsung Melody’s doing fantastic. She came out of that race in really good shape, very confident. She’s been growing a lot, and I think this filly’s finally at that maturity level where she’s all about her business in the afternoon. She’s a filly that we train very lightly, and she performs really hard in the afternoons.” She’s pointed toward the Open Mind, also on Sept. 14.

Boss Lady Bailey. The 4-year-old Connect filly is 1-for-7 this year, with her only win coming in a Saratoga allowance. She was eighth in an optional-claiming allowance at Kentucky Downs on Thursday. “I don’t think she really liked that course. But we’re going to try to get her in the Dowager, Grade 3 at Keeneland, see if we can close the year out. She ran so well for us this summer, and obviously a Saratoga win is very special. I think we just need more distance and a flatter racetrack.”