Ordonez Savoring Newfound Success With Om N Joy

Aggie Ordonez is not a household name in the world of horse racing. She manages a small string of horses in Southern California and is one of those unassuming types who carry on with her business and enjoy every minute. If it wasn't for one certain 4-year-old filly, Ordonez would be almost anonymous to everyone but her closest friends and family. But Om N Joy has exposed the 59-year-old trainer for what she is: likable, witty, and as positive a person as you'll ever meet, whose love of the game is contagious. Her vehicle for newfound success is a stunning chestnut daughter of Om, bred in California out of the late broodmare Margie's Minute. The owners Connie and Jerry Baker hired Ordonez to be their trainer and with Om N Joy they have been on the ride of their lives for the past year. Om N Joy's racing career began in August of 2024 when she ran in a maiden special weight at Del Mar. She finished third. It would take her eight tries to break her maiden but she finally did it at Santa Anita in March of 2025. It was as if a light had gone off that big head of hers, because the filly rattled off five straight victories, winning a couple of Cal-bred stakes, the Evening Jewel and the Melair, before coming to Del Mar and capturing the Fleet Treat Stakes. Then came her breakout race. A victory over Bob Baffert's Santa Anita Oaks winner Tenma in the G3 Torrey Pines at Del Mar. Ordonez and the Bakers were on cloud nine with their Cal-bred and decided to take another step up with her in the G2 Raven Run at Keeneland in October. She ran a lackluster fourth. "By the end of the summer I noticed she was starting to tail off with her weight," Ordonez says. "She lost a little weight after Keeneland. There was talk of going to the Breeders' Cup, but I said, 'No, we want a strong 4-year-old filly.' She was starting to regress and lighten up on us so we kicked her out to Kingfisher Farms for seven weeks." Ordonez has been around horses all her life. "My dad was an elite jockey on the East Coast and then a trainer," Ordonez says. "I was in love with horses at the beginning. It was also a bond between my dad and I, especially when he became a trainer and I was able to go to the barn with him. I was walking around following my dad around the barn when I was eight years old but I didn't get real serious about it until I was 10." Ordonez was born in Miami, Florida. Her dad, Pete Anderson, would ride in Miami in the winter and New York in the summer. As she grew older her interest in horse racing only got more intense. "Both of my parents always directed me away from horse racing," she recalls. "They wanted me to go to college because when my dad grew up girls weren't even allowed on the backstretch. That being said it was a mutual love that we both had. I think in his heart he was very happy when I was drawn to the sport." Ordonez went to college at Tulane University in New Orleans and afterward got her start in horse racing on the media side. "I was working at Arlington Park doing a TV magazine show on horse racing," she said. "I would go back and interview trainers regarding their horses for the stakes races. I remember thinking during those interviews that I wish I could trade places. That I could be on the other side of the camera talking about having a good horse." She was 24 at the time, doing some publicity and writing for the TV department. At the same time, she was getting exposed to horses coming in from Europe and running in the Arlington Million. Good, talented horses. "I worked in the press box at Hialeah Park as the director of publicity," Ordonez notes, "and then did TV and the press box in the summers at Arlington Park. An opportunity came to train some horses, so I bypassed Arlington and took a small string of horses in Kansas City with some friends. I had planned to go back to Hialeah at the end of summer." She never did. "I went to Kansas City to the Woodlands," Ordonez states. "My jock there was 'Cowboy' Jack Kaenel, and we crushed it. We won five races out of 25 and almost hit the board on all of them. I had so much fun. I was getting all of my own horses and doing my own stalls and rubbing my own horses. It was a one-man show and I loved it. It was cheap racing. I'm talking the feature might have been $7,500." When the meet at Kansas City ended, she trained a little bit more at Remington Park and then went to Turf Paradise. "I wasn't making any money but I was working with horses all day and having a blast. I had friends in Kansas who were just planning on running in the summer but then I met a few people who wanted to give me a horse to go to Oklahoma. My dad sent me a horse to go to Phoenix and that kept me going with four or five horses." It was while working in Arizona that she got a phone call that would change her life forever and set her on the journey that has led to today. "I got a phone call from Brent Sumja," Ordonez says of the successful Northern California trainer. "He was looking for an assistant. I had met him in Florida when he was there to buy horses to take back to California. He wanted to know if I wanted to come to California and be his assistant. It sounded like fun. He had 70 horses and a lot of action. I said sure if I could bring a horse with me that I owned and that my dad had bred." And with that, Aggie Ordonez was off to the races with a big barn, managing a lot of horses. "I got so much experience," Ordonez admits. "You learn so much from cheap horses. A lot of them just need the TLC. Brent is an excellent businessman, and he counted on me to know 'legs' and to work on horses with therapy. I was getting on the horses and getting on the pony. It was a lot of hours and a lot of hard work. But I was following my heart and doing what I love." The job introduced her to Golden Gate Fields, Bay Meadows and the Northern California fair circuit in 1997. She had been an assistant for Sumja for seven years when he decided he was retiring. "He told me there were some good clients who would stick with me," Ordonez contends. "He encouraged me to do it on my own. One day he said he was out and I decided I was going to take the rein and one week later I found out I was pregnant." The next 20 years was training horses and raising her son. She liked having a family and bought a house. That was life. But things were beginning to change on the Northern California racing circuit. Bay Meadows had closed, and there was talk of shutting down in the north to save racing in the south. "I was the first one out of there," Ordonez says. "I saw the writing on the wall. It didn't look like it was going to last at Golden Gate and I took a leap of faith. At the time I had a few horses who I thought were of the caliber to make the transition. More importantly, I had some great people supporting me. I had become good friends with Connie and Jerry Baker." The Bakers are a Glendora couple who made their money in real estate and got into the horseracing game in 2016 when they claimed a mare named Margie's Minute. She did well, winning twice in 10 races for the Bakers. When it came time to retire her from racing the Bakers couldn't part with her, so they decided to venture into the world of breeding. "I came to Del Mar (in 2022) thinking I was probably going to have to return to Golden Gate," Ordonez says. "They (the Bakers) asked to talk to me at the end of the meet, and I had just run a horse for them that had not run so well. I thought I was about to get fired. We sat down on a bench outside of the paddock at Del Mar, one on either side of me, and they told me they loved me and they'd love for me to be their trainer, but they did not want to go back to Golden Gate. I thought about it for about one point five seconds and said, 'I'm not going back to Golden Gate Fields I'm going to Santa Anita.' They were thrilled and I called Santa Anita and applied for stalls." It would be a struggle. Everything outside of the racetrack was a challenge. Trying to negotiate the living expenses and being down in Southern California by herself. But when she was at the track with her horses life was ideal. "The truth is I grew up at first-class racetracks," Ordonez claims. "Hialeah was my playground. Belmont and Monmouth and the Meadowlands. So when I came to Santa Anita it felt like I was coming home. It felt it was a much more natural fit at Santa Anita than it ever was at Golden Gate Fields." Throughout it all, Ordonez has had to deal with the fact that she's a woman working in a male-dominated sport. She feels things have got better with time. "I have a lot of great woman to thank for breaking through and Carla Gaines especially," she notes. "She's done great things in the sport and forged a path for all women in the future. That being said I just keep my head down and work hard and don't listen to any negativity. I do my own thing and dance to the beat of my own drum." She was dancing with delight the day a van pulled up at her barn and Om N Joy walked out. "I still have the video of her walking off the van," Ordonez admits. "The Bakers remind me because I was taking the video for them and you can hear me in the background saying, 'God bless Margie's Minute.' I only had Vodka Vodka. I knew he was a runner, but he was having some complications early as a 2-year-old and then I saw his half-sister come off the van and saw right away this is another good one." It has been a love affair from the very beginning and now Ordonez has that quality horse she dreamed about having back during her Arlington Park days. "I let her lead the way," Ordonez remarks. "She's a sweetheart of a filly. She enjoys her job and she's very laid back. She was getting better, bigger, stronger with every race last summer here at Del Mar. What a glorious summer that was. It gave me so many incredible moments that I'll remember hopefully when I'm 102. It was the time of my life." Fast forward back to late January of this year when Om N Joy returned to the Ordonez barn following her brief freshening. "I told them I need a hundred pounds," Ordonez remembers. "When she came back they were a little short. They gave me 90 pounds and I said 'I'll take it.'" Ordonez gradually brought Om N Joy back with long, jogging, regrouping sessions to get her back in form. When it came time to return to the races, Ordonez wasn't shy. She started with the G1 Beholder at Santa Anita in March where the filly finished third followed by the G1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park in April where she finished fifth behind a filly named Nitrogen. "We started with some ambitious races," Ordonez admits, "and I wasn't disappointed in any of them. I thought she represented. In Hot Springs I thought she was coming into the race of her life and it was respectable but when she came back and won the Santa Margarita that's when I knew she had turned the corner. She was looking and running like a 4-year-old." The G2 Santa Margarita at Santa Anita was a four-horse affair featuring Seismic Beauty, winner of last year's G1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar and favorite in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at the seaside oval last fall. Om N Joy was running dead last at the quarter pole before she kicked into gear and ran them all down to win, setting her up for her next big challenge, this year's Clement L. Hirsch in August. "I was thrilled with her race in Clement Hirsch," Ordonez claims. "Kent (Desormeaux) and I talked about things the evening of the race and we didn't know if we wanted to laugh or cry because what a joy she is and what a blessing of how she continues to improve and show up every time. "But you almost want to cry when you see her surge so late," Ordonez adds, "and gallop out so strong. You wonder where was that a sixteenth of a mile ago. But that's just her. She's so mellow and laid back that there's nothing that's too intense for her. She does things on her time and when she's ready. She gave us a glimpse in the final strides of that race that she's a top-class filly and may be competitive in the Breeders' Cup." Om N Joy came out of the race surprisingly spright and that got the wheels turning again for Ordonez. Soon came word that she was considering the G1, $1 million Pacific Classic. "I look at all horses the day after they work and the day after they race," Ordonez pointed out following the Clement Hirsch, "and she jogged the road for her checkout with spring in her step. She jogged as good after the race as the day before. "Sometimes the distance is the difference," Ordonez reasoned. "How many great horses actually want that mile and a quarter. Most don't. She does. I know she loves Del Mar. I know she's at the top of her game. I don't have a filly mare route dirt option for her and I'd still have five weeks to get her to the Zenyatta (at Santa Anita)." So Ordonez put her in with the boys, and she hit the board, running a respectable fourth. How has all of this newfound notoriety changed Aggie Ordonez? Hardly at all, except for maybe everyday routines. In the middle of the interview, she had to step down. "I'm sorry I'm getting so many calls every day," she said with a chuckle. "I'm not used to this. It's funny."