The day begins on the Oklahoma Training Track each morning, nice and early, for Jaime Torres.

“Just getting to know these horses in the morning, that way in the afternoon, it's a little easier,” said Torres, in between working out horses for trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

It’s what has helped the 25-year-old jockey earn big opportunities in his young career.

In May, he was aboard Seize the Grey, piloting the three-year-old colt in Preakness Stakes to win his first Triple Crown race.

“Amazing, amazing. A dream come true,” Torres said. “I didn't even [think] it was going to be that quick. We all want to get there.”

It's a bit surreal for someone who watched thoroughbred racing for the first time just five years ago. The Puerto Rico native, with no horse background, actually grew up competing in track and field, specializing in the 400-meter hurdles.

“It changed my life,” said Torres, on watching horse racing in 2019. “When I saw, I fell in love and then I started going more to a track. And I just start asking, how can I be a jockey?”

Torres enrolled at a jockey school, where he was an exercise rider before moving to Florida. That’s where he continued to workout thoroughbreds for trainers like Saffie Joseph, Jr.

Little by little, he was losing weight and earning his jockey license.

“Super special; when I knew that you get paid for it, I was like no way,” he said. “I’m going to do something I love and I'm going to get paid for it.”

Last year, Torres was the leading NYRA apprentice jockey with 37 wins. Now settling in at Saratoga — which he calls his favorite meet — for the second straight summer, he hopes time in the New York riding colony will only continue to elevate his game.

“It’s one of the prestigious meets in the country,” said Torres, who won the Spa opener jockeying Empty Tomb in the mile-and-an-eighth race. “So it means a lot being here, and [competing] with these guys that I have been learning a lot from them. So it is very special.”