With Hall of Fame Ride from Mike Smith. (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif.—When discussing Saturday’s $80,000 Lure Stakes, Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella Friday morning noted, “Sumter seems to be better than ever for some reason.” A day later, with help from a nifty ride by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, Sumter ran to his training and won for the first time since April 2022 in the Lure, a restricted stakes going one mile on turf at Santa Anita.
Sumter entered the Lure after 16 consecutive defeats, the most recent coming Aug. 29 in a classified allowance going a mile on turf at Del Mar. His previous win, 30 months ago, came in the Singletary Stakes at Santa Anita.
“Sometimes it takes me four or five years to learn how to train one,” Mandella quipped from the Winner’s Circle.
Sumter was joined in the field by stablemate Seal Team, the 2-1 favorite who was making his first start since winning the GII Twilight Derby on the Breeders’ Cup Saturday undercard at Santa Anita. He finished a no-threat fifth. Both Sumter and Seal Team are homebreds for Perry and Ramona Bass.
“He had a good trip,” Mandella said of the winner. “He’s been training out of his mind. I was going to enter him in an allowance race next week. But the other horse hadn’t run in a while and might be rusty, so I thought we’d take a second chance at it.”
Man O Rose, the 3-1 second choice, sped to the early lead under Edwin Maldonado and set fractions of 23.22 and 45.62 seconds for the opening half mile while 4 ½ lengths clear of a tracking Sumter. On the backstretch, Smith made an early move on Sumter and the pair hustled up to engage the leader. Sumter had a head in front when reaching the quarter pole in 1:09.28, opened up in the stretch and then had to dig in light to hold off a fast-closing Mi Hermano Ramon (13-1) by a neck.
The winning time was a sharp 1:32.90.
“We were blessed to have a really good trip,” Smith said. “Mr. Mandella really liked him today. He said he was doing really good. He actually put it in my head and said, ‘Listen, somewhere down the backside going into the far turn, go ahead and don’t wait on him. Give it to him and see what he does, because if you wait on him, he hasn’t been finishing like we believe he could.’ So, I did it and it worked.”
El Potente (6-1) with Hector Berrios finished third and War At Sea (19-1), ridden by Jose Valdivia for trainer Ron Ellis, completed a superfecta that paid $267.29 for $1.
A 5-year-old gelding by War Front, Sumter improved to 23: 4-4-5 with $385,050 in earnings. He paid $10.80, $5.80 and $3.80. Runner-up Mi Hermano Ramon, ridden by Antonio Fresu for trainer Mark Glatt returned $11.60 and $6.80. El Potente, trained by Dan Blacker, paid $5.40.
“(Lure) is probably to this day the greatest grass horse I’ve ever ridden. He was just an amazing horse. To ride him for the Claiborne family, the Hancock family, that in itself is really special. Actually, the Hancock family are a little bit a part of this. Mrs. Dell Hancock and Ramona Bass are dear friends and so to win this today, to win the Lure stakes, it means a lot to me,” added Smith.
