Claiborne born and raised WAR FRONT son Sumter became his sire’s 101st stakes winner on Saturday when the Bass Stables homebred won the Listed Pasadena Stakes at Santa Anita.
Making his first start since breaking his maiden in November, Sumter took the lead in the one-mile turf race with a horse right at his neck and a third at that one’s hip. Flavien Prat was one of the last jockeys to start moving and once he did, he raced away from his longtime rivals.
Another horse closed late but Sumter still won by three-quarters of a length for his first stakes victory in his first stakes start.
“We felt good about his chances today,” said trainer Richard Mandella. “His last couple works were pretty impressive. He’s always shown a lot of talent and I thought he might do well on the dirt, but he surely didn’t. Today, he was on the lead, but he was pretty relaxed doing it and that’s always the key.”
Sumter is one of two winners out of the stakes winning and Grade 2-placed A Little Bit Sassy alongside his stakes winning full sister Pizzazz. That mare is one of two stakes performers for her own stakes winning dam Miss A. Bomb, who is a half-sister to the Grade 2-placed dam of Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Red Bullet.
WAR FRONT’s current crop of 3-year-olds has been another banner crop for the brilliant sire. He has 21.05% stakes performers from the crop with three stakes winners, including two juvenile graded stakes victors.