Grappling with Lou Gehrig's disease, Sise wins with final runner
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DEL MAR, Calif. – As the fillies and mares left the paddock prior to the eighth race at Del Mar on July 26, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith found trainer Clifford Sise among the crowd assembled on the rail.
Sise, sitting in a wheelchair and accompanied by his son Robert, gave Smith a thumbs up. Smith beamed a million-dollar smile at Sise and returned the thumbs up.
It was the best way to communicate.
Smith was aboard Sise’s Danzing Flyer in the $16,000 claiming race for nonwinners of three. Minutes later, Danzing Flyer won the six-furlong race by 1 1/4 lengths after setting the pace and holding off a late challenge.
“I was just hoping she’d win,” Robert Sise said recently.
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The 5-year-old Danzing Flyer was Sise’s final starter. The veteran trainer was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 2024.
As soon as he dismounted from Danzing Flyer in the winner’s circle, Smith walked over and hugged Clifford Sise.
“I started crying at the eighth pole,” Smith said as he walked to the jockeys’ room. “I haven’t cried in years.”
Sise, 74, had a few horses training in his name in recent years, even though his condition has steadily deteriorated because of the neurological disease. Fellow trainer Mark Rheinford helped Sise with the day-to-day needs of the horses.
Sise resides in a home on a property in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., owned by Pam Wygod, who, with her late husband, Marty, were long-time patrons of Sise’s. For the Wygods, Sise trained such runners as Idiot Proof, a millionaire stakes winner, and Prospect Park, a graded stakes winner.
Idiot Proof won the Grade 1 Ancient Title Stakes at Santa Anita in 2007 and was second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Monmouth Park that year. In 2008, Idiot Proof was second in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Sprint in Dubai.
Prospect Park won the Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap for 3-year-olds on turf at Del Mar in 2015 and was second or third in five other graded stakes in a four-year career.
Sise also trained Paying Dues, the winner of three sprint stakes who was second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Woodbine in 1996, and Danzing Candy, who won the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita in 2016. Danzing Candy was 15th behind Nyquist in the Kentucky Derby two months later with Smith aboard.
Smith and Sise have stayed in touch in recent years despite the effects of the neurological disease.
“He loves Mike Smith,” Robert Sise said of his father. “Mike texts him all the time.”
Clifford Sise had a brief career as a jockey in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1970, he won a career-best 20 races. He later worked as an assistant trainer before launching his training career in 1989. Sise won 831 races as a trainer.
Sise was the trainer of two horses at the start of the Del Mar meeting. Rheinford attended to Danzing Flyer in the paddock on July 26.
Danzing Flyer, owned by Sise’s wife, Lorrie, was claimed that day by trainer Paul Aguirre, who said he contacted the Sise family in advance to seek permission to submit the claim.
Sise’s other runner, Danzingwith Maxine, unraced since September, was recently transferred to trainer Mark Glatt. A 5-year-old mare, Danzingwith Maxine won three races with Smith aboard in 2024 and 2025.
Clifford Sise no longer communicates verbally, Robert Sise said.
“We ask him quetions and he texts back,” he said.
There is no cure for ALS. Since late July, Sise’s condition has worsened, his son said.
“It’s been a little downhill,” Robert Sise said. “He gets weaker by the day.”
But on one recent Sunday afternoon, the Sise family gathered at Del Mar to watch the family’s racing mare reach the winner’s circle.
“My dad was thrilled,” Robert Sise said.
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