Jessica Pyfer’s win aboard Summer Love in Friday’s second race at Del Mar was a multi-layered joy for the 22-year-old apprentice rider.
It was her first victory at the seaside track north of San Diego, Calif., and the fifth of her burgeoning career, which triggers the step from a 10- to seven-pound weight allowance, the initial sign of accomplishment for apprentice riders. And it came after getting a leg up from her stepfather, trainer Phil D’Amato. To that point, D’Amato starters had been 0-for-12 at the Bing Crosby meeting.
“It’s very special to win here,” Pyfer said. “I’ve been coming here since I was a little girl, six or seven years old, and it’s like my second home. Every summer I used to come here and idolize the jockeys in the room and now I’m one of them.
“To win for my dad is even more special. He’s the man who helped me through the years and has helped me get my riding career started. To him I’m very thankful.”
Summer Love, a Kentucky-bred 3-year-old daughter of Summer Front, had one victory in five career starts and was 0-for-3 in Southern California since coming under the care of D’Amato in early summer following two races in Florida for trainer Michael Stidham.
Jessica Pyfer, soaking wet from an initiation by fellow riders, celebrates her first win at Santa Anita
A pair of optional claiming level tries here last summer with first Abel Cedillo and then Ricky Gonzalez in the saddle proved fruitless. Pyfer got the call for a $25,000 claiming event at Santa Anita on Oct. 3 at Santa Anita and the result was a fourth-place finish, the best of the filly’s career other than her maiden win.
Summer Love was the 7-2 second choice on the morning line Friday behind 5-2 Invincibella, but they were virtual co-favorites $2.70-1 going into the gate.
Summer Love sped to a clear lead at the start, was in front by four lengths at the midpoint of the mile run on dirt, padded the lead to five turning for home and won by 4 3/4 lengths to the cheers of Pyfer’s racetrack family and owners from the Agave Racing Stable and Little Red Feather partnership.
Pyfer, born in Denver, Colo., stands 5′ 2” and weighs in at 110 pounds. She is a college (Azusa Pacific) graduate who has spent her whole life on or near horses.
Pyfer’s mother, Sherri Alexander, has been a horsewoman and exercise rider since her youth. She was seven months pregnant with Jessica and galloping horses in California before going to Denver to give birth. She had her daughter on the backs of ponies and horses very soon afterward and Jessica competed in her first riding event as a 4-year-old.
Sherri returned to California when Jessica was five for an opportunity to gallop horses for trainer Mark Glatt in Southern California. That led to a further galloping opportunity with the late trainer Mike Mitchell where she and his then assistant, D’Amato, met and became friendly. In due course, D’Amato took over training many of Mitchell’s horses after he passed, while his friendship with Sherri evolved to the point where it led to marriage.
Growing up, Jessica became a regular at the D’Amato barn and, when she wasn’t in school, also was riding horses in events whenever and wherever she could. When she turned 16, she got a racetrack license and began galloping horses for D’Amato as well as other trainers, something she delighted in around her book work for the next six years. Her parents encouraged her to go on with her schooling and she even took the law school entrance test (LSAT) and did well enough on it that that door was open to her. But still her passion for the horses was strong and growing stronger and then — it led to a “moment” for her.
“I was at home with my family at dinner one night,” she recalled. “I’d finished college and I’d been galloping lots of horses. I even got asked by (Hall of Fame trainer) Richard Mandella to gallop some of his horses. That really got me to thinking about what I wanted to do. And then out of the blue my dad says: ‘Go ahead and do it. If you’re going to be a rider, this is the time for you to try. Go ahead.’”
Asked if there were personal or family rituals established for celebrating big victories, Pyfer replied in the negative. Then her eyes lit up above the mask covering the lower half of her face.
“I’ll start a tradition now,” she said. “We’ll pick a restaurant and go out to dinner.”
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