Page 166 - September 2019

Gary Sumpter and 2-Time Champion My Easy Credit after their victory in the 1977 Rainbow Derby at Ruidoso Downs.
“In the jockey’s room, we’re cutting up, we’re telling jokes, we’re friends. When we get
in the starting gate and pull the goggles down, the friendship was over. Go to the front and take the horse with you. After the race, we go back,
we play cards, we’re the best of friends again.”
Looking back, Sumpter noted that Real Wind was one of the best horses he ever rode. But, there were others.
“My Easy Credit, he was probably one of the best three year olds I ever rode, that Walter Merrick trained,” Sumpter said. “Real Easy Jet was another.
“I rode a lot of Thoroughbreds, too,” he added. “These mixed meets like we have in New Mexico and throughout the country, you had to ride both to make a living at it. One race might be 250 yards, the next might be a mile and a sixteenth.”
Sail On Bunny was another standout horse for Sumpter. With Sumpter aboard, Sail On Bunny logged three Grade 1 futurity wins for owner Jake Cascio.
Sumpter remembers these horses not just
for their ability on the racetrack, but their personalities as well: “My Easy Credit was one that had a lot of personality. I ran five or six in
a row on him. Where Walter trained him, it was kind of like a family deal. Real Wind, she was a super mare and had a lot of personality. Around the
barn area she was like a big puppy dog, but when you got her on the racetrack she was all business.” The same could be said for the mindset
of Sumpter, who spent the lion’s share of his racing career running on the thriving New Mexico circuit: Sunland Park, Albuquerque, and Ruidoso.
“Back then, the racing was tough. I think there were some of the greatest Quarter Horses that
ever ran down that racetrack that we competed with,” he said. “There’s a lot of good ones now. I was just very fortunate to get to ride with all those guys: Jerry Nicodemus, Jerry Burgess, the list goes on. They’re all retired now. We all kind of retired about the same time, I guess.
“In the jockey’s room, we’re cutting up, we’re telling jokes, we’re friends,” he added. “When we get in the starting gate and pull the goggles down, the friendship was over. Go to the front and take the horse with you. After the race, we go back, we play cards, we’re the best of friends again.”
Injuries eventually forced Sumpter out of the irons in the early 1990s, and the list of
broken bones and fractures is a daunting one. Eight screws and a plate in his right ankle. More screws in his other ankle. Nine screws and a plate in his right knee. A broken left
leg. Five broken shoulders – three on the right, two on the left. Plus multiple collarbone fractures, more broken ribs than Sumpter could count, and a broken pelvis.
“I rode bulls for about 10 years before I ever started riding races. I got hurt more riding horses than I ever did riding bulls,” Sumpter said. “It’s a chain reaction. It happens in a matter of seconds. There’s no time to think.
If you think, you’re done. People don’t realize how dangerous it is. I always said, no guts, no glory. You take chances. We’re all out there for one thing and that’s to win.”
Sumpter noted he got to race for some of the all-time top trainers in the sport as well: names like Clifford Lambert Sr., Jack Brooks, and Walter Merrick. “The Merrick family is like my second home,” Sumpter said. “They call me all the time, see if I’m doing all right. I’m just very fortunate to have ridden through those great years.”
Gary Sumpter and Sail On Bunny after winning the 1982 Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos Race Course.
164 SPEEDHORSE, September 2019