Clifford W. Sise, Jr.

Cliff Sise grew up near Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., just down the street from trainers Jimmy Jordan and Ray Bell. Sise loved horses, and his first racing experience was walking hots (cooling out horses after exercise) for Jordan. He later worked as an exercise rider and even rode races as a jockey from 1967 to 1970.

Sise took out his trainer's license at age 20 and worked as an assistant for a few years before training his own string full time and left the industry to run a catering truck for eight years in the 1980s. Sise began training again in earnest in 1990 and won his first graded stakes in 1996 when Paying Dues won both the Vernon O. Underwood Stakes and the Los Angeles Handicap. Eleven years later he captured his first Grade 1, the Ancient Title Stakes (now known as the Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes), and finished second in the 1997 Breeders' Cup Sprint with Idiot Proof. 

Sise returned to training in 2014 after a three-year hiatus when he spent time managing a Southern California training center and briefly training Thoroughbreds for Prince Faisal in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Sise won the 2015 La Jolla Handicap with Prospect Park and he trains 2016 Kentucky Derby hopeful Danzing Candy, who won the San Felipe Stakes in March.