California Trainer Mike Mitchell Passes Away
Trainer Mike Mitchell, who won no fewer than 19 titles on the Southern California circuit in a career that spanned five decades, passed away late Tuesday in his Monrovia home after a length battle with brain cancer. Mitchell was 11 days shy of his 67th birthday.
The son of trainer Earl Mitchell, Mike Mitchell was born in Bakersfield, California, in 1948 and worked for the likes of legendary conditioners Farrell Jones and Willard Proctor before striking out on his own in 1974. He won his first race that season at Bay Meadows. Regarded for much of his career as a claiming trainer, Mitchell nevertheless had his fair share of success at the stakes level, and took his first added-money event at Santa Anita in 1978, when Johnny’s Image won the Santa Catalina S. It was the first of 20 stakes winners at the ‘Great Race Place’ for Mitchell, his last stakes success coming via the popular gray mare Egg Drop in the GII Goldikova S. in late 2013. Mitchell orchestrated the career of Kela, who provided him with his first Grade I in the 2004 Bing Crosby H. Obviously, perhaps the best horse trained by Mitchell, was a five-time graded-stakes winner, including back-to-back runnings of the GI Shoemaker Mile S. in 2013 and 2014. Mitchell curtailed his activity after being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2012, and handed over the stable to his long-time assistant Phil D’Amato in April 2014. At the time, he was the fifth all-time leading trainer at Santa Anita with 659 wins, trailing only Bobby Frankel, Charlie Whittingham, Bob Baffert and Ron McAnally.
Of his 19 training titles, six came at the various meetings at Santa Anita including his first during the 1992-93 winter/spring stand. He won an additional four titles at Oak Tree (1983, 1995, 1996, 2004), five times at Hollywood Park (1982, 1983,1985, 1993, 1997) and was seven times the leading conditioner at Del Mar (1981-84, 1995-96, 2011), where he remains the all-time leading trainer by number of career victories with 476. He also won the training title at the Fairplex in 2008. According to Equibase statistics, Mitchell recorded a total of 2,690 career victories with stable earnings of nearly $67.3 million.
Friends and colleagues paid tribute to Mitchell Wednesday.
“The thing about Mike that I loved about him, was he had so much faith in himself, so much confidence,” said retired Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr. “He was one of my biggest supporters and we had a lot of success together. He knew his horses and every time he told me a horse was doing well, they ran that way. When I rode for Mike, he never gave me instructions and when I rode for him, I had a lot of confidence. He was a great trainer with claiming horses and with stakes horses. He was one of the best I ever rode for.”
Added well-regarded jockeys’ agent Scotty McClellan, “As competitive as he was, Mike loved to laugh. He just loved to laugh and hear new jokes–and play practical jokes. He was a great trainer and a great person as well–one of the best I’ve ever been around.”
Mitchell is survived by his wife of 30-plus years, Denise, a twin sister Cheryl and brothers Earl Jr., Guy and Casey. His daughter McCall is married to Boomer Bloodstock’s Craig Rounsefell, while daughter Shea is the wife of jockey Julien Leparoux. Funeral services are pending.