Santa Anita: Race declared no-contest after loose horse runs toward rest of field

Benoit & Associates

With an outrider in pursuit and the field coming off the turn, a riderless Spinning Love heads the wrong way up the Santa Anita stretch, disrupting the race to the extent stewards declared it no contest.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The second race at Santa Anita on Friday was declared a no-contest after one of the runners unseated his jockey at the start of a six-furlong race, reversed direction and ran toward the oncoming field in the stretch, causing the remaining riders to briefly stop riding. Stewards Scott Chaney, Kim Sawyer and Tom Ward reviewed the race before declaring that the race was a no-contest.

The incident began when Spinning Love ducked to the inside shortly after the start and unseated jockey Alonso Quinonez. Spinning Love collided with a temporary rail and began running clockwise on the racetrack around the first turn, instead of down the backstretch.

An outrider positioned near the gate tried to grab the reins on Spinning Love, but missed. Spinning Love continued running clockwise around the first turn and had turned into the stretch when track announcer Trevor Denman, acting on orders from the stewards, told the remaining riders to pull up their mounts. At the time, the other five horses were midway on the turn.

Spinning Love ran on the inside of the track when he entered the stretch but was guided to the outside of the track by a second outrider. As a result, Spinning Love was far wide of the five runners when he ran past the rest of the field in the stretch.

No jockeys or riders were injured in the incident. Quinonez rose on his own power on the track and was taken to first aid for a precautionary examination.

As a result of the incident, bets were refunded in the win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, and superfecta pools, as well as the daily double pool that began in the second race. A total of $267,507 in wagers was refunded.

The daily double that began in the first race, which was won by Inner Grove ($6.80), was paid off on the combination of 4-all, returning $6.20.

Multi-race wagers that began in the first or second race such as the pick three, pick five and pick-all were considered valid with the second race classified as an "all" result.

The $1 pick three ending in the third race paid $8.60 on the combination of 4-all-7.

Friday’s race was the first race to be voided since the third race on March 3 of this year when the starting gate failed to open simultaneously in a seven-runner race on the hillside turf course.