Matt Garcia gets first win since 2013 injury

ARCADIA, Calif. – A weekday maiden claimer was a milestone win for veteran jockey Matt Garcia at Santa Anita on Thursday.

Garcia won Thursday’s fifth race on Stir Fry ($3.20), his first victory since suffering neck and back injuries in a spill at the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale in August, 2013. Garcia was out of racing while recovering from the injuries, and resumed riding at Santa Anita in late January.

Stir Fry was the sixth mount of his comeback. Garcia, 45, has won 888 races in a career that began in Oregon in 1992. He has won five graded stakes in his career, the most recent of which was the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes for 2-year-old fillies with Buffythecenterfold at Del Mar in 2002.