Race 2 declared no contest after rider unseated at the start

The second race at Santa Anita on Thursday was abandoned and declared a no contest after jockey Geovanni Franco was unseated at the start of a one-mile race on the main track, on a section of the track the remaining runners would have traversed in the final yards before the finish.

Flatterwithjewels stumbled and unseated Franco shortly after the start.

The runners were near the end of the backstretch when riders were instructed to pull up their mounts. Track stewards made the decision to abandon the race out of concern over Franco’s condition.

Franco was motionless for several seconds before rising when sirens were triggered to indicate an abandoned race,” steward Luis Jauregui said.

“We decided [to abandon]) for safety,” Jauregui said. “The outriders did a fantastic job. When we alerted the sirens, everyone followed the protocol.”

Franco was on his feet shortly after the siren was sounded, Jauregui said. He was cleared by doctors to resume riding.

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“He got up on his own,” Jauregui said.

Slightly two hours after the second race, Franco won the sixth race on 2-1 Diamonds Danzing.

Flatterwithjewels was not injured, trainer Phil D’Amato wrote in a text message. The 7-year-old mare ran back to D’Amato’s stable where she was caught, he said.

Bets specific to the second race - such as win, place, show, exacta, trifecta and superfecta - were refunded, as were multi-race bets - such as the daily double and pick three - that began with the second race, according to track senior vice president Amy Zimmerman.

Other bets, such as the pick five that began in the first race, and the pick four that began in the second race, were priced as ALL, reflecting any of the horses as winners, Zimmerman said.

The track has three mechanisms to inform riders of abandoned races - communication from outriders stationed on the course, an alert from track announcer Frank Mirahmadi, and a network of sirens and warning lights on the inside rail that is also used during morning training, Zimmerman said.

Cancellations of active races are rare in Southern California.

A race at Del Mar in August 2021 was canceled after a frightening spill that involved seven horses when a runner clipped heels with a rival on the backstretch of a sprint. On that day, one horse fell causing four trailing horses to be brought down. Two other horses farther back in the field lost their riders.

None of the horses sustained serious injuries, a Del Mar track official said at the time, but four of the riders were briefly hospitalized.

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