Florent Geroux relocates tack to Santa Anita; Nakatani to book rides

Florent Geroux told the Daily Racing Form on Sunday that he will relocate his tack from Fair Grounds in New Orleans to Santa Anita, expecting to arrive on Thursday and begin riding the following day. The move makes Santa Anita his first home base in Southern California and hands agent Matt Nakatani the responsibility of booking his mounts in the region.

Geroux framed the decision around opportunity and a need for more consistent business. “Business has been a bit slow at the Fair Grounds. I’m winning, but I’m not riding a lot,” he said. He added that a hospital visit with Umberto Rispoli helped seal the plan: “I went to visit [Rispoli] in the hospital. We talked it over. I decided to jump on the opportunity.” Nakatani also represents Rispoli, creating an immediate commercial logic for Geroux’s California campaign.

The timing matters to Southern California racing. With Rispoli sidelined after being unseated at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 24, Nakatani’s stable of riders will now include Geroux while Rispoli recovers. Media reports vary on the extent of Rispoli’s injuries, with some accounts describing leg and ankle trauma and other reporting detailing fractures to the ankle, tibia and fibula and subsequent surgeries that are expected to keep him out for several months. That absence creates openings on quality mounts at a meet where top riders compete for Grade 1 opportunities and big purses.

Geroux arrives with form and a résumé that underlines his value. Through last Saturday he had seven wins from 33 mounts this year, all at Fair Grounds. He has 2,319 North American victories since 2007 and began his professional career in 2004 in France. Career peaks include a personal-best 217 victories in 2016 and mounts that earned a single-season high of $21.4 million in 2018, while his North American mounts have banked more than $189 million in purse earnings. He also rode briefly in Japan in December.

Santa Anita is familiar turf for Geroux. He owns five wins at the track since 2014, four of them at Grade 1 level: the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Sprint aboard Work All Week, the 2019 Shoemaker Mile on Bolo, the 2021 Frank Kilroe Mile on Hit the Road and the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Idiomatic. Those credentials make him an attractive option for trainers seeking a savvy rider for top-level assignments during the Southern California circuit.

An Instagram post included in source material claimed Geroux recently became a SeatGeek brand ambassador, but that claim has not been corroborated elsewhere in the material provided and should be verified before being treated as confirmed.

What follows is a market shift as much as a personnel move: Santa Anita gains a proven Grade 1 jockey at a time when its book will be contested heavily, while Fair Grounds loses a high-profile winter rider. All eyes will be on Geroux’s opening rides Friday and on how Nakatani navigates mounts in Rispoli’s absence. The jockey migration underscores how agents, injuries and seasonal economics continue to shape where the best riders ride and where the money flows in North American racing.