Two Santa Anita Races Called No-Contest After Incidents, Renewed Safety Calls

Two separate no-contests at Santa Anita Park on Feb. 27, 2026 left bettors refunded and safety advocates calling for action after on-track chaos disrupted consecutive races. The opening race was declared a no-contest after the 3-year-old filly Can’t Say That, trained by George Papaprodromou and ridden by Florent Geroux, broke through the inner temporary rail on the turf course while running in the early stages of the race. Later that card’s second race, a six-furlong sprint for maiden 2-year-olds, was also declared a no-contest after first-time starter Spinning Love ran loose and went the wrong way.

Horseracingnation reported that Spinning Love, trained by Tim Yakteen, left the chute “away in good order” but then hesitated, “jumped to his left,” cleared the temporary inside rail and unseated jockey Alonso Quinonez. The loose horse ran the wrong way along the inside rail through the Club House turn and into the stretch before an outrider “positioned at the starting gate chased the loose horse and was able to herd him towards the outside rail as he headed up the stretch,” Horseracingnation quoted. Track stewards judged the running of the race had been “seriously disrupted” and declared it a no-contest.

The no-contest in race two carried immediate financial consequences for bettors. Horseracingnation reported full refunds totaling $267,507 on all daily doubles involving races two and three, win/place/show pools, exactas, trifectas and superfectas. Multi-race wagers that included race two – Pick 3s, Pick 4s, Pick 5s and the Pick All – were treated as an “All” race for pari-mutuel purposes and remained live, the account said. Yakteen told Horseracingnation that Spinning Love “came out of it absolutely fine” and “headed straight for the stable area and he’s back at my barn now.”

The Can’t Say That incident left details more limited in the initial track report; the original account identifies the filly and her connections but supplies no information about injuries to Can’t Say That or jockey Florent Geroux, nor any immediate wagering figures tied to that opening-race no-contest. Track stewards issued the ruling for the opening race, but the steward report and any veterinary findings were not included in the initial release.

The twin no-contests came against a wider backdrop of heightened scrutiny for Southern California racing after MyNewsLA reported three horses died between Santa Anita and Los Alamitos last weekend and described a fatal breakdown at Los Alamitos in which 3-year-old filly Imm Relentless fell and suffered a fatal injury while unseating jockey Cruz Mendez, who reportedly suffered a serious spinal cord injury. The animal-rights group Kill Racing Not Horses urged regulators to use CHRB Rule 1435 to suspend the race licenses of Santa Anita Park and Los Alamitos, asserting that “No legitimate sport would tolerate the musculoskeletal deaths of six of its athletes in four weeks of competition in just one state, California … We call upon the California Horse Racing Board to suspend the race license of Santa Anita Park and Los Alamitos Race Course under CHRB Rule 1435, per state law passed in 2019.”

California’s SB 469, signed in 2019, gave the California Horse Racing Board explicit authority to suspend meet licenses to protect horse and rider safety after a 2019 crisis that saw 42 deaths at Santa Anita and prompted drug reforms, increased veterinary oversight and surface improvements. With $267,507 in refunds and two no-contests on a single card, the operational disruption at Santa Anita will sharpen scrutiny from regulators, bettors and activists alike as the CHRB weighs whether further action is required and as tracks prepare steward and veterinary reports to explain the chain of events.