Victory is a Costume drama

With 3-1 morning-line favorite Black Mamba a late scratch, it seemed the 4-year-old filly Costume might be able to run away with the $150,000 Santa Ana Handicap at Santa Anita on Sunday.

And for most of the 1 1/8 -mile Grade II race, it appeared Costume would do just that. But then things became hairy as the leaders approached the wire and began closing in on Costume.

It took the photo-finish camera to officially determine the first four finishers, three heads separating the group. And it took Santa Anita’s stewards to certify the victory after David Flores, the rider of runner-up Immortelle, lodged an objection. Flores claimed Costume had drifted out and bumped his horse.

The judges acknowledged a “slight shift” by Costume nearing the wire but explained that it was too near the finish line to warrant a disqualification.

The upshot was that Costume, ridden by Garrett Gomez, gave trainer Bobby Frankel his eighth Santa Ana victory in the last 17 runnings of the 41-year-old stakes race for fillies and mares. The winning time was 1:48.08.

Of the stewards’ call, Frankel said: “It was close. I thought [the incident] was right on top of the wire, so I thought maybe it would be all right, but I wasn’t sure. If they would have taken it down, I couldn’t beef because they did come together, but it was right at the wire.”

Gomez, who is now atop the Santa Anita jockey standings with 63 wins, said, “Inside the sixteenth pole, I drifted out to [Immortelle], but when we made contact, we were right on top of the wire, and I had put my stick away.”

Immortelle crossed the wire a head in front of lukewarm 2-1 favorite Lavender Sky, ridden by Alex Solis. Also in the mix was fourth-place finisher Foxysox, with Victor Espinoza aboard.

Costume paid $6.60 to win.

Racing resumes today with a 1 p.m. first post.

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larry.stewart@latimes.com