Hansen Still Licensed by State Board

The banning of jockey Ron Hansen by Golden Gate Fields last Sunday apparently was the result of an investigation into Bay Area racing that began about a month ago when two Las Vegas race books suspended betting on Bay Meadows thoroughbred races after recorded losses estimated at $500,000.

The two books, at the Stardust and the Desert Inn, said they had noticed unusual betting patterns on races, and Scotty Schettler, manager of the book at the Stardust, said, “I’d rather book wrestling than racing from Bay Meadows.”

Hansen’s case is complicated. Although he has been banned from competing at Golden Gate--under what race tracks generally refer to as the exclusion rule--he is still licensed by the state racing board.

Hansen’s attorney has asked the racing board to issue a stay order, which would suspend Golden Gate’s action and enable Hansen to ride there, pending a hearing.

Ed Stetson, a racing board investigator, said Wednesday that the board is trying to determine whether it has jurisdiction to review an order issued by a track’s management. The Golden Gate stewards, who are responsible to the racing board, have not issued a ruling against Hansen.

Since signing the ban against Hansen that went into effect Sunday night, Peter Tunney, the track’s general manager, has declined comment.

Wayne McDonnell, Hansen’s agent, has called the ban “the biggest joke I’ve ever heard.”

Hansen, 30, who has averaged almost 220 thoroughbred winners a year for the last seven years, rode 147 in the 109-day season that ended Jan. 22 at Bay Meadows, another Bay Area track. Hansen also was the leading rider early this season at Golden Gate with 18 winners.

Several attempts to reach Hansen, McDonnell and Hansen’s attorney were unsuccessful.

Hansen, a native of Logan, Utah, rode his first winner in 1976 in Idaho. He was voted the top apprentice in Canada in 1978, when he finished third among North American apprentices in wins.

He was Canada’s leading rider in 1979 and 1980 but failed in an attempt to crack the tough Santa Anita-Hollywood Park-Del Mar circuit in the early 1980s.

He has been successful almost everywhere else, though. He was the leading rider at Pomona for four consecutive years and has been among the leaders at Sportsman’s Park in Illinois, Canterbury Downs in Minnesota and Longacres near Seattle.

When Russell Baze, the perennial Bay Area riding champion, moved to Southern California, Hansen became his successor, winning 111 races at Bay Meadows in 1988 and ’89 and riding Simply Majestic to three stakes victories at Golden Gate.

Since 1983, Hansen has won at least 207 races a year. His best year was 1989 when he had more than 230 wins and purses worth $3 million.

The banning of Hansen is the latest in a series of problems at Bay Area tracks.

At the end of 1988, Tony Diaz, a six-time Bay Meadows riding champion, was caught carrying an electrical prod--known as a battery--after winning a race at the San Mateo track. Diaz was given a two-year suspension.

Early last year, jockey Bryan Campbell reported that jockey Doug Schrick had offered him $1,000 to lose a race. The racing board has suspended Schrick for 10 years, and he also faces criminal charges for attempted bribery in a trial that began this week.