THOROUGHBRED RACING : Missing Jockey Hansen’s Rides Have Belonged on the Wild Side

A racetrack is a rumor factory even in quieter times, and since the disappearance of jockey Ron Hansen six days ago, tracks all over California have been in the overtime gossip mode.

Starting on the Santa Anita backstretch, there was an unconfirmed report that Hansen was spotted in Canada. That story traveled well, at about :34 4/5 per three furlongs, as it made the rounds of the barn area.

Another rumor had Hansen had contacting his parents in Idaho, where he grew up on a dairy farm.

“I know one thing,” a trainer familiar with Hansen said. “He didn’t have any money when he took off. His wallet was found in the car, right? Well, he doesn’t have any money, because he never carries any. He goes around in jeans that don’t have any pockets.”

An investigator at the Alameda Police Dept., near the Northern California community where Hansen lives, chuckled at all this.

“In this day and age, without a wallet, and without pockets, he still could have gotten to an automatic teller,” Lt. Greg Garrett said.

Garrett was not chuckling about the lack of cooperation his department has received since Renee Hansen, the jockey’s wife, filed a missing-person report Sunday. Hansen’s English sports car was found abandoned early Saturday on a bridge near Bay Meadows, about a mile beyond where it had rear-ended another car.

“We’re still looking,” Garrett said. “We’re running into a lot of uncooperative people. We’re getting a lot of no-comments all over the place. If these are friends of this young man, you’d think that they’d be more willing to help.”

The California Highway Patrol, which might slap Hansen with a hit-and-run charge when he shows, isn’t conceding that the jockey was in the car when the accident occurred. Hansen’s agent, Wayne McDonnell, is convinced he was in the car. Hansen’s wallet was found in the glove box, and Renee Hansen said that was where he usually kept his wallet. And the driver’s seat was adjusted close to the wheel, where the 5- foot-4, 114-pound jockey could comfortably operate the controls.

Hansen, a 33-year-old jockey who has ridden more than 3,600 winners, had been traveling at high speeds for some time. In 1990, a few days before he was to ride Video Ranger in the Kentucky Derby, he told reporters at Churchill Downs about his bizarre courtship and marriage.

“I rode a horse that didn’t do much at Bay Meadows one day,” Hansen said. “As I was coming off the track, this girl comes up and spits on me. I didn’t like getting spit on, but she looked pretty good, so I turned to my agent and said, ‘Tell her I’ll meet her over at the Hillside after the races.’ ”

They did meet at the bar near the track, and a few months later they were married in Las Vegas. For the ceremony, Hansen said, everyone was nude, including the minister.

Video Ranger, a former $40,000 claimer, would be 65-1 in the Derby, and his trainer, Ian Jory, wondered why so many reporters were showing up at his barn. When he heard about the stories Hansen was telling, Jory understood the crowds.

Because the story about the wedding sounded like Hansen and Las Vegas, several reporters ran with the tale. A couple of days later, in an interview with a San Francisco reporter, Hansen said the story wasn’t true. Video Ranger finished a surprising fourth in the Derby and was a close second in the Jersey Derby at Garden State Park.

Northern California turf writers privately rooted for Hansen to win stakes races at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields, because they knew the postrace quotes would be lively. Hansen didn’t even clam up when Golden Gate banned him for a five weeks during a 1990 investigation into jockey bribery and race- fixing.

“You could read between the lines and see that I was innocent,” Hansen said. “The guy that tried to nail me (jockey Doug Schrick) was jealous. We had gone out with the same girl when we were riding at Longacres.”

Schrick received a 10-year suspension, and charges against Hansen were later dropped.

When Jory was training Best Pal early in the horse’s career, he hired Hansen to ride in a stakes race at Golden Gate. Best Pal finished second, then went on a four-race winning streak.

“For a long time,” Hansen joked, “I was the only jock to get that horse beat.”

In the summer of 1990, Hansen showed up at Del Mar, even though he wasn’t riding there. He was spotted in the crowd one day, drinking beer.

“I’m down here to get a job grooming for (trainer) Charlie Whittingham,” Hansen said. “His grooms make more than I ever could.”

Months before, Whittingham learned that his bookkeeper allegedly defrauded him of an estimated $2 million. There were indications that paychecks of $30,000 a month had been written to fictitious grooms.

Right up to his disappearance, Ron Hansen’s roguishness was intact. According to Renee Hansen, he phoned her from San Mateo about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, about an hour before the accident.

“He told her he was in San Mateo and was going to stay overnight with a buddy,” said a sergeant with the Alameda police. “She said that was all right. Boy, if all of us could only have that kind of latitude. Maybe we’ll find out that this guy just took a vacation and forgot to tell his wife.”

Horse Racing Notes

Some Nevada racebooks can’t decide whether Sardula or Strategic Maneuver, the 2-year-old from New York, should be favored in future-book betting on the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita four weeks from Saturday. Strategic Maneuver is undefeated in four races and Sardula will be unbeaten in three if she wins the $200,000 Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita Saturday. Sardula’s second start, in the Del Mar Debutante, was awesome. She won by 7 1/2 lengths, running a :44 3/5 half-mile and finishing seven furlongs in 1:21 3/5. Owners Jerry and Ann Moss, who won the Oak Leaf last year with Zoonaqua, will run an entry of Sardula and Rhapsodic in the 1 1/16-mile race Saturday, making up two-fifths of the field. Tricky, with jockey Gary Stevens, is on the rail, and outside them are Sardula, Eddie Delahoussaye; Emerald Colony, Corey Black; Viz, Alex Solis; Phone Chatter, Laffit Pincay; and Rhapsodic, Chris McCarron. All of them will carry 115 pounds.

Star Of Cozzene has already beaten last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile winner, Lure, and on Saturday he will try to beat Fraise, who won the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 1992. The race is the $500,000 Turf Classic at Belmont Park. Star Of Cozzene has the same jockey, Jose Santos, and the same trainer, Mark Hennig, but he’ll be running for new owners, the four-member Japanese syndicate that bought the 5-year-old from the Team Valor group for about $3 million. Hennig says that after Saturday, the Breeders’ Cup Turf is out and the Japan Cup on Nov. 28 is next. It would cost his owners $240,000 to supplement Star Of Cozzene into the Breeders’ Cup.

Since his Breeders’ Cup victory, injuries have limited Fraise to three races and one victory, although he finished first in the Hollywood Turf Cup and was disqualified. In his last start, more than five months ago, he was third in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita, behind Kotashaan and Bien Bien. Kotashaan, preparing for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, will be running Sunday in the $300,000 Oak Tree Invitational at Santa Anita. . . . Besides Star Of Cozzene and Fraise, George Augustus, Solar Splendor and Apple Tree are running in the 1 1/2-mile Turf Classic. . . . The favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint may come out of Saturday’s seven-furlong Vosburgh at Belmont. Alydeed will try to make a comeback against five rivals--Ibero, Birdonthewire, Loach and the entry of Take Me Out and Lion Cavern. Alydeed started the year with three consecutive victories, then lost two in a row and hasn’t run since mid-June. Ibero beat him, and Bertrando, in the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont on May 31.