Nakatani Rides Despite Pain Over Death of Younger Sister

Before Wednesday’s first race, Tom Ward, a steward at Santa Anita, asked Corey Nakatani how he was feeling.

“I’m OK,” the jockey said.

“You going to be able to ride?” Ward asked.

“I’ll make it,” Nakatani said.

Nakatani would say later that he was in a haze then. His 22-year-old sister, Dawn Nakatani, had died in a West Covina hospital only hours before, the victim of a strangulation at her Baldwin Park apartment about midday Tuesday.

“I felt that I had to ride and get away from it,” Nakatani said late Wednesday, after riding one winner from four mounts as the Oak Tree Racing Assn. opened its season. With $9.7 million in purses, Nakatani is No. 3 on this year’s national money list.

In a large family--five brothers and four other sisters--Dawn Nakatani was close to many of her siblings. She would baby-sit three children for Corey and Michele Nakatani, and her brother was proud that despite rearing a 3-year-old son, Dawn was able to recently finish high school.

Sgt. Bob Del Gado of the Baldwin Park Police Dept. said that Alfred Gutierrez, 26, is being sought for questioning in the death, but did not identify him as a suspect. Del Gado said that Gutierrez is an “ex- boyfriend” of Dawn Nakatani’s and has a criminal record.

Corey Nakatani won the third race with Elmhurst, a 6-year-old gelding who hadn’t won all year.

“It finally hit me after the third race,” the 25-year-old jockey said. Gary Stevens and Pat Valenzuela were riders who consoled him in the jockeys’ room.

“I was in the dark until that point,” Nakatani said. “After I talked to them, I finally came to reality. I don’t know how much riding I’ll do. I’ll just have to see how I feel.”

Dawn Nakatani earned a diploma from Northview High in Covina, the same school where her older brother had starred as a wrestler years before.

Del Gado said that she was found in the laundry room of her apartment. He said that the police have placed her son in protective custody. The boy’s mother died about midnight Tuesday at Queen of the Valley Hospital.

“I hope they catch [whoever killed his sister],” Corey Nakatani said. “God works in mysterious ways. He’ll see to it that they catch him.”

“Corey’s been through a lot,” Ward said. “A few years ago, a cousin, someone he was very close to, died at an early age and Corey took it very hard.”

Nakatani rode one more race after his win astride Elmhurst, then returned for a sixth-place finish aboard Bouche Bee in the $106,400 Autumn Days Handicap.