Friend: ‘Nobody Killed Ron Hansen’

An admitted race-fixer and friend of late jockey Ron Hansen, whose body was found on a levee near the San Mateo Bridge three years ago, said the Northern California rider was not the victim of a gang murder.

The name of Hansen, who in 1990 was suspended for six weeks by Golden Gate Fields in a race-fixing investigation, has resurfaced following investigations into suspicious races at Bay Meadows and Los Alamitos. The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed federal source, reported Sunday that the FBI’s investigation of Hansen’s death has been reopened.

“I’ve heard all the stories about Hansen and the Mafia and the casinos in Las Vegas,” said Richard Sklar, a professional gambler from Northridge who pleaded guilty to race-fixing charges at Los Alamitos. “Nobody killed Ron Hansen. He was drinking and he tried to run away from from an accident.”

In October 1993, Hansen reportedly was driving 100 mph when his white Jaguar rear-ended another car late at night on the San Mateo Bridge south of San Francisco. Hansen apparently left the scene of the accident and jumped about 10 feet from the east end of the bridge. His body, which was identified through dental records, was found by a truck driver three months later, not far from the bridge.

“Everybody wants to think he was murdered because the water is only two to eight feet deep at that end of the bridge,” Sklar said. “But there’s mud there, and you could get stuck in it. [Jockey] Jack Kaenel, who was a friend of Hansen’s, told me that he went near there with his boat and almost got caught up in the mud where the water was only a foot deep. And Kaenel wasn’t drinking at the time. I’m convinced that this is what happened to Hansen.”

According to sources, there is believed to be no connection between the Los Alamitos race-fixing in 1995 and a California Horse Racing Board investigation into a race at the Bay Meadows Fair last August. At Bay Meadows, the two favorites finished off the board and bets on the trifecta (the first three finishers) at racebooks in Nevada resulted in payoffs of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board recently said two Lake Tahoe racebooks are within their rights in withholding payoffs of $82,210 to a bettor who bought tickets on the trifecta. The bettor is expected to appeal in court.

The Bay Meadows race was for thoroughbreds. The Los Alamitos races linked to Sklar were for Arabians. Los Alamitos jockey Richard Pfau, who has been charged in U.S. District Court along with Sklar, is expected to enter a plea later this month.