Jockey Gets Favorable Decision : Horse Racing: Ron Hansen could be back in the saddle today after being barred from riding for more than a month.

Ron Hansen, the leading Bay Area jockey who has been effectively barred from riding at California thoroughbred tracks for more than a month, got a favorable ruling from the California Horse Racing Board on Tuesday. He could be back in the saddle as early as this afternoon.

In accepting the recommendation of Ben Felton, special hearing referee, the CHRB overruled the unilateral decision Golden Gate Fields management made last Feb. 5, when the Albany track banned Hansen without citing specific reasons. Santa Anita Park management later reciprocated with a similar ruling of its own.

Technically, however, the board’s Tuesday ruling was simply telling Golden Gate Fields management that it had no basis on which to deny Hansen access to the race track. Allowing him to ride horses could be another matter entirely as the legal process continues to unfold.

At the hearing before Felton, an attorney and former CHRB chairman, on Feb. 16, racing board investigators tried to establish a case that linked Hansen to alleged race-fixing schemes and attempted bribes. The potentially most damaging testimony at the hearing came, indirectly, from jockey Doug Schrick, who is awaiting trial himself on race-fixing charges.

Felton, who submitted his decision to the board on March 1, was not convinced by the case presented against Hansen.

“I can’t comment on the specifics of my decision before the racing board issues its complete ruling,” Felton said Tuesday from his Sherman Oaks office. “It should be understood, however, that my decision was based on the preponderance of evidence presented at the hearing, and not on hearsay or stories circulating in the press.”

After a 2 1/4-hour executive session Tuesday morning, CHRB chairman Henry Chavez announced that the board had voted to “adopt the decision of the referee” and that “the denial imposed on Ronald Hansen is terminated effective today.”

Golden Gate’s general manager, Peter Tunney, speaking from his Bay Area home, declined to comment on the Hansen decision until he had received the CHRB ruling and had consulted with the track’s attorneys.

“Certainly, we had to anticipate the decision going either way,” Tunney said. “But until I see it in writing I really can’t say what our reaction will be.”

Hansen conceivably could resume riding today at Golden Gate, barring further legal action on the part of the track. Tunney also put a share of the decision in the hands of the Golden Gate stewards.

“Normally, the stewards would need to see a board ruling in writing before taking any action,” Tunney said. “As far as Wednesday’s card is concerned, scratches have been taken and the programs already have been printed. And in any case of a jockey replacement, the stewards need to be shown good reason before they approve it.”

On advice of the state attorney general’s office, neither Chavez nor any of the other board members had any comment on their ruling Tuesday. Chavez did note that investigations are continuing into the race-fixing and bribery allegations that surfaced during the Hansen hearing last month.

Golden Gate’s original action against Hansen came on the heels of allegations by the operators of several Las Vegas racebooks that there were a number of betting “irregularities” at the Bay Meadows thoroughbred meeting during the 1989-90 meet. Some of the books--most notably the Desert Inn’s and Stardust’s--dropped Bay Meadows programs entirely after suffering dramatic losses, while most of the others established betting limits.

A spokesman for the Gold Coast Casino racebook said Tuesday that there would be no change in policies toward accepting wagers on Golden Gate races in the wake of Hansen’s reinstatement.

“We’ve kept our eye on the situation, of course,” said the spokesman. “But since we never took it down (stopped taking bets), there won’t be any effect by this decision.”