California hotwalker won't stand trial for murder

A hotwalker who in December was charged with murder was judged in late March by a Los Angeles-area court mentally incompetent to stand trial, according to a California Horse Racing Board investigator.

Gary Steven Nance, 42, has been transferred from jail to a state hospital that houses mentally ill prisoners for evaluation. Nance was arrested last December in downtown Los Angeles by the California Highway Patrol on murder charges, an investigator said. Details of the case were not immediately available.

Nance has been jailed since his arrest, and did not post a $60,000 bail, according to a racing board investigator. Friday, in a procedural decision, Santa Anita stewards Scott Chaney, Kim Sawyer and Tom Ward issued a ruling suspending Nance from the racetrack on grounds of denial of license.

* Jockey Felipe Valdez was fined $500 by Santa Anita stewards for excessive use of the whip in a race in March.
Stewards Chaney, Sawyer and Ward fined Valdez for a second offense of causing a welt on the skin with his whip. Valdez was cited for his ride on Salsita, the winner of a $25,000 claimer on the hillside turf course in the sixth race on March 22.

Salsita was the 41-1 second-longest shot in the field and closed from seventh in the final furlong to win by a half-length.

Through Thursday, Valdez, 36, was 18th in the jockey standings at the winter-spring meeting, with 14 wins from 105 mounts.