Hector Palma never went away.

Through the late summer and early fall, the 86-year-old Palma kept a presence at Santa Anita, notably in the mornings at Clocker’s Corner, while serving a provisional suspension issued by the Horseracing Welfare and Integrity Unit in August after one of his starters tested positive for methamphetamine.

In September, four of Palma’s employees were suspended from 30 to 90 days after they tested positive for methamphetamine and/or amphetamine, according to rules published by California Horse Racing Board stewards.

John Shear, a former rider who worked at Santa Anita in various capacities for nearly 60 years, including as paddock captain well into his 90s, died on Tuesday from natural causes at a rehabilitation facility in Arcadia, Calif.

Shear was 102. His death was announced by his family through a statement issued by Santa Anita. Shear would have been 103 next month.

At a veterinary clinic and a local farm in Southern California, the 2021 champion Echo Zulu and 2023 stakes winner Bus Buzz continue to recover from injuries sustained at Santa Anita earlier this fall.

Bus Buzz was pulled up in early stretch of an allowance race at Santa Anita on Nov. 3 when he sustained a foreleg injury that required surgery to perform an arthrodesis, which fused the affected joints. The surgery was conducted at Santa Anita on Nov. 5.

Overnight purses have been slashed 25 percent for the forthcoming winter-spring meeting at Golden Gate Fields as the flagship Northern California track deals with a purse overpayment of approximately $3 million in advance of its scheduled closure on June 9.

The reductions affect all levels of races and were made in an attempt to recoup the massive debt caused by a reduction in mutuel handle.

A maiden race worth $30,000 at the autumn meeting that ended on Sunday will have a purse of $22,500 at the start of the winter-spring meeting that begins on Dec. 26.

Santa Anita will begin its winter-spring meeting on Dec. 26 with overnight purses slightly lower than the corresponding meeting last year.

The purses will equal what the track offered earlier this year at the spring and autumn meetings.

This winter, a maiden race will be worth $65,000, compared to $67,000 last winter and $61,000 at the fall meeting that ended on Nov. 5.

The purse of a first-condition allowance race has declined from $72,000 last winter to $67,000 this winter. The race was worth $63,000 at the spring and autumn meetings.

Slow Down Andy, who missed the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita this fall because of a swollen ankle, is scheduled to return to trainer Doug O’Neill’s stable this weekend after a rest at owners Paul and Zillah Reddam’s Southern California farm.

Slow Down Andy is expected to race at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting in early 2024.

“We’re excited to have him back for Santa Anita,” O’Neill said.

The two-time stakes winner Forbidden Kingdom, unraced since May, is expected to make his second career turf start in the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes on the hillside course at Santa Anita on Dec. 30.

Trained by Richard Mandella, Forbidden Kingdom has won 3 of 11 starts and earned $559,500 in a career plagued by setbacks. As a 2-year-old, he finished third on turf in the five-furlong Speakeasy Stakes at Santa Anita.

“I may try him in the Hernandez,” Mandella said on Friday a few hours after Forbidden Kingdom worked five furlongs in 1:02 at Santa Anita.