Horse Racing Board Elects Hutcheson as Top Executive

Dennis Hutcheson, assistant executive secretary of the California Horse Racing Board for more than two years, was elected executive secretary at a board meeting Thursday.

By a 5-2 vote, racing commissioners named Hutcheson over 41 other candidates for the $74,500-a-year job, which became vacant in April when Len Foote retired after 22 years with the board.

Phoebe Cooke and Rosemary Ferraro voted against Hutcheson’s appointment, questioning his credentials and suggesting that someone not connected with the controversial Foote regime would have been a better choice.

“Dennis left the state’s finance department in early 1988 and came to the racing board with no racing experience,” Cooke said. “He supposedly learned the job under Len Foote, but I don’t think Foote was the best instructor. The board has been lacking in accountability because of some of the things Foote did.”

Foote has denied he was forced to leave. At the end of his term, six trainers--including Wayne Lukas and Laz Barrera--were accused of running horses that had been given cocaine, but the charges eventually were dropped. Barrera and Roger Stein, another of the accused trainers, have filed multimillion-dollar suits against the board.

“I do not feel that Dennis was the most qualified person for this job,” Cooke said. “He has not demonstrated the leadership to run a huge, very important agency.”

Ferraro, board chairman Henry Chavez and board member Paul Deats made up a screening committee that recommended Hutcheson.

“I don’t dislike Dennis, but I have to give him a ‘no’ vote,” Ferraro said. “All of the problems the board has had in the last couple of years have led to the office that he worked in.

“We need a fresh, new leader who can give some new spirit to the staff.”

Hutcheson, 40, said that before joining Foote’s staff, one of his responsibilities for three years was the state’s racing budget.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with horsemen, trying to learn the game, in the last couple of years,” Hutcheson said.

Asked about the comments by Cooke and Ferraro, Hutcheson said: “The board members are appointed because they are supposed to have their opinions. I’ve worked closely with the board, and I hope that will continue.

“I have some goals. I hope that this agency can develop into one of the best in the state. I’d like to return the confidence in this office to the board and the state. And I’d like to be consistent in the way we deal with horsemen.”

Hutcheson was nominated by board member John La Follette, and the motion was seconded by William Lansdale. They voted for Hutcheson, along with Chavez, Deats and Leslie Liscom.

Hutcheson, who worked for 15 years in the state’s finance department, grew up in Marysville and Long Beach. He majored in accounting and graduated from Cal State Sacramento.