Trainer Mandella Not Being Investigated

Trainer Dick Mandella, concerned that his name is being linked to four horse-drugging cases at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park earlier this year, was told in effect here Thursday that he is not under investigation.

“I have a new position on all this,” Mandella said to the California Horse Racing Board’s medication committee. “I have been hearing that I am one of those (trainers) who is suspected. . . . There is no doubt in my mind that I am not in the group. I want you to tell me that it was wasn’t one of my horses that had a positive.”

Ralph Scurfield, chairman of the medication committee, said: “The board has notified those trainers who had the positives.”

After the meeting, Mandella said that he had not received a notification.

Dozens of angry trainers are expected to overflow the room here today when the racing board holds its monthly meeting. Rosemary Ferraro, one of the seven board members, has asked that the board discuss the way four positive tests for Clenbuterol, an illegal drug that controls internal bleeding and probably enhances performance, were handled by Dennis Hutcheson, the board’s executive secretary.

The trainers of the four horses have not been publicly identified.