Drug Handling to Be Evaluated : Horse racing: California board appoints committee to investigate actions of its executive secretary.

California Horse Racing Board members tried to defuse the state’s latest horse-drugging controversy Friday by appointing a committee to investigate whether four recent cases were handled properly by the board’s executive secretary.

In an emotional meeting jammed with trainers, a nonpartisan committee was appointed to evaluate the actions of Dennis Hutcheson after the CHRB executive secretary learned that four horses at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park tested positive for Clenbuterol, an illegal medication.

Before the positive specimens were sent to a second laboratory for confirmation, Hutcheson dismissed three of the cases. The racing board dismissed the fourth, based on a lack of confidence in the Pennsylvania Equine Toxicology and Research Laboratory, which no longer tests California horses.

Once a second laboratory evaluated them, the urine samples in question were found to be positive. The trainers involved in the positives have been notified, but not publicly identified.

Dennis Meagher, interim equine medical director for the racing board, said Friday that he agreed with commission member Rosemary Ferraro, who has charged that Hutcheson acted improperly. At one point Friday, Ferraro suggested that the trainer with one of the Clenbuterol positives is a “friend of Hutcheson’s.”

Hutcheson replied: “I’m a professional, and I don’t intend to respond to that.”

During the 90-minute meeting, Hutcheson also said two positive results for medication similar to Clenbuterol had been confirmed after races not run on the Southern California circuit. Hutcheson said that complaints have been filed and stewards are considering disciplinary action on those cases.