Drug Case Heats Up in Racing : Horses: Trainer Frank Veiga demands names of other trainers whose animals tested positive.

A trainer who suspects that his horse was beaten in a race by a drugged horse has said he will ask the California Horse Racing Board to identify the four trainers whose drug positives were dismissed by the board.

Lawyer Michael Carney, who represents trainer Frank Veiga, said that Henry Chavez, chairman of the seven-member racing board, will receive a letter next week.

“It will contain a demand for full disclosure of these four cases,” Carney said. “We want the races identified by date and trainer. My client has been given information that one of the positives involves a horse who won a race in which Frank’s horse finished second.”

Neither Carney nor Veiga would say which race Veiga’s horse lost to a horse allegedly drugged with Clenbuterol, but from independent sources The Times has learned that it was the second race at Hollywood Park on May 7. That $21,000 race for maiden 2-year-old claiming horses was won by Derbin, a horse owned by John Valpredo, whose son, Don, is a member of the California Horse Racing Board.

Derbin, a 16-1 shot, beat Veiga’s horse, Baron Von Ullmann, by 3 1/2 lengths. Both horses were running their first races. Derbin was running with a $45,000 claiming price and Baron Von Ullmann for $50,000, but neither horse was claimed.

With Baron Von Ullmann going off at 58-1, the longest odds in the 10-horse field, the $2 exacta paid $1,461.80, which turned out to be the highest of the 69-day Hollywood Park season. An exacta bet is one made on first- and second-place finishers, in order.

Derbin is trained by Barbara Caganich. According to documents obtained by The Times, Caganich was notified about two weeks after the race that Derbin’s urine test had come back positive for Clenbuterol, a drug that is prohibited for use in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration.

Clenbuterol, which helps control internal bleeding in a horse, might also be a muscle strengthener over extended periods and is believed to enhance performance. In humans, Clenbuterol can be a growth stimulant, and two American track and field athletes tested positive for the drug at the recent Barcelona Olympics.

Five positives for Clenbuterol were discovered after races at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park this year. The first case was dismissed when a second laboratory could not confirm the positive. Dennis Hutcheson, executive secretary of the racing board, dismissed three of the other positives, and the board itself dismissed a positive. Those four dismissed positives were later confirmed as positive by a second laboratory.

Hutcheson, who said last month that he should not have acted before the split samples were analyzed, said that he dismissed the cases because of the good reputations of the trainers and because he lacked confidence in the lab that was doing the secondary testing. The racing board has not renewed its contract with that lab, located in Pennsylvania.

Hutcheson also said he was concerned about avoiding the kind of controversy that surrounded the discovery of several cocaine positives in horses in 1989-90. Several trainers were identified, including high-profile trainers Wayne Lukas and the late Laz Barrera, but charges were eventually dismissed because of lack of evidence. When the cocaine positives were discovered, Len Foote was secretary of the racing board and Hutcheson was his assistant. Foote later retired.

Hutcheson has been accused by racing commissioner Rosemary Ferraro of “covering up” the Clenbuterol positives. Ferraro, whose criticism of Hutcheson has not been shared by all board members, said at the August board meeting that one of the dismissed positives was from the horse of a trainer who is a friend of Hutcheson. Hutcheson has discounted Ferraro’s accusations.

At the August meeting, the board approved a motion by Don Valpredo to appoint an independent investigative committee to review whether the Clenbuterol dismissals were properly handled. The racing board has called a special meeting Tuesday in San Diego to select this panel.

Valpredo, who owns a farm in Bakersfield, has been a member of the racing board since May of 1991. He also is a member of the prestigious Jockey Club in New York. He has campaigned several stakes winners with his father, John Valpredo. Derbin is a grandson of Dimaggio, a stakes winner whom Don Valpredo bred. Derbin was bred by John Valpredo.

“This has been like a big rock standing in front of me,” Don Valpredo said. “I have been asked why I did not come forward sooner. It has been because this has been a very delicate situation, and it has been very disturbing to me. I have been as concerned as any commissioner, it’s just that I haven’t been as vocal as commissioner Ferraro has. I don’t want to do anything that will jeopardize due process. We have asked for an independent review panel because we don’t want to taint the evaluation of how these cases were handled.”

The Times has learned that Caganich was interviewed May 28 by a state racing investigator. In a signed statement, the 32-year-old trainer said that she began training Derbin less than two weeks before he ran.

Caganich, who has trained for John Valpredo for three years, told an investigator that Derbin was treated with phenylbutazone, a legal painkiller, the day before he ran.

“I have no knowledge of the medication Clenbuterol,” Caganich’s statement said. “I don’t have, or have never used, Clenbuterol, nor have I ever directed my staff or veterinarian to use it on any of my horses.”

Attempts to reach Caganich and John Valpredo at Del Mar on Friday were unsuccessful.

According to racing board records, Hutcheson dismissed the Derbin case June 1, nine days after Caganich was notified of the colt’s positive and three days after she had signed the statement that she gave to a state investigator.

Derbin’s share of the purse on May 7 was $11,550. Second place was worth $4,200 to Veiga and the other owners of Baron Von Ullmann.

Many of the trainers at Del Mar have demanded that the names of the trainers with the four dismissed positives be released, but the board, under advice from the state attorney general’s office, has declined to make them public.

“I anticipate that the racing board will deny my request for the information regarding these cases,” said Carney, Veiga’s attorney. “But the way I read the regulations, if the board members are aware of positive tests, as they are in these cases, then the requirement for anonymity disappears.

“If they don’t give us the information, then we’ll sue. We’ll sue the racing board, the chairman, the executive secretary and the owner and the trainer of the horse that beat Frank Veiga’s.”