Racing Executive Is Fired : Doping: State Board ousts Hutcheson, whose decision to dismiss horse-drugging cases set off controversy.

Dennis Hutcheson, whose decision to dismiss three horse-drugging cases last year set off a controversy that still isn’t over, was fired Friday as executive secretary of the California Horse Racing Board.

In an unprecedented meeting at a hotel in Arcadia, the board voted by a 4-1 margin to dismiss Hutcheson. With two board members absent, Hutcheson needed one more vote to save his job, but the only commissioner who voted for him was chairman Ralph Scurfield.

Responding to a motion from commissioner Rosemary Ferraro, who opposed Hutcheson’s appointment as secretary about 2 1/2 years ago, board members Don Valpredo, George Nicholaw and James C. Watson voted to dismiss Hutcheson. Commissioners Bill Lansdale and Stefan Manolakas did not attend the meeting.

Before the vote was taken, in Hutcheson’s presence, Nicholaw suggested that the matter be handled in an executive session. That brought protests from many of the horsemen in attendance.

“We’ve had enough closed doors,” one of them shouted.

The board then continued with the vote.

“I’ve never had a vendetta against Dennis,” Ferraro said. “I’ve just never felt that he was competent enough to be a strong leader. I didn’t think his judgment was good enough.

“He has clearly violated the trainers’ split-sample (drug-testing) program. I don’t see how the trainers can ever have any confidence in the split sample again. . . . I don’t know how we’re going to repair the damages the board has suffered. (Hutcheson’s) actions are unforgivable.”

Ferraro asked for Hutcheson’s resignation last year, accusing him of a “cover-up.”

After the vote, Hutcheson stood, handed a stack of papers to Roy Minami, the assistant executive secretary, and left the meeting. It is expected that Minami will perform Hutcheson’s duties until a new executive secretary is hired.

Before leaving, Hutcheson said: “I acted in the best interests of the sport and not for any personal gain. I had dire concerns about the (state’s testing) laboratory, because I didn’t think they were doing the proper job. I apologize to the board for any actions that were embarrassing. Mrs. Ferraro’s accusations are lies. I acted in good faith.”

After Hutcheson dismissed three drug positives last June, the racing board dismissed a fourth, saying that it was left with little choice, because all four tests were for clenbuterol, an illegal medication that helps horses breathe, aids pulmonary bleeders and is suspected of enhancing performance. The races were run early last year at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park.

Hutcheson dismissed three of the cases before the trainers had the opportunity to have their horses’ urine samples independently tested. Then Hutcheson sent what remained of the samples to a backup laboratory, which also found them to be positive.

The trainers who raced the horses with positives were Darrell Vienna, Bruce Headley, Vladimir Cerin and Barbara Caganich. The only winning horse, trained by Caganich, is owned by John Valpredo, father of the racing board member.

At the request of Don Valpredo and other board members, the California Department of Justice conducted an investigation into the handling of the cases. After reviewing the report of that investigation, the Sacramento County district attorney’s office concluded that neither Hutcheson nor the board had acted criminally.

Henry Chavez, Scurfield’s predecessor as board chairman, said in the report that Hutcheson had “exceeded his authority.” Chavez also characterized Hutcheson’s actions as “stupid” and said that the executive secretary “used very poor judgment.”

Chavez was also quoted as saying that he wasn’t aware that Hutcheson had lost confidence in the testing laboratory until after the clenbuterol positives were dismissed.

At Friday’s meeting, Hutcheson recalled the establishment of board guidelines on drugged horses.

“They gave me discretion,” he said. “I argued against that, because I knew that the first time I did something the trainers didn’t like, they were going to raise holy hell about it.”

Hutcheson, 43, was appointed to the $74,500-a-year secretary’s job in July of 1990, after Len Foote resigned in the aftermath of another drugging scandal. Several trainers, including Wayne Lukas and the late Laz Barrera, were accused of racing horses that tested positive for cocaine. Most of the cases were dismissed because of a lack of evidence.

Hutcheson, who was chosen for his job over 41 candidates, had served as Foote’s assistant for two years. Before that, he worked for 15 years in the state’s Department of Finance.

“(Hutcheson’s) leadership ability would be permanently questioned (if he remained),” commissioner Watson said Friday in explaining his vote.

Vienna, who trains Gilded Time, last year’s champion 2-year-old male, said at Friday’s meeting that he was never notified about a clenbuterol positive.

“Not a single one of my rights has been honored,” Vienna said. “I was never allowed to have my horseman’s split (sample) tested, no complaint was ever filed, no hearing was ever held, no evidence was presented, no defense was allowed. Instead, I have been smeared and victimized by innuendo and leak. In the court of public opinion, I have been tried and convicted. My reputation has been besmirched as if I had been charged and found liable.”

After the meeting, Vienna sympathized with the way that Hutcheson’s dismissal had been handled.

“I wasn’t out to get Dennis Hutcheson,” Vienna said. “My complaints were about the way the board acted. Hutcheson was a sacrificial lamb, the same as the trainers were.”

Before the vote to oust Hutcheson, the board voted to seek the opinion of an administrative law judge on whether the horses with clenbuterol positives should be disqualified. Disqualification would require the board to order a redistribution of the purse money.