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By Ray Paulick

Three years ago it was a rash of positive tests for the Class 1 drug aminorex that had regulators and horsemen in Pennsylvania and several other jurisdictions scratching their collective heads. Today, it’s a Class 2 drug called lobeline that is showing up in trace amounts in dozens of tests at the University of Pennsylvania laboratory, and Pennsylvania horsemen are insisting it’s a case of contamination.

The tests have led to purses being frozen in as many as 30 races, according to Todd Mostoller, executive director of the Pennsylvania Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. A number of trainers and owners are paying for split samples and hiring attorneys to fight pending charges. Winning horses have had their victories put on hold, and horses that finished second behind first-place finishers that tested positive are considered winners, though their owners haven’t received the applicable purse money.

Stewards, meanwhile, have temporarily postponed hearings in some of the cases while Dr. Lawrence Soma at the University of Pennsylvania lab is said to be researching how lobeline–a drug used in nicotine patches to help people quit smoking–is finding its way into blood and urine tests of racehorses.

“I am 100% sure that nobody is treating their horse with lobeline,” Mostoller told the Paulick Report. “We have horsemen I have absolute confidence in that have done nothing wrong, and they’ve had horses test positive. And there are a lot of horsemen out of state who now are scared to death to come here and race.”

Mostoller and others said they’d heard the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission apparently had received a tip or some undercover evidence suggesting lobeline was being purchased in a powdery form, mixed with water, and then injected in horses to create a respiratory stimulant effect that is very short-lived. One equine medication expert told the Paulick Report lobeline clears the body very quickly and would affect a horse for less than 15 minutes. “You’d almost have to give it in the starting gate,” he said. “It elevates the heart rate for 60 to 90 seconds,” Mostoller said. “It has absolutely no pharmacological effect.

“If that’s what their intelligence is telling them, I’m sure Dr. Soma can get (lobeline powder), duplicate it and see if the results of those tests mirror what the test results have been,” said Mostoller.

Calls to Joseph Mushalko, director of operations for the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission, were not returned, nor was an email to Dr. Soma at the University of Pennsylvania lab. (UPDATE: SEE END OF STORY FOR COMMENT FROM PENNSYLVANIA HORSE RACING COMMISSION.)

The positive tests for lobeline began this spring with standardbred horses and have picked up through the summer with both standardbreds and Thoroughbreds. Most of the tests are measuring between 1.5 and 6 picograms, the Paulick Report was told (a picogram is one-thousandth of a nanogram or one trillionth of a gram), although some have been as high as 100 picograms. There is no threshold level for lobeline in Pennsylvania.

“They are very proud of their instrumentation at the lab and are able to go after extremely low levels of a drug,” the Paulick Report was told by a source familiar with the Pennsylvania lab. “To my knowledge, these cases represent the first time lobeline has been called as a positive anywhere in the U.S.”

Many horsemen feel lobelia inflata, a plant indigenous to the northeastern United States, has found its way into feed or supplements and is causing the positive drug tests for lobeline. Lobelia inflata, also known as puke weed or Indian tobacco, has been used as an herbal remedy to induce vomiting or treat asthma or other respiratory ailments in humans. But Soma is said to have administered lobelia plants to horses and has been unable to duplicate the test results.

The lobeline positives in Pennsylvania are reminiscent of scopolamine prosecutions in California 15 years ago against Hall of Fame trainers Richard Mandella and Ron McAnally, the late Willard Proctor and Mark Hennig. In those cases, there was strong evidence that hay or straw—even potentially in the state test barn—was contaminated with jimsonweed, which can contain scopolamine. The trainers were eventually absolved of any wrongdoing (after spending thousands of dollars in legal fees), but the owners of the horses that tested positive lost their purse money.

Pennsylvania regulators may not be rushing to prosecute the lobelia cases because of what happened with the positive tests in 2006 for aminorex, a weight-loss stimulant drug that hadn’t been manufactured for nearly 20 years because of dangerous side effects. Positive tests for a metabolite of that drug were found in Ontario, Canada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and even Hong Kong, but the cases were dropped when scientific research determined it may not have been aminorex but a substance found in a deworming product.

“Reputable horsemen were involved then,” Mostoller said. “It’s a very similar situation to what we have now. At first the racing commission was very reluctant to do any research on (lobeline), but reputable horsemen with not even a parking ticket on their records started getting positives. With aminorex, all the trainers were exonerated and the purses were reissued to the original horses.”

“Everybody should want to know the truth here,” Mostoller said. “Dr. Soma at all times is interested in finding out what is going on, but he was shut down by not being able to send any samples to the Pennsylvania Equine Toxicology Lab to do his research. You would think that as a veterinarian Dr. (Corinne) Sweeney (chairman of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission) would want to know the truth, too. But they are still calling positives and are still scheduling stewards’ hearings. People are still hiring attorneys, paying for split samples, and having purses held.”

The Paulick Report will update this story if and when we hear back from the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission or University of Pennsylvania testing laboratory.

UPDATE (9:00 A.M., Wednesday, Sept. 23): Joseph Mushalko of the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission returned a phone call Wednesday morning after this story was published, but could not provide details about the number of cases, from which tracks the positive tests came, or what research is being conducted because all of the cases "are still under investigation." Mushalko said one case had been adjudicated but is under appeal and that the trainer has received a stay from a 90-day suspension and $1,000 fine. He also confimed that the aminorex cases from 2006 were all dismissed.

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