Headlines

by Frank Angst

When racing officials enforce drug rules, the devil is most assuredly in the details.

In the day-long Conference on Officiating Horseracing hosted by the Racing Officials Accreditation Program and the Race Track Industry Program, stewards, officials, and regulators listened to ideas for successfully enforcing their drug rules.

The conference kicked off the Symposium on Racing and Gaming, presented by the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program this week in Tucson, Arizona.

Panel leader Alan Foreman, a leading racing law attorney and vice chairman of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, pointed out that trace amounts of drugs in a horse’s system can indicate significant cheating.

“Defense has attacked small amounts of drugs in horses but no one size fits all,” Foreman said, explaining that high levels of one drug, at times, could be less significant than seemingly miniscule levels of a more potent drug in a horse’s system.

RMTC Executive Director Scot Waterman D.V.M. encouraged regulators to look into mitigating and aggravating circumstances when determining punishments. While citing the Association of Racing Commissioners’ International’s Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances as an excellent starting point, he said it is important to look at each individual case.

Waterman also outlined how improved protocol in collecting samples and transportation to testing labs has made those steps in the process virtually unquestionable.

“There is a tremendous level of documentation at every step,” Waterman said.

Scott Stanley, Ph.D., director of the Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California-Davis, outlined various testing procedures. Stanley encouraged officials to gather all available data before prosecuting cases and encouraged them to use chemists as expert witnesses.

Foreman said the integrity of the sample and the testing will be something that is closely examined by defense lawyers.

Equine toxicologist and pharmacologist George Maylin D.V.M. showed how blood tests can provide more information than urine tests while lawyer Ira Finkelstein, who handles equine law cases, addressed case preparation and evidence compilation.

Frank Angst is senior writer for Thoroughbred Times