The main focus of the opening day drug-testing forum at the Association of Racing Commissioners International's Equine Welfare and Racing Integrity conference Tuesday was ways to deter cheating, such as increased out-of-competition testing, additional investigators and research into emerging threats.
The panel featured Dr. Scott Stanley of the University of California, Davis, which conducts that state's horse-racing testing; Dr. Anthony Fontana of Truesdail Labor-atories; and, speaking via teleconferencing, Dr. George Maylin, the longtime direc-tor of the New York Equine Drug Testing and Research Laboratory. Also on the panel was Brice Cote, a former Standardbred driver and detective in New Jersey State Police's racetrack unit who heads the integrity efforts at The Meadowlands, Tioga and Vernon Downs harness tracks.
Stanley discussed the potential of biological passports as a tool for out-of-competition testing. “If they change abruptly, if the bio-markers tell us this horse was given an anabolic agent, we don't have to detect it,” he said. “We'd be able to say, 'This horse cannot naturally produce this profile. It has to be enhanced.”
A veterinary panel discussed keeping horses' treatment records and the issues that arise between equine practitioners, horsemen and regulators on proper use.
Judy Wagner, outgoing ARCI chair and top handicapper, spoke on behalf of the horseplayer, saying, “Regulators do strive to get it right. We really want to make the players, everybody in the industry, feel that we have an industry of integrity.”
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