RMTC

UK Hires Dr. Cynthia Cole As Acting Lab Director

Dr. Cynthia Cole has been named the acting laboratory director of the UK Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory (EACL), effective March 15, 2024, according to a press release from the University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Cole brings over 30 years of experience to the role, with a diverse background spanning academia, industry and research, according to the UK release.  Previously, Cole served as an associate clinical professor and director of The Racing Laboratory at the University of Florida from 2002-2006 and again from 2018-2023 when the...

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RMTC Suspends Accreditation of UK Laboratory

The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) has suspended its accreditation of the University of Kentucky's Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory, according to the RMTC's executive director, Michael Hardy. This follows news last week that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) have opened an investigation into the UK Laboratory's performance, and that the agencies were cooperating with the university's own investigation into the matter. The university is also conducting an ongoing personnel investigation relating to former lab director Scott Stanley and that "Dr....

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Drug Testing Under HISA: When Uniformity and Variability Collide

From an altitude of 10,000 feet, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)'s mandated goal is a simple two-pronged affair. Uniformity in welfare and safety. Uniformity in drug testing. Over the past few months, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU)--HISA's enforcement arm--has made several announcements that have peeled the curtain back on just how difficult the second part of that equation will be to accomplish. Internal reviews of the six HIWU-contracted laboratories uncovered different limits of detection in blood for diabetes drug Metformin and for benzoylecgonine (BZE), a metabolite...

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RMTC Promotes Hardy to Full-Time Executive Director

The Racing Medication & Testing Consortium (RMTC)'s part-time Executive Director, Dr. Michael Hardy, has been promoted to full-time Executive Director of the RMTC, the organization announced on Monday. In his new position, Hardy will be responsible for the management of the RMTC's Laboratory Accreditation and External Quality Assurance Program in conjunction with the new Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit and will also administer the RMTC's Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) process, manage the organization's monitoring of emerging threats to the integrity of racing, and oversee the process of reviewing applications received...

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Four Additional Trainers Handed Provisional Suspensions By HIWU

The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) has updated its list of trainers that have been provisionally suspended after their horses have allegedly tested positive for banned substances, and the new names are Natalia Lynch, David Reid, Javier Morzan and Mary Pirone. Lynch, who is based in New York and had a winner Sunday at Saratoga, was sanctioned for allegedly having a horse test positive for Altrenogest. According a 2018 press release from the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC), Altrenogest is a progesterone receptor agonist used to control estrus...

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RMTC Completes Analysis Of HISA Withdrawal Guidance

The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium's Scientific Advisory Committee has now completed its analysis of HISA's proposed ADMC screening limits and detection times and has developed a withdrawal guidance limited to RMTC's schedule of Controlled Therapeutic Substances. This withdrawal guidance is based on existing research and administration data. The complete withdrawal guidance, which is subject to change, can be found here. The intention is for the RMTC to provide the industry with scientifically derived information to aid attending veterinarians and horsemen in making medication decisions and to avoid preventable errors,...

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Taking Stock: Is SGF-1000 a PED?

[Editor's note: Gary and Mary West are clients of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, of which Sid Fernando is president and CEO. WTC recommended the 2014 purchase of Maximum Security's dam, Lil Indy, for $80,000 at Keeneland January for the purpose of breeding her to New Year's Day, a stallion owned by the Wests at that time and the sire of Maximum Security.] "Just the facts, ma'am." The iconic line "just the facts, ma'am" is associated with the character of Sgt. Joe Friday from the 1950s cop show "Dragnet" starring actor Jack...

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HIWU's Scollay: New Medication Rules 'Your New Bible'

Despite all the legal jockeying these past few weeks and months, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) anti-doping and medication control program still appears set for launch on Jan. 1 in the vast majority of states that conduct pari-mutuel wagering. This means on the first day of 2023, thousands of trainers, veterinarians and other backstretch workers must grapple with a new set of rules guiding how and when to administer a set of everyday medications--the list of which can be found here--to avoid falling foul of a post-race and...

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Hardy Named Executive Director of RMTC

Dr. Michael Hardy has been hired as its next Executive Director of the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium. In his new role, Dr. Hardy will be responsible for the management of the RMTC's Laboratory Accreditation and External Quality Assurance Program in conjunction with the new Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit. He will also be charged with the administration of the RMTC's Scientific Advisory Committee process, the monitoring of emerging threats to the integrity of racing and the health and welfare of racehorses, administrative oversight of RMTC-funded research projects, and coordinating...

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Getting Down to the Science of It All In Medina Spirit DQ Appeal

FRANKFORT, KY - After a brief private meeting between attorneys and the hearing officer to discuss "confidentiality" matters, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's hearing addressing trainer Bob Baffert's appeal continued, slowly but surely, on Wednesday in Frankfort, KY. While Tuesday's session focused on the KHRC's medication rules, along with those established by the industry's Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) and the model rules of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI), the center of interest Wednesday was the corticosteroid betamethasone itself. The day started off with Dr. Heather Knych,...

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Racing Medication and Testing Consortium to Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Racing Medication & Testing Consortium (RMTC) has announced that it will fund the research proposal, "Detection of Bisphosphonates Using Metabolomics," submitted by Dr. Bethany Keen at the University of Pennsylvania's Equine Testing and Research Laboratory. Dr. Keen's research to date has been conducted in Australia and focused on equine anti-doping, analytical chemistry, and statistics. Metabolomics is an emerging field in doping control and represents a novel testing approach that identifies cellular effects unique to a class of drugs rather than identifying the specific molecule responsible for those effects. "The...

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RMTC Announces Post-Doctorate Fellowship Program

Edited Press Release Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) has announced their support of post-doctoral training by funding a Fellowship Program beginning in 2022. The need for establishing such a program is two-fold:   To promote a sustained research program with a core focus on anti-doping, to include topics related to drug testing, development of new analytical methods with application to racing chemistry, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, forensic toxicology, or other related disciplines. The future of horseracing's anti-doping programs requires mentoring young scientists to become researchers, racing laboratory directors, and industry leaders. Innovation...

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