New drug-testing procedures approved in Kentucky

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) on Tuesday unanimously approved new drug-testing procedures that will streamline the process and reduce costs by as much as 30 percent. The new rules, of which no set date has been announced for introduction in both harness and Thoroughbred racing, call for at least two horses out of every race to be tested, using blood and urine samples, but not all of them will be tested for prohibited substances.

 

The new provisions call for the racetrack stewards to designate the samples with either a gold or red label. The samples with gold labels will be tested 100 percent of the time, while samples with red labels will be tested 50 percent of the time. After the samples are all logged into the state’s Lab Information Management System, the computer will randomly select the red-label samples to be tested.

 

Kentucky began using the Florida Racing Laboratory for its testing last March. According to Kentucky’s equine medical director Dr. Mary Scollay, costs associated with testing since that time totaled $455,400; she projects the new testing procedures to drop by 25-30 percent. Although more samples may be taken, the number of those actually tested will drop, but because there will be no knowledge of which samples will be tested, the KHRC believes the new system will serve as a deterrent to trainers administering prohibited substances.