Trainers say they'll fight EPO positives

Four horses at The Red Mile have tested positive for illegal blood-doping agents under the track’s new out-of-competition testing policy, but all four trainers—who are not being named by The Red Mile—have told The Horseman And Fair World magazine that they were shocked to hear they had positives, are denying they their horses could have been given any such drugs, and are questioning how their horses could test positive.

On Friday all four trainers said that they were planning to have split samples tested because they knew they were innocent and wanted to restore their reputations. One trainer did not find out about his positive until after someone on the backstretch told him.

A story about the EPO positives appeared at the top of the front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper on Saturday morning, the day of the Kentucky Futurity, and the same story appeared on the Herald-Leader’s web site, Kentucky.com, on Friday night.

According to Red Mile president Joe Costa, a Kentucky State Racing Commission veterinarian pulled the blood on horses “and the Racing Commission handled the custody and control” of the blood samples. Blood samples were taken from somewhere between 100 and 200 horses during the meet.

An Elisa test, a test commonly used for screening many different types of drugs and conditions in blood samples, was used by a local Lexington, Ky., laboratory which conducted the testing. The Kentucky Racing Commission sends all of its regular drugs tests to Iowa State University’s lab, but according to Costa, the local lab was lined up by the racing commission because “the key was the quality, and a fast turnaround. They could turn the results around in 48 hours.”

In August 2006, the Pennsylvania Equine Toxicology and Research Laboratory in West Chester, Pa., which is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania’s famed New Bolton Equine Center, announced that it had become the first lab to employ a definitive test for erythropoietin--the blood-doping agent commonly known as EPO.

 

Today the Pennsylvania test, which costs $1,500 per test, is still considered the gold standard in blood-doping testing. Dr. Scot Waterman, executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, said that because an Elisa test is a screening test “and by definition is not 100 percent accurate because it is a screen, there are going to be false positives, and the RMTC’s position is that from a regulatory perspective, there must be a separate confirmatory test” using the Pennsylvania test, which is the only one of its kind available.

 

When trainers agreed to race at The Red Mile and enter horses, they were required to sign a “Waiver and Consent Notice” that reads as follows:

 

“Before and after declaration and until post time of the Race, the diction in the Horse of evidence of blood doping agents including, but not limited to, the following: human recombinant erythropoietin, darbepoetin, Aranesp, Oxyglobin, or Hemopure, shall be considered a violation of these conditions and will result in scratching or disqualification of the Horse from the Race and forfeiture by the Owner of the Entry Fee, whether or not actually paid but which is due at the time of declaration and said Horse will be barred from racing at The Red Mile.

 

"Note: The Association may interpret “evidence of blood doping agents” to include elevated titers of anti-recombinant antibodies of these agents.”

« Back