A Washington Post reporter attending unregulated, bush league Quarter Horse racing at Georgia's Rancho El Centenario observed two different trainers injecting their runners on the track, immediately before competing. One syringe was tested at Industrial Laboratories: it contained methamphetamine and methylphenidate (Ritalin).
One of those trainers claimed that the injection contained “medicine to prevent a horse from suffering a stroke or a heart attack.” Mary Scollay, executive director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, told the Post that there is “no reason to inject a horse immediately before a race other than to influence its performance.”
Post reporters also witnessed the day's leading jockey wearing an electrical shock device on his wrist.
Rancho El Centenario is the location at which former top Quarter Horse jockey Roman Chapa suffered serious injuries. Chapa, banned for five years in 2015 after being caught at Sam Houston with an electrical device for the third time, passed away after injuries suffered at the Georgia bush track in 2021.
Bush league racing has apparently been profitable enough to draw away some of the top competitors from the regulated side of the sport. Trump My Record, who won nearly $800,000 racing in regulated contests as a juvenile in 2019, was auctioned for $460,000 and reappeared at bush tracks shortly thereafter. A publicity poster from Rancho El Centenario's Facebook page shows Trump My Record is expected to race there later this month.
An undercover investigation of Rancho El Centenario conducted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, carried out over eight visits between June 2021 and April 2022, resulted in hidden camera footage purported to show widespread doping, the use of electric shock devices, fatal horse breakdowns, jockey injuries and death, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal gambling at Rancho El Centenario.
Tests on syringes used to inject the horses, collected by PETA, found cocaine, methamphetamine, methylphenidate (Ritalin), and caffeine.
Read more at the Washington Post.
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