The Chair of the Association of Racing Commissioners International's Drug Testing Standards and Practices Committee, Duncan Patterson of Delaware, informed the ARCI Board this week that the overall results of equine drug testing across the United States in 2022 indicate a significant compliance with the rules and the overall program remains comparable to those governed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The 2022 program was conducted entirely by individual State Racing Commissions. In 2023, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority is responsible for most Thoroughbred testing that occurs after May 22, 2023.
Patterson's report aggregates official programmatic data from individual States to report the results of horse racing's drug regulation programs for 2022, reflecting Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, and Standardbred contests.
The report shows data from all States except Texas, Maine, Montana, and North Dakota.
In 2022, US state racing commissions sent over 206,498 biological samples to a network of independent testing laboratories. These samples included 23,116 samples taken out of competition and 183,382 post-race.
“11.2 percent of horses tested nationwide were out of competition, although only seventeen states had an out of competition testing program,” said RCI President Ed Martin, who noted that an expansion of out of competition testing in Thoroughbred racing is an anticipated result of HISA's Anti Doping and Medication Control program.
“There were 842 adverse analytical findings indicating the presence of a substance that should not be in the sample and a likely violation of the rules,” Patterson said. “The overwhelming majority of samples tested – 99.59 percent – were found to be compliant with the rules which were substantially consistent, but not totally uniform, across the jurisdictions.”
As a result of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, all Thoroughbred races now have uniform rules. State rules governing Standardbred and Quarter Horse racing are substantially similar but not totally uniform as there are minor variations.
Consistent with prior years, the majority of substances detected are indicative of a therapeutic overage (at least 59.2 percent). Instances that can be clearly described as doping reflect 16 percent of the substances found, or just 0.02 percent of all samples tested.
Individual substances are categorized pursuant to the ARCI's Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances on a scale of one to five as to the seriousness of a finding in terms of appropriateness to be present in a horse and the ability to affect performance.
The categories of substances detected in 2022 were as follows:
| Classification | Number | Percentage | |
| 1 | 37 | 4.39 | Doping |
| 2 | 98 | 11.64 | Doping |
| 3 | 200 | 23.75 | (Depends on substance) |
| 4 | 468 | 55.58 | Therapeutic Overage |
| 5 | 29 | 3.44 | Therapeutic Overage |
Patterson reported that horseracing's program with a 0.41 adverse finding rate is comparable to Olympic sport.
“The testing done for the Olympics and other sports covered by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have shown similar results with 99.35 percent of samples having no issue,” he said.
The following “Total Samples Analyzed” chart from WADA's 2021 Report summarizes the results of all the samples WADA-accredited Laboratories analyzed and reported into WADA's Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS):
| Samples Analyzed | AAFs | % | |
| Olympic Sports | 207008 | 1,013 | 0.49 |
| Non-Olympic Sports | 34422 | 547 | 1.59% |
| TOTAL | 241430 | 1560 | 0.65% |
Patterson noted the magnitude of the drug testing programs in U.S. horse racing.
“Worldwide tests for WADA totaled 241,430 in 2021; in 2022, US state racing commissions conducted over 206,498 tests, not including four states that did not report,” he said.
The following chart shows a state by state comparison for the 2022 program:
| Agency | Total Tests | Total AAFs | AAF% | Clear % |
| Arizona Dept. of Gaming; Racing Div. | 3,630 | 18 | 0.005 | 99.995 |
| Arkansas Racing & Gaming Comm. (flat) | 2,524 | 5 | 0.002 | 99.998 |
| California Horse Racing Board | 30,210 | 114 | 0.004 | 99.996 |
| Colorado | 747 | 23 | 0.031 | 99.969 |
| Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Comm. | 2,080 | 5 | 0.240 | 99.760 |
| Florida Dept. of Pari Mutuel Wagering | 8,904 | 71 | 0.008 | 99.992 |
| Idaho State Racing Comm. | 320 | 15 | 0.047 | 99.953 |
| Illinois Racing Board | 4,171 | 6 | 0.001 | 99.999 |
| Indiana Horse Racing Comm. | 8,590 | 23 | 0.003 | 99.997 |
| Iowa Racing Comm. | 3,151 | 10 | 0.003 | 99.997 |
| Kentucky Horse Racing Comm. | 4,875 | 11 | 0.002 | 99.998 |
| Louisiana State Racing Comm. | 7,940 | 159 | 0.020 | 99.980 |
| Maine State Harness Racing Commission | DNR | |||
| Maryland Racing Comm. | 9,543 | 31 | 0.003 | 99.997 |
| Michigan Gaming Control Board | 1,343 | 2 | 0.001 | 99.999 |
| Minnesota Racing Comm. | 4,537 | 9 | 0.002 | 99.998 |
| Montana Board of Horse Racing | DNR | |||
| N Dakota Racing Comm. | DNR | |||
| Nebraska Racing Comm. | 1,116 | 0 | 0.000 | 100.000 |
| New Jersey | 14,601 | 30 | 0.002 | 99.998 |
| New Mexico Racing Commission | 8,619 | 71 | 0.008 | 99.992 |
| New York State Gaming Comm. | 30,725 | 34 | 0.001 | 99.999 |
| Ohio St. RC | 18,719 | 82 | 0.004 | 99.996 |
| Oklahoma HRC | 7,932 | 55 | 0.007 | 99.993 |
| Oregon Racing Comm. | 188 | 3 | 0.016 | 99.984 |
| Pennsylvania Racing Commission | 22,818 | 91 | 0.004 | 99.996 |
| S Dakota | 52 | 0 | 0.000 | 100.000 |
| Texas Racing Comm. | DNR | |||
| Virginia Racing Comm. | 1,609 | 10 | 0.006 | 99.994 |
| Washington Horse Racing Comm. | 985 | 14 | 0.014 | 99.986 |
| West Virginia Racing Commission | 5,723 | 22 | 0.004 | 99.996 |
| Wyoming Pari-Mutuel Comm. | 861 | 12 | 0.014 | 99.986 |
The post ARCI: 2022 Drug Testing Results Reveal 99.59 Percent Compliance Across U.S. Racing Jurisdictions appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
