drugs in racing | Horse Racing Free Tips

Princess Secret Out Of Juvenile Fillies After Failing Out-Of-Competition Drug Test

Princess Secret, a 2-year-old filly owned and trained by Daniel Pita, will not be permitted to enter the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies after an Oct. 26 blood test administered by the Breeders' Cup Out-of-Competition Program revealed the presence of Stanozolol, an anabolic steroid that is specifically prohibited by Breeders' Cup under its condition of entry.

Confirmation analysis was done following the positive screening result.

Any horse testing positive for anabolic steroids or other ARCI prohibited substances in a Breeders' Cup out-of-competition test sample during the six months prior to the Breeders' Cup World Championships is ineligible to participate in the Championships.

All out-of-competition samples are sent to the Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California-Davis for testing. The lab is certified by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) and the executive council of the IFHA has also specifically endorsed the testing protocols of the Breeders' Cup.

“Breeders' Cup out-of-competition testing is done to the highest world standards and is vital to ensuring the integrity of the World Championships. All horses pre-entered for the Breeders' Cup are subject to our stringent medication and testing protocols and must meet these requirements in order to compete,” said Breeders' Cup President & CEO Drew Fleming. “Breeders' Cup will continue its work to ensure the safety and the integrity of our sport, including our strong support of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act and other progressive reforms for Thoroughbred racing in the U.S. through our involvement in the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition.”

Learn more about the Breeders' Cup's out-of-competition testing program from this 2019 Paulick Report feature.

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Different Jurisdictions, Different MMV Rules Could Play In Baffert’s Favor

As news broke Tuesday of another positive post-race drug test for a Bob Baffert trainee, some readers found themselves wondering — when do these alleged violations begin to add up to a single, long suspension?

The answer to that remains unclear, but it's probably, “They won't.”

After Charlatan and Gamine tested positive for lidocaine following their races at Oaklawn Park this spring, Baffert announced he would be appealing the 15-day suspension given out by the Arkansas Racing Commission.

As reported last week, Baffert-trained Gamine got a positive test post-race for betamethasone after her third-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, but that case has not yet been adjudicated because testing on the split sample is not complete. (If a split sample does come back negative, the commission will not pursue charges against a licensee.)

Finally, the most recent case, a positive test for dextorphan from Merneith – second in a July 25 allowance race at Del Mar – has been confirmed on split sample, but the stewards' hearing into the matter won't take place until Nov. 12.

That means, from a regulatory perspective, none of Baffert's positive tests from this year are closed cases yet.

A hearing will take place on Thursday into whether or not stewards should disqualify Justify or Hoppertunity from 2018 races based on scopolamine positives. The CHRB has already made clear that it is not pursuing action against Baffert's license in either of those cases after a recommendation by equine medical director Dr. Rick Arthur that the positive test likely resulted from hay contaminated with jimsonweed.

Baffert's home base of California provides a sliding scale of suspensions and fines for repeated medication violations in the same penalty class. (Lidocaine and dextorphan carry a Category or Class B penalty in Arkansas and California, while betamethasone carries a Class C penalty in Kentucky.) Per California rules, one Category B offense gets between 30 and 60 days' suspension, but a second offense in two years could carry 60 to 180 days. Currently however, stewards cannot take into account violations from other states when deciding what constitutes a repeat offense in a given penalty category; even if they could, they would have to focus on completed cases, meaning those not under appeal. That means that under current rules, if California stewards do decide to suspend Baffert for the dextorphan, they'll have to address it as a B violation in a vacuum when deciding on a suspension length or fine amount.

That may seem frustrating to readers who feel Baffert's violations are adding up, even if they are for therapeutic substances. This is the kind of situation a multiple medication violation (MMV) penalty system was designed to address. The MMV, which is in force in the Mid-Atlantic, is supposed to operate similarly to many state systems that assign points to a driver's license for repeat violations. Those points can compound the base fines or suspensions given out for a violation if the license holder is a repeat offender, regardless of the penalty category of previous offenses. The idea is that repeated low-level offenses eventually pack a big enough punch that a trainer will be more careful, even with therapeutic drugs that are regulated but not considered major performance enhancers. In an ideal world, the MMV system is supposed to tally offenses across jurisdictions.

California hasn't yet finalized adoption of MMV language but the rule is in process. The proposed language has completed the 45-day public comment period and is likely to be on the agenda for a Nov. 19 meeting of the CHRB to be publicly heard and (potentially) adopted. Even after that vote, however, a CHRB spokesman said it takes new rules roughly two months to complete the administrative process to become enacted, so California's MMV rule won't be live until early 2021. Part of the proposed rule language to be considered on Nov. 19 would allow stewards to consider violations from other jurisdictions. It remains legally unclear, but seems unlikely, however, that the CHRB could use out-of-state violations occurring before finalization of the MMV rule against a trainer after the rule's implementation.

Kentucky has not yet taken up MMV language. A 2016 initiative by former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin aimed at reducing red tape for Kentucky businesses required state agencies to reexamine and simplify existing language, which also slowed the drafting of new regulation.

Arkansas does have MMV language on the books. Currently, Baffert's appeal in Arkansas is still in progress. A spokeswoman for the Arkansas Racing Commission confirmed Wednesday that the case is still in the legal discovery process and no hearing date has been set.

MMV language will only allow officials to take into account points from cases where all appeals have been exhausted. So, Arkansas couldn't issue MMV points unless its appeal was concluded after proceedings in California and Kentucky are complete.

All this means that, if Kentucky officials confirm the betamethasone overage and California officials proceed with a suspension and/or fine for the dextorphan overage, they will likely be required to consider each case in their state's bubble, which would suggest fairly mild sanctions for each.

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‘Clearly Another Case Of Contamination’: CHRB Complaint Reveals Dextorphan Positive In Baffert Trainee

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) has filed a complaint against Baffert after his trainee Merneith tested positive for dextorphan this summer. Merneith, who earlier this year was third in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks, received the positive test post-race after she finished second in the fourth race on Del Mar's July 25 card. Baffert trains the daughter of American Pharoah for HRH Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud.

A split sample confirmed the original violation, according to the Sept. 17 CHRB complaint.

Baffert said the finding was a result of environmental contamination.

“A number of my staff were sick with COVID this summer, including Merneith's groom,” Baffert said via email. “I learned he had been taking over-the-counter cough syrups that contained Dextrorphan. This has been an issue in other states where contamination has lead to positive tests. That's what happened here. This is clearly another case of contamination. Ultimately, this is my responsibility. It's really embarrassing for the barn, but that's what happened. #2020 sucks.”

Dextorphan is a metabolite of dextromethorphan, which is a Class 4 drug according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International's classification system. Class 4 drugs are primarily therapeutic drugs which “may influence performance but generally have a more limited ability to do so” as compared to those in other classes. Dextromethorphan is a common ingredient in human cough syrups, though it can also be a drug of abuse, given its capacity to act as an anesthetic in high doses. It has no Food and Drug Administration-approved use in the horse, but regulators have been told it has been used experimentally to quiet nervous behaviors like cribbing.

The metabolism of dextorphan and dextromethorphan were the subject of a study several years ago in Kentucky. The research found that dextromethorphan breaks down quickly in a horse's body, turning it into dextorphan. But unlike some other substances, dextorphan briefly increases in the horse's system as the dextromethorphan breaks down, and then it tapers off more gradually than testing experts had previously realized. The research in Kentucky led to three dextorphan positives being dismissed — not because the commission agreed they were the result of environmental contamination, but rather because it was unclear when the horses had been exposed to dextromethorphan, given the study results about the drug metabolism.

Dextorphan carries a penalty category of B, which has variable suspension lengths depending upon the number of previous violations within a 365-day period.

News of the dextorphan positive comes hard on the heels of an acknowledgement by Baffert that Gamine tested positive for betamethasone following her third-place effort in the G1 Kentucky Oaks this year. Split sample testing in that case has not yet been completed, but Baffert's attorney maintains the drug was administered in the recommended timeframe outlined by Kentucky's rules. Gamine and Charlatan also tested positive for lidocaine following races at Oaklawn this spring, which Baffert attributed to environmental contamination from an employee's over-the-counter pain patch. He told media he planned to appeal those rulings by Arkansas stewards.

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Maryland Could Crack Down On Clenbuterol Administration, Eliminating Any Threshold On Race Day

Clenbuterol restrictions in Maryland may be about to get tighter. According to a report from Thoroughbred Daily News, the Maryland Racing Commission has voted unanimously to propose a new rule that would take away any race-day threshold for the bronchodilator.

The current rules do not permit race day administration of the drug, but rather set a threshold under which its presence would not be a violation. Generally this is done to allow a drug to be given within a set period of days prior to race day.

Clenbuterol is an effective bronchodilator but can also have side effects similar to anabolic steroids, particularly if used in small doses over a period of time. Under the proposed regulation, veterinarians could still prescribe the drug to horses with a specific diagnosis, but would be required to report the horse's diagnosis and treatment plan. The horse receiving the medication would not be permitted to race until urine or blood tests came back with no clenbuterol in the horse's system. The drug could also be added to the commission's battery of out-of-competition tests.

The TDN notes however, that current restrictions in Maryland still do not permit the commission to perform out-of-competition tests on horses stabled away from commission-sanctioned grounds.