Maryland Racing Commission | Horse Racing Free Tips

Community Meeting To Discuss Maryland’s Stricter Corticosteroid Regulation Set For Sept. 28

Maryland racing stakeholders and regulators have scheduled an online community forum to discuss and answer questions regarding the action by the Maryland Racing Commission to remove testing threshold levels for five corticosteroids.

The Zoom webinar meeting will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at Noon eastern.

Participants include MRC Executive Director Mike Hopkins; MRC member Dr. Thomas Bowman, who chairs the commission's Equine Safety, Health and Welfare Advisory Committee; Dr. Dionne Benson, Chief Veterinary Officer for 1/ST RACING (The Stronach Group); Dr. Mary Scollay, Executive Director of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium and Alan Foreman, Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association general counsel and Chief Executive Officer of the THA.

The MRC, upon the recommendation of the advisory committee chaired by Bowman, approved a motion to modify a regulation on the five corticosteroids to eliminate testing threshold levels and employ limit of detection—the lowest level at which a laboratory can, with confidence, detect a substance in a sample.

The change will be filed with emergency status and there will be a public comment period. It is anticipated the updated regulation will be implemented Nov. 1, Hopkins said.

The five corticosteroids are dexamethasone, prednisolone, betamethasone, isoflupredone and triamcinolone. The current 14-day stand-down period for intra-articular injections will remain in place under 2019 model rules approved by the Association of Racing Commissioners International and RMTC.

The advisory committee discussed the proposal at a Sept. 8 meeting as a result of several dexamethasone positives and reports the corticosteroid was being regularly administered by some veterinarians at 48 hours before a race at a lower dose rather than the RMTC-recommended 72-hour withdrawal time at the regular dose.

The webinar is open to all Maryland horsemen and practicing veterinarians. Advance registration is required to join by clicking here.

The post Community Meeting To Discuss Maryland’s Stricter Corticosteroid Regulation Set For Sept. 28 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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MRC To Remove Testing Thresholds for Corticosteroids

Edited Press Release

The Maryland Racing Commission, upon the recommendation of its Equine Safety, Health and Welfare Advisory Committee, has approved a motion to modify a regulation on five corticosteroids to eliminate testing threshold levels and employ level of detection for the substances.

The MRC took the action at its Sept. 23 meeting at Laurel Park. The change will be filed with emergency status and there will be public comment period. Given the regulatory process involved in rule-making, it is anticipated the update regulation will be implemented Nov. 1.

The Equine Health, Safety and Welfare Advisory Committee discussed the proposal at a Sept. 8 meeting as a result of several dexamethasone positives and reports the corticosteroid was being regularly administered by some veterinarians at 48 hours before a race at a lower dose rather than the RMTC-

recommended 72-hour withdrawal time at the regular dose.

The committee also recommended that Maryland regulators, in an effort to educate vets and trainers, provide information on how long corticosteroids can linger in a horse's system; advise against deviation from recommended administration times; and to point out potential risks to the racehorse.

The post MRC To Remove Testing Thresholds for Corticosteroids appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Maryland Commission Moves To Remove Testing Thresholds For Corticosteroids

The post Maryland Commission Moves To Remove Testing Thresholds For Corticosteroids appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Maryland Commission Unanimously Decides To Dismiss Amicar Penalties

The Maryland Racing Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to dismiss penalties for five horses found to have the adjunct anti-bleeding medication Amicar in their post-race drug tests, reports The Racing Biz. The MRC made the decision based on advice from the medication committee.

Instead of the typical “Category C” penalty of disqualification and $1,000 fine, the trainers of those five horses were issued a warning. The Commission indicated that regular penalties for Amicar will resume on Aug. 1.

A total of 12 positives for Amicar (seven in harness horses) were returned in the spring after the Maryland Racing Commission changed its testing laboratory from Truesdail Laboratories in Irvine, Calif. to Industrial Laboratories in Wheat Ridge, Colo.

Those positives caused the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association to issue a warning to trainers in late June, stating that utilizing Amicar or similar adjunct medications, for which there are no recommended withdrawal times, “runs the risk of a post-race positive test.”

Though the Thoroughbred trainers were not punished for the positives, the harness cases had already adjudicated with Category C penalties. MRC chairman Emmitt Davitt said the commission would research how to rescind those penalties issued to harness horsemen.

Around the same time, Thoroughbred trainer Claudio Gonzalez was notified that two of his runners had tested positive for the corticosteroid dexamethasone, and told the Paulick Report he believed the positives were due to the change in labs. Several other trainers were also notified of similar positives, and the MTHA issued another warning to horsemen in early July about dexamethasone usage. The commission will likely consider those positives at its next monthly meeting.