All Breeders' Cup drug tests come back clean

All drug tests performed on horses in this year's Breeders' Cup have been cleared, the California Horse Racing Board announced.

According to a press release issued late Tuesday night, all horses who competed in the Breeders' Cup races last Friday and Saturday at Santa Anita were given pre-race tests for TCO2, which is used to flag horses who may have been milkshaked. Post-race tests -- using blood and urine -- for prohibited drugs were conducted on the first four finishers in every Breeders' Cup race, as well as additional random horses selected by stewards, the release said.

The tests were conducted at the CHRB's contracted laboratory, the Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California Davis, whose standard protocols look for more than 45 anabolic steroids and more than 1,000 other prohibited drugs and substances, the release said.

The testing exceeds graded-stakes testing standards of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, according to the release, which said the Maddy lab is the only lab in the Western Hemisphere certified by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.