Florida adopts uniform medication rules

Gov. Rick Scott of Florida on Tuesday signed a bill that will put in place a set of medication rules for Thoroughbred racing in the state that is supported by national racing organizations seeking uniform drug policies in U.S. racing.

The bill requires the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to adopt rules allowing for the regulated use of 26 medications, a list that has been devised and approved by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, an industry-funded group that recommends medication policies. Under the bill, the rules will go into effect July 1.

Most significantly, the rules will ban the race-day use of the corticosteroid prednisolone at Florida tracks and limit race-day medication to the anti-bleeding medication furosemide, administered only by regulatory veterinarians. Florida was the only state in the U.S. that allowed prednisolone, an anti-inflammatory medication, to be administered on race day. The drug will now be subject to a threshold level that calls for administration no closer than 48 hours before a race, along the recommendations of the RMTC.

The use of corticosteroids on race day is problematic because the drugs can mask lameness that might otherwise be evident in prerace veterinary examinations, according to regulatory veterinarians. Prednisolone is one of the milder corticosteroids on the market.

In addition, Florida had previously recommended that clenbuterol, a powerful bronchodilator, be withdrawn five days before a race to avoid a positive. The new rules will set a threshold level for the drug that will recommend a withdrawal at 14 days. Clenbuterol can have anabolic steroid-like properties when used regularly on a horse, according to studies.

Florida has been considered a critical state in the movement to adopt uniform rules because of its importance on the national racing landscape, with Gulfstream Park a major winter destination for top-class horses. But doubts about its ability to adopt the rules have dogged the state because, unlike many other states, the effort would require legislative action.

Late last year, Thoroughbred racing constituencies banded together to support a bill that would lead to adoption of the rules, but the legislature balked. The Jockey Club added support this year, and the effort led to passage of the bill in both houses of the state legislature this year.

“Florida was known as ‘the obstructionist state’ in the efforts toward national uniformity,” said Kent Stirling, the longtime executive director of the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and a board member of the RMTC, in a statement. “Even though pari-mutuel issues are notoriously contentious in Florida, this is one area where everyone agreed.”

The uniform rules have been adopted in substantial form in nearly every major racing state, including New York, Kentucky, California, Maryland, Arkansas, New Jersey, Illinois, and every jurisdiction in the Mid-Atlantic. Louisiana is in the process of adopting the new rules.