HISA officials provide updates on new laboratories, testing procedures
ELMONT, N.Y. - Officials with a national regulatory body appointed to oversee drug testing in Thoroughbred racing expressed confidence Thursday that it will be able to catch trainers using banned substances and not just those who get overages of regulated, therapeutic medications.
Lisa Lazarus, the chief executive officer of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), and Ben Mosier, the executive director of the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) both indicated the six laboratories chosen to conduct post-race drug testing are better equipped to catch banned substances than they were when those same labs were working under the rules established by individual states.
“In order to be a part of the HIWU sort of program they had to meet certain specifications,” Lazarus said Thursday during a press briefing at Belmont Park. “Don’t forget, what the labs were testing for was still driven by how much money was being paid for that specific test, what was being agreed to test for. I feel very confident in HIWU that basically the spectrum of substances that are being tested for is complete.”
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Lazarus also said that Dr. Mary Scollay, HIWU’s chief of science “has done a very good job of making sure the labs are harmonized and they’re testing at the same levels. . . . HISA is also making sure the right equipment is there, the professionalism, all of that. I do think this subgroup gives us a better chance overall.”
After setbacks related to several adverse court rulings, HIWU went into effect on May 22, two days after the Preakness Stakes was run. Mosier said that more than 3,500 post-race tests have been conducted over three weeks, but no positives of either banned substances or controlled medications have been called.
Mosier said that more than 100 out-of-competition tests have been taken on horses competing in the major races this weekend at Belmont Park, where 16 stakes, nine Grade 1s, are to be run Friday through Sunday. Mosier said all nine horses entered in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes and the eight entered in the $1 million Metropolitan Handicap underwent out-of-competition testing for banned substances.
Mosier said that not all horses who compete in the Belmont and Met Mile will undergo post-race tests.
“We’ll make target selections out of both races,” Mosier said.
Speaking about day-to-day operations at tracks, Mosier said “at a minimum” the winners of every race will undergo post-race tests. Mosier said that all other tests will be done at the discretion of the track stewards.
Mosier said while the stewards will have discretion as to whom they can have tested, a HIWU official on-site can also request that a specific horse be tested.
“We’re still utilizing the stewards in the industry to have the real-time capabilities of selecting horses whether it be the runner-up, a beaten favorite [or] that horse ran funny,” Mosier said. “We work with the stewards and tell them how many specials we would like for them to call throughout the day and then they can allocate those specials per race.”
Mosier said that there has been ample use of HIWU’s anonymous whistleblower hotline - which went into effect on May 22 - where people can phone in tips on suspected suspicious behavior.
“The volume has really been great over the last several weeks,” Mosier said. “People are using it and trusting us.”
Lazarus said that a report on Laurel Park’s main track, which had issues that resulted in 1/ST Racing shutting down that track in April and moving racing operations to Pimlico is due out in a month.
Lazarus also said that HISA will play a “significant role” in deciding whether live racing will return to Churchill Downs for its next meet scheduled, in September.
Lazarus said HISA is still undergoing its investigative process of the 12 equine fatalities that occurred at that track which led to Churchill shutting down for live racing and moving the remainder of its meet to Ellis Park, a track in western Kentucky owned by Churchill, starting this weekend.
Lazarus said that since none of HISA’s experts could identify any real concern with Churchill’s surface, there wasn’t the need to close the track for training.
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