Kentucky commission approves amendments to medication rules, penalties

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Tuesday approved a raft of amendments to its medication rules and penalties schedule in an attempt to address a recent court case and move the state further toward adoption of a uniform rules policy for horse racing.

Barring a setback, the new rules are likely to go into effect a few months into 2016. In Kentucky, many horse racing rules are statutes, and amendments to the rules must first go through a public-comment period and then receive approval through legislative agencies.

The new rules address a number of therapeutic and illegal drugs, along with recommended withdrawal times and penalties for violations. Under the rules, Kentucky will allow the regulated use of 26 approved therapeutic medications, in line with the same suite of drugs that is being recommended for regulated use by a national policy group, the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium.

Most of the amendments adopted by the commission Tuesday had been debated in marathon sessions of the commission’s Equine Drug Research Council and Rules Committee over the past six months.

In one amendment arising from a complex case, the commission approved a change that will remove levamisole, a drug that is used as a dewormer in livestock, from its list of illegal medications, while retaining a metabolite of the drug, aminorex, on its list of Class A drugs. Aminorex, a stimulant, is present in the post-race drug tests of all horses that test positive for levamisole, according to Dr. Rick Sams, head of the KHRC’s drug-testing laboratory.

The removal of levamisole was prompted by a recent court case in which a Kentucky circuit court judge threw out the one-year suspension of a trainer whose horse tested positive for the drug. While the ruling had several elements, the judge wrote that levamisole did not fit into the category of a Class A drug using the commission’s existing definition. Class A drugs are those that have the highest potential to impact performance and no therapeutic benefit as the KHRC definition read at the time.

According to Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical director of the KHRC, levamisole is used off-label by horsemen to treat the symptoms of equine protozoal myelitis, a serious infection affecting the central nervous system. The description of the drug’s use led Elizabeth Lavin, a commission member who is a frequent critic of medication use, to ask why a horsemen would need to use levamisole close to a race, considering that horses suffering from EPM frequently exhibit signs of physical instability. Though Scollay did not answer the question specifically, she said that the inclusion of aminorex on the prohibited list would prohibit horsemen from using levamisole close to a race, since it would show up on the post-race test and be treated as a serious violation.

The commission also adopted a rule that will treat any post-race finding of cobalt in excess of 50 parts per billion in blood plasma as a Class B violation. Cobalt has been widely abused in horse racing circles worldwide under the belief that it acts as a cheap blood doper, although research into the mineral’s effect on horses has not shown any effects similar to those of established blood-doping drugs such as darbepoietin and erythropoietin. Still, horse racing regulators worldwide are attempting to enforce rules that treat any concentration in a horse indicative of deliberate administration as a violation, citing the drug’s toxic effects and the lack of any supportable evidence for the therapeutic value of attempting to boost concentrations.

The prevalence of cobalt abuse in Standardbred racing led one commissioner, Alan Leavitt, who represents Standardbred interests, to argue that the commission needs to adopt a more severe penalty for a finding that is as high as 300 parts per billion. The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium had considered a similar recommendation, but ultimately set it aside because of legal concerns. The commission noted Leavitt’s comments before approving the 50 ppb threshold, along with a 25 ppb threshold that will result in a minor penalty and the placement of the horse on the vet’s list until it tests below 25 ppb (horses that test above 50 ppb also will be placed on the vet’s list).

The commission also voted unanimously to reject a recommendation from the Equine Drug Research Council over the use of flunixin, a regulated painkiller. Three months ago, the council, on a split vote, approved a recommendation to raise the threshold level of the drug to address new research that showed that administrations of the drug 24 hours prior to a race could test over the existing threshold level.

In response to that research, the RMTC, the national medication-policy group, had recommended that commissions retain the existing threshold level but tell horsemen not to use the medication within 32 hours of a race so as to avoid a positive. Underlying the RMTC’s recommendation was an organizational policy that painkillers should not be used so close to a race that they have an effect on the ability of veterinarians to conduct pre-race exams for soundness.

Three months ago in Kentucky, however, veterinary and trainer’s representatives on the equine drug council argued that the state should disregard the new RMTC recommendation and instead raise flunixin’s threshold level so that horsemen could continue to administer the drug up to 24 hours prior to a race. The vote to raise the threshold level was conducted over the objections of Scollay, who is a member of the RMTC.

Scollay told the full commission Tuesday that she could not recommend adoption of the new threshold level for flunixin. She also told the commission that raising the threshold level would be a departure from the uniform medication policy that a handful of states, including Kentucky, are aggressively attempting to adopt.

Bob Beck, the commission chairman, said the prospect of adopting an exception to the uniform rules “troubles me” before calling for a vote. The commission voted unanimously to retain the existing threshold level and directed the commission’s staff to issue an alert to horsemen that flunixin should not be used within 32 hours of a race.