Out-of-competition testing in place for BC Challenge races

All horses expected to run in one of the 50 North American stakes races guaranteeing a berth in one of the 13 Breeders’ Cup races will be subject to out-of-competition testing as part of expanded security protocols for the races, Breeders’ Cup said on Monday.

Horses nominated to the races will be subject to random out-of-competition testing in the weeks leading up the events, Breeders’ Cup said. That is a sizeable expansion of an out-of-competition testing program that was already in place for the two-day Breeders’ Cup year-end event, scheduled this year for Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky. The testing program will be overseen by Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, which has passed rules allowing for out-of-competition sampling and testing.

In addition to the expansion of out-of-competition testing, all racetracks hosting a Challenge event will be required to provide security or video surveillance of every horse entered in the race for at least eight hours prior to the event. Also, any raceday administration of the regulated anti-bleeding medication furosemide must be performed by regulatory veterinarians or representatives of the state racing commission, a requirement already in place in many of the states where the events will be conducted this year.

The 50 Challenge races scheduled in the North America this year will be held at 11 tracks in six states and one Canadian province: California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, and Ontario. With the exception of Florida, those states have been leaders in passing regulations that align with recommendations from industry groups seeking uniform medication rules in U.S. racing jurisdictions. Florida requires legislative action to adopt the rules, and racing constituencies in the state have united behind an effort to lobby for passage of a bill designed to put the rules in place.

Out-of-competition testing is increasingly favored by regulatory officials in all sports because of the development of hard-to-detect drugs that have long-lasting effects on performance or recovery from strenuous exercise. A handful of racing states, including California, Kentucky, New Jersey, and New York, have tested out-of-competition samples from Thoroughbred horses for several years, though the results have not yielded positive tests for the kinds of powerful drugs thought to be used in human sports, such as blood-doping drugs.