Racing Medication and Testing Consortium accredits three labs

Three U.S. testing laboratories have been accredited by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, a designation that aligns the laboratories with new rules in some states requiring accredited labs to perform drug tests on samples pulled from horses.

The three newly accredited laboratories are Industrial Laboratories in Colorado, the Ohio Department of Agriculture lab, and Truesdail Laboratories in California. The RMTC had earlier accredited the University of California-Davis Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory and the HFL Sport Science lab in Lexington, Ky., which is now known as the LGC Sport Science Laboratory.

The RMTC said the five labs account for drug testing in 23 of the 34 racing jurisdictions in the United States, including Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Maryland, New Mexico, New Jersey, and Ohio. A progress report prepared by the RMTC states that three other labs, including the labs that do testing for New York and Pennsylvania, have applied for accreditation. The University of Florida Racing Laboratory has also sent a letter to the RMTC indicating that it will apply for accreditation soon.

The RMTC accreditation program was launched by the organization last year as part of a medication reform effort. Under new rules supported by several large national racing organizations, racing states will be required to use accredited labs for their drug testing.