Racing Medication and Testing Consortium issues recommendations - not guidelines - for new HISA rules
The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium has released a document containing recommendations to veterinarians and horsemen on when to refrain from administering regulated medications to avoid positive tests in horses when a new testing regimen led by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority goes into effect.
The document, which contains withdrawal guidelines for more than two dozen commonly used medications, had been requested by several horsemen’s and veterinarian’s groups in advance of the new HISA regimen, which may be implemented as early as March 27. HISA does not plan to release or endorse any withdrawal guidelines under the new regimen.
The withdrawal guidelines are recommendations, and horsemen and veterinarians would be unable to claim that they followed the guidelines to avoid a penalty in the event of a positive test for the substances, which include commonly used painkillers, anti-inflammatory medications, and ulcer treatments. The RMTC warned as much in an announcement of the new list, saying it “is solely intended to provide information to guide horsemen and their veterinarians as they perform an independent risk analysis and does not constitute a guarantee or warranty by the RMTC.”
The RMTC also warned that the withdrawal guidelines are “subject to change . . . as new research becomes available for each medication.”
HISA plans to launch a new nationwide testing and penalty adjudication system, the Anti-Doping and Medication Control program, when a tranche of rules submitted to the Federal Trade Commission earlier this year is approved. The Federal Trade Commission has until March 27 to approve the rules.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission declined to approve a similar batch of rules prior to a 60-day deadline, citing uncertainty created by a series of court rulings questioning HISA’s authority and constitutionality. Those legal questions remain in flux, with conflicting decisions released in two separate U.S. District Courts of Appeal within the past five months. Legal experts anticipate that parties in the suits will petition the Supreme Court to resolve the conflict.
When the Anti-Doping and Medication Control program is launched, testing will be standardized in all jurisdictions where HISA has authority. HISA has released “detection times” for the controlled substances on the RMTC list, but those detection times merely describe the methodology that was used to determine the screening limit that will be used by labs to call a positive.
Horsemen have expressed confusion and frustration over the difference between the detection times and withdrawal times for decades. In advance of the implementation of the Anti-Doping and Medication Control program, several horsemen’s groups petitioned the RMTC to conduct an analysis of the HISA detection times to determine new withdrawal-time guidance for the regulated medications, if necessary. The board agreed to perform the analysis in February.
“The intention is for the RMTC to provide the industry with scientifically derived information to aid attending veterinarians and horsemen in making medication decisions and to avoid preventable errors, promote compliance with HISA’s regulations, and provide all available information in advance of HISA’s expected Anti-Doping and Medication Control program implementation date of March 27,” the RMTC said in a statement.
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