RMTC adds four drugs to regulated list

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Four therapeutic medications should be added to a list of medications that can be legally administered to racehorses, an influential horse-racing group, the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, has recommended.

The four medications include two antiulcer drugs, an antihistamine, and an expectorant. The American Association of Equine Practitioners, which represents racetrack veterinarians, recommended that the RMTC consider adding the drugs to a list of 26 medications that are already approved for use in horses, according to the RMTC, and the RMTC board approved the addition of the medications to its list at a meeting on Tuesday in Atlanta.

The inclusion of the four drugs brings the number of RMTC-approved therapeutic medications to 30. Under rules recommended by the RMTC that have been adopted in many states, the medications on the list can be administered to horses under time and dosage regulations that are designed to allow for treatment of common maladies without influencing a horse’s performance in a race.

The antiulcer medications are ranitidine, which is marketed as Zantac, and cimetidine, which is marketed most prominently as Tagamet. The approved list already has one antiulcer medication, omeprazole, which is the active ingredient in Gastrogard. The antihistamine, cetirizine, is the first antihistamine on the list. The expectorant is guaifenesin, a common ingredient in a long list of over-the-counter medications.

The RMTC said it would ask the Association of Racing Commissioners International, an umbrella group for U.S. racing regulators, to approve a model rule adding the medications to the list. The RCI has in the past supported the RMTC’s efforts on the approved medication list.

If the RCI approves the medications, racing states will need to modify their rules to allow for the regulated use of the drugs. Over the past several years, some states have put in place methods to allow for the expedited approval of new medications, but in other states, modifying regulations to allow for the addition of the drugs could take months or the better part of a year.

The inability of racing states to adopt new regulations en masse has been a central criticism of groups inside and outside of the racing industry even as the sport attempts to align all racing jurisdictions under one set of rules. Those groups are currently supporting a federal bill that would appoint a private company, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, as the overseer of all medication policies in U.S. racing states, but the bill is not expected to gain any traction in this year’s legislature, according to racing officials in Washington.

The RMTC and the RCI, along with most rank-and-file horsemen’s group and racetracks, continue to support a strategy to adopt the uniform regulations through a state-by-state approach. In a release, the chairman of the RMTC, Alex Waldrop, said that approach is gradually uniting racing jurisdictions.

“While there remains much work to be done, the RMTC board is encouraged by the fact that a steadily increasing number of states are embracing these reforms,” Waldrop said.