The New York State Meeting met Dec. 19 to look at the effectiveness of the state’s present system of testing and prevention for equine doping.
Because the implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Security Act, Thoroughbred drug testing not lies within the palms of the New York State Gaming Fee, nonetheless, the state continues to be answerable for performing drug testing on the jurisdiction’s seven harness tracks.
A number of professionals testified on the assembly, together with Dr. Scott Palmer, the equine medical director of the NYSGC. Though a consultant from HISA was not current at Thursday’s assembly, Palmer praised the group’s uniformity in drug testing.
Harness racing throughout the nation doesn’t adhere to a single regulatory physique, and drug testing continues to be performed by means of the person state.
Jeffrey Cannizzo, the New York Racing Affiliation vp of presidency affairs, launched written testimony coinciding with the assembly, talking to the connection between NYRA and HISA:Join BloodHorse Day by day
“Since its launch, HISA has formulated and utilized guidelines and security requirements which have efficiently improved equine security. NYRA will proceed to advocate for the significance of nationwide insurance policies designed to guard equine athletes in competitors and defend the integrity of the game,” he wrote.
He went on to commend the work of HISA in lowering in equine fatalities and “transfer the game ahead.”
Palmer informed the committee, “Efficient treatment management in horse racing requires a number of instruments. Drug testing, regardless of how subtle, is just one of many instruments. The opposite kind is boots on the bottom, within the type of skilled investigators with the abilities to assemble intelligence and the power to work together and perceive the practices in impact at racetracks in New York.”
Palmer famous that the 2019 federal indictments of trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro have been achieved largely by means of wiretapping, and never drug testing.
Whereas the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit, HISA’s enforcement arm, continues its obligations with Thoroughbreds, Palmer stated New York stays dedicated to specializing in drug testing Standardbred racehorses. As of 2024, New York at present exams for 470 totally different substances in racehorses.
“Earlier successes however, the detection of unknown and beforehand undetectable substances stays a formidable problem,” Palmer stated. “For instance, the microdosing of horses with performance-enhancing medication is a well known observe each in people and horses. And this can be very tough to detect. Rising detection on this discipline consists of biomarkers and using metabolomics, the research of small molecules generally generally known as metabolites within the physique in addition to the presence of antigens and anti-drug antibodies for impermissible substances. The usage of new drug-detecting applied sciences such because the ion mobility mass spectrometer will help with the detection of drugs not detectable with typical focused testing.”
Palmer known as the mass spectrometer, a $600,000 piece of apparatus, a “very thrilling growth” in drug testing and detection.
Three audio system testifying, Joseph Faraldo, president of the Standardbred Homeowners Affiliation of New York, Sarah Burger from the Saratoga Harness Horseperson’s Affiliation, and Dr. Michael Lindinger of The Nutraceutical Alliance, advocated for prerace testing in Standardbreds.
Lindinger argued that testing for elevated TCO2 ranges, attributable to the observe of “milkshaking” in horses, was at present outdated and restricted, with rules solely calling for postrace testing. Milkshaking is the method of alkalizing the blood by means of using sodium, potassium, calcium, or magnesium, which produces a performance-enhancing impact. The doping is mostly administered one hour earlier than the horse runs, which might permit prerace testing the animal half-hour previous to competitors an efficient device.
Prerace testing, which was utilized efficiently in New York on choose events at harness tracks in 2024, proved very efficient in exposing horses doped with TCO2.
