NYRA reveals new in-house drug-testing program, closes
security barn
The New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced plans Wednesday to expand
and enhance its in-house drug testing program to detect illegal
performance-enhancing substances in Thoroughbred race horses utilizing
state-of-the-art science, technology and procedural processes. As a result,
NYRA’s backstretch security barn, initiated in May 2005, will become obsolete
and will cease operations as of opening day at Saratoga Race Course, July 23.
The expanded program includes random out-of-competition testing designed to
effectively deter the use of blood doping agents such as Erythropoietin (EPO),
bronchial dilators, and other emerging threats. Out-of-competition testing will
focus primarily on claimed horses, horses shipping in and out of NYRA tracks,
horses running in stakes races, and other random occurrences.
NYRA will also initiate an “in-today” process which will identify all horses,
in their stalls, running in a NYRA race within 24 hours. This will afford NYRA
the ability to monitor horses the day prior to and in the hours leading up to a
race through the deployment of an even stronger backstretch presence of NYRA
veterinarians and security officers. NYRA will continue testing for illegal
levels of total carbon dioxide (TCO2, known as “milkshaking”) through
an “assembly barn” where all horses entering a race will be required to report
just prior to moving to the paddock for saddling.
“The out-of-competition drug testing program combined with the new assembly
barn and ‘in-today’ procedures will provide NYRA with potent tools to confront
today’s challenges of detecting performance-enhancing substances and allow us to
stay one step ahead of potential abusers,” NYRA President and CEO Charles
Hayward said. “The science empowering cheaters has changed since 2005 and these
new procedures will ensure that NYRA’s countermeasures keep pace in order to
preserve the integrity of the sport.”
The testing operation will be administered and supervised by Dr. George
Maylin, director of the New York State Racing & Wagering Board’s drug testing
and research program at Morrisville State College in upstate Madison County, New
York. The program of Thoroughbred and Standardbred drug testing in New York
currently overseen by Maylin is already the most advanced and comprehensive of
any jurisdiction in the United States.
NYRA’s new robust testing regimen will be accompanied by equally robust
mandatory penalties for trainers of horses testing positive for illegal drugs.
Consistent with the uniform regulations promulgated by the Association of Racing
Commissioners International (RCI), trainers of horses testing positive for Class
A drug violations will face a minimum mandatory one-year disbarment from
entering horses or being allocated stalls at NYRA racetracks as a first offense;
a minimum mandatory disbarment of two years for a second violation; and a
permanent disbarment for a third violation. Moreover, trainers serving
disbarments will not be permitted to transfer their training responsibilities to
family members or current employees.
In an ongoing effort to further enhance the new policies and procedures being
announced, over the next 12 months NYRA management will closely monitor the
re-instituted procedure of private veterinarians administering Lasix to horses
on their race day, and re-examine TCO2 testing, historical TCO2
levels, and appropriate penalties for violations, and report on the results and
impact of the elimination of the security barn to the Special Oversight
Committee of the NYRA board of directors on a regular basis.