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Originally Posted by King Glorious
The article says that she had 27 picograms. A picogram is one trillionth of a gram. That's .000000000001 of a gram of substance. I don't think any reasonable person believe that small amount affected her performance.
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The 27 picograms is not an absolute amount, but rather a concentration (i.e. 27 pg/mL) measured in a single body fluid/compartment. There was much more than 27 picograms of the substance in the horse at the time of sampling.
Furthermore, the concentration of a substance in one body fluid does not necessarily reflect the substance's concentration or its physiological effect in another compartment--so one cannot state that there was no drug effect in one compartment based on the concentration in another.
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"Importantly, the veterinarian followed established medical and regulatory guidelines in administering the medication. The withdrawal guidelines published by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission recommend that the medication not be given within 14 days of a race."
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This is incorrect. The guidelines (
http://khrc.ky.gov/new_docs.aspx?cat...=30#details242) state that it is a violation if the medication is given within 14 days of a race. The 14 days is not listed as a recommended withdrawal time, it notes it as a required "stand down period".
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"Trainers and veterinarians must be able to rely on guidelines given them by racing officials. If they are told by regulators that a medication will clear a horses system in 14 days, they must be able to rely on that information.”
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The guidelines and thresholds are based on specific dosing. If the horse was treated with the same medication but in a different way from how the guidelines were developed then the connections need to consider that when deciding on when to treat.
In this case, it looks like they attempted to do this but came up short (or high as it were).