Steroids

[Bobby Fischer]

Originally Posted by Riot

Listening to ATR ... not only are these tracks going to have to test EVERY horse that is claimed, at time of claim, for the FDA-approved steroids; what these tracks ought to do is what they did with TCO2 testing - over the next few months (before the "not a ban, but it really is, ban" goes into effect), is offer to test for free any horse a trainer wants tested after a race for steroid only (the not-very-accurate urine test they will be using).

This would be good for two reasons: first, trainers can get a handle on how long a particular steroid lasts in a horse so he won't get an unintentional positive. Secondly, the track may learn something about steroid withdrawal times - something they don't know now, and think is 2-4 months depending upon the steroid, while at the same time enacting a "30-day withdrawal" period.

Good Idea. I suspect that the urine test isn't going to be catching that many positives from weeks away, particularly with any oil based steroids. Still the trainers need to be vigilant and this would really help the smaller operations who aren't already planning to sample their own animals at their own expense.