NYRA expands drug testing, ends detention barn

[Cannon Shell]

http://www.nyra.com/belmont/stories/July142010c.shtml

[Kasept]

NYRA Expands Drug Testing; Security Barn to Cease as of Sunday

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced plans today 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, Friday, 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 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 Dr. 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 today, 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.

“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,” said NYRA president and CEO Charles Hayward. “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.”

[asudevil]

OK Johnny Sheriffs...no more excuses.

[TouchOfGrey]

Originally Posted by asudevil

OK Johnny Sheriffs...no more excuses.

There's still those pesky Rockies...

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by TouchOfGrey

There's still those pesky Rockies...

And "the biggest mountain" just moved to the Dutrow barn.

[freddymo]

Rudy Rudy Rudy

[letswastemoney]

I wonder what Awesome Gem is, if Rail Trip is the biggest mountain.

[MisterB]

Sad but good. Drugs suck, but detention barns hurt the best runners to assemble. Now just fine them basterds (real good) who cheat, and band them for 3 months. No current horses trained by violator will cross the entry box. No current assistants/acting trainer will enter said horses either. PERIOD!!!!

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by freddymo

Rudy Rudy Rudy

Now close down training at Aqueduct, the private haven of these guys, and force them to train at Belmont under watchful eyes.

[parsixfarms]

This is probably a question for Chuck, but the "enhanced" penalties cited in the press release deal with violations that are "Class A" violations under the RCI categorization. While the penalties discussed would be meaningful if actually imposed, are these the types of violations that we usually see? I was looking at the RCI site and recent high-profile positives have involved things like steroids and mepivicaine, but these are Class B violations under the RCI guidelines. I guess this is a long-winded way of asking whether I would be correct in assuming that, barring a trainer giving a horse something like snake venom or elephant juice, the enhanced penalties would probably never be imposed?

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by parsixfarms

This is probably a question for Chuck, but the "enhanced" penalties cited in the press release deal with violations that are "Class A" violations under the RCI categorization. While the penalties discussed would be meaningful if actually imposed, are these the types of violations that we usually see? I was looking at the RCI site and recent high-profile positives have involved things like steroids and mepivicaine, but these are Class B violations under the RCI guidelines. I guess this is a long-winded way of asking whether I would be correct in assuming that, barring a trainer giving a horse something like snake venom or elephant juice, the enhanced penalties would probably never be imposed?

I think that the "enhanced" penalties are like saying that instead of getting 100 years for murder, you now get 150 years. In other words not really much other than PR. The fact is that if a large outfit were to get a class 1 positive they will appeal and then if they can't win the appeal, then go to court and tie it up until the state gets tired of fighting it. Class A's are really rare which is not to say that they aren't being used. But the problem with testing is that you be able to identify a substance before you can test for it. That and the fact there are thousands and thousands of potential drugs to test for.

[freddymo]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

I think that the "enhanced" penalties are like saying that instead of getting 100 years for murder, you now get 150 years. In other words not really much other than PR. The fact is that if a large outfit were to get a class 1 positive they will appeal and then if they can't win the appeal, then go to court and tie it up until the state gets tired of fighting it. Class A's are really rare which is not to say that they aren't being used. But the problem with testing is that you be able to identify a substance before you can test for it. That and the fact there are thousands and thousands of potential drugs to test for.

It would be great to test this trainer extraordinaire, Juan Carlos Guerrero. What a breathe of fresh aire this fellows runners have been. Hard for the camera to keep them in the pic at Philly Park.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by freddymo

It would be great to test this trainer extraordinaire, Juan Carlos Guerrero. What a breathe of fresh aire this fellows runners have been. Hard for the camera to keep them in the pic at Philly Park.

he is a savant