New York Regulators Introduce Changes to Drug Usage

State regulators in New York are poised to move on a plan to cut the number of clinical doses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in half—to one—that can be administered to a racehorse in the week prior to a race.

The state Gaming Commission has a busy May 19 agenda of racing-related items for its board members to consider when they hold a remote session via conference call, including the proposed changed to the NSAIDs rule in New York and a new rule to tweak regulations of furosemide administrations.

The first of those—the NSAIDs rule change—has already been recommended by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium and backed as a model rule by the Association of Racing Commissioners International.

"The proposal also reduces the list of NSAIDs that could be administered lawfully within one week before the horse races to only three by eliminating the NSAIDs that are not widely used for which the appropriate lab threshold is unclear,'' the agency's counsel, Edmund Burns, wrote in a letter to the board released Monday evening by the Gaming Commission.

Among the changes, the proposed rule states that a single injection up to 48 hours before a race would be permitted of either flunixin, ketoprofen, or phenylbutazone.

The second rule change released Monday evening would, Burns wrote, "permit the horse's trainer to request reinstatement to the Lasix list after the race without having to re-apply for the Lasix list with the eligibility criteria (including demonstrating another bleeding episode) being re-established.

"Without the proposed rule amendment, the horse could not run a no-race-day-Lasix race unless it left the Lasix list and the horse would need to reapply for the Lasix list after having raced without the drug,'' Burns added.

One line of the proposed rule change reads: "The state steward may remove a horse from the list for the limited purpose of allowing the horse to compete in a race whose conditions forbid the administration of furosemide on race day." 

Final approval is expected on a number of items previously given preliminary okay by the Gaming Commission, including:

• Final adoption of a rule to allow claimants to void a Thoroughbred claim of a horse after the claiming race found to have become lame or "experienced epistaxis due to exercise-industry pulmonary hemorrhage.'' The commission's counsel noted that under historical claiming rules ownership of a claimed horse was transferred to the new owner after the starting gate of a race is opened. "Under this new proposal, all claimed horses would go to the test barn. After an appropriate cooling out period, before which lameness is not always apparent, the state veterinarian who supervises the test band would examine the horse for lameness and for epistaxis (bleeding from a nostril) caused by EIPH.'' The original owner would be responsible for the horse until the vet's examination and the transfer of the horse's ownership is then completed. Also, the New York Thoroughbred Owner's Association noted that existing claiming rules provide that a claim is automatically voided if a horse dies or is euthanized on a track and that a claimant has one hour to void a claim if a horse is vanned off a track.
• Final okay of a rule change broadening requirements of a lip tattoo for Thoroughbred horses to include digital tattoos.
• Final adoption of a rule change related to intra-articular treatments in Thoroughbred horses, including a ban on the use of corticosteroid joint injections to 14 days before a race from the current seven days. The change was given preliminary adoption earlier this year and there have been no public comments since the modification was presented for outside comment back in March.

Unless there is an emergency need, changes to racing rules are given preliminary adoption by the board and then sent out for public comment with final adoption coming some months, or later, down the road.

Two preliminary rule modifications were proposed on Monday evening in advance of Tuesday's commission meeting.