IHRC Report: Truesdail Missed Seven Positives

The Indiana Horse Racing Commission believes Truesdail Laboratories missed seven positives, including a Class I drug, in just 26 days of handling drug tests for the state.

In May the IHRC fired Truesdail because the regulator said the Tustin, Calif., lab failed to meet performance metrics when it missed three corticosteroid positives. A final IHRC report released July 7 said the lab missed a total of seven positives.

Using a quality assurance program in which it sent samples to an audit laboratory, Industrial Laboratories in Denver and confirmed disputed findings by referee laboratory LGC Science in Lexington, the IHRC announced in May that it had termitated its contract with Truesdail for the missed positives.

At that time, the IHRC said Truesdail had failed to identify three Standardbred positives for the corticosteroids isoflupredone (once) and betamethasone (twice). According to the July 7 IHRC staff report, several racing days were in the pipeline awaiting testing and the audit lab determined that Truesdail missed four additional illegal drugs, including the Class I drug methylphenidate, which is known as Ritalin.

The IHRC has since hired Industrial Laboratory in Denver, which had served as the audit lab, as its primary lab.

Truesdail did not immediately respond July 7 to requests for comment from Blood-Horse. A week after Indiana announced in May it had terminated its agreement with Truesdail for breach of contract, the lab said it would appeal that decision.

In a May 19 release Truesdail said it had detected a flaw in its tests for corticosteroids.

"The root cause investigation identified a loss of sensitivity in the screening for the corticosteroid class of drug compounds," Dr. Anthony Fontana of Truesdail Laboratories said in the release. "Corrective actions were implemented within three days of notification and we are screening and confirming corticosteroid at RMTC and ARCI threshold levels. We have validated the results of our corrective actions by confirming replicate spiked serum samples at threshold levels."

But Indiana's final report noted that the lab had missed a variety of drug positives, including the initial corticosteroids announced in May; Ritalin; the topical anti-inflammatory dimethylsulfoxide, also called DMSO; the topical corticosteroid triamcinolone acetonide, known as Vetalog; and the muscle relaxant methocarbamol, or Robaxin.

"It is disconcerting to see that the missed findings of the primary laboratory were not limited to a certain drug or category of drug but instead was an across-the-board failure to find any violation present in any Indiana sample," noted the IHRC staff report.

The IHRC has no plans to proceed with disciplinary action related to any of the medication overages it said Truesdail failed to detect when it was serving as the primary laboratory. The regulator plans to continue its quality assurance program.

"We have learned a valuable lesson," IHRC executive director Joe Gorajec said. "Moving forward, a vigorous quality assurance program will become a cornerstone of our drug-testing program."

Because of cost concerns, that program could change. The staff report said a double-blind quality assurance program could be developed in which the primary laboratory would receive samples from horses that have been administered selected drugs and would be indistinguishable from the post-race samples routinely delivered.

Truesdail is a Racing Medication and Testing Consortium-accredited lab and conducts testing for several other states including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia.

"RMTC is in the process of its own review of Truesdail laboratory," RMTC executive director Dr. Dionne Benson said. "Until that is complete we cannot make any determinations regarding accreditation of the laboratory."

Each laboratory receiving RMTC accreditation has first been ISO 17025-certified, which is the international standard for analytical laboratories. Additionally, they must submit an application that is reviewed by an independent auditor, successfully complete a multi-day laboratory site inspection with an internationally recognized expert in the field, and pass two rounds of the RMTC external quality assurance program proficiency sample testing, which measures the ability of the laboratory to identify, detect and quantify substances of concern in horse racing.