RMTC Close to Setting Cobalt Test Threshold

A Kentucky racing official Sept. 12 said the state has been at the forefront of research into cobalt, a naturally occurring element said to have blood-doping qualities if used at high levels, and is part of a team working to develop a standard testing threshold for the substance.

Kentucky Horse Racing Commission equine medical director Dr. Mary Scollay, in a presentation before the Kentucky General Assembly Interim Joint Committee on Licensing and Occupations, said officials in Kentucky, California, Pennsylvania, and Canada have worked for months on the project. She said about 900 blood samples from racehorses in those jurisdictions were taken and tested.

"We need to separate the risk to integrity from legitimate, ethical care of the horse," said Scollay, who noted cobalt is present in feed and vitamin B-12 supplements regularly given to horses at no risk. "(With the test results), we are beginning to understand what normal is and what manipulated looks like.

"This is not a local problem, it's a global problem."

Scollay said officials have developed a "universal testing method" for cobalt, and that the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium is expected to agree upon a testing threshold for the substance at its October meeting.

Rep. David Osborne, a member of the committee and a Thoroughbred owner and breeder, told Scollay emergency regulations that take effect Sept. 30 in Indiana concern horsemen and veterinarians who are questioning Indiana's testing threshold of 25 parts per billion. He then asked Scollay if those concerns are valid.

"I believe in the RMTC," Scollay told Osborne. "It would be my recommendation that a jurisdiction not establish a threshold (until the RMTC decides it). I think what Indiana did speaks to the concern about the severity of the threat. They're trying to do the right thing, but I recognize concerns about the thresholds being used."

Sen. Damon Thayer, a member of the Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council, which makes recommendations to the KHRC, credited the state with taking the lead on cobalt research and medication issues in general. He also renewed his call for a ban on race-day furosemide, also called Salix or Lasix, at Kentucky racetracks.

"We have led the way on medication reform," Thayer said. "I hope we continue to lead and do something with race-day Lasix."

The KHRC, in a controversial vote in 2012, adopted regulations to begin the phase-out of race-day Salix use. The regulations never got to the General Assembly, however, and further stalled when other major racing states didn't follow Kentucky's lead on the issue.