New York to Act on New Medication Rules

New York regulators are ready to consider final revisions to rules specifying allowable testing threshold levels for two dozen medications used to treat Thoroughbreds in advance of races.

The expected approval by the New York State Gaming Commission Nov. 24 comes a year after the agency first proposed the thresholds as adjuncts to the state's existing "time-based" medication rules. In all, five equine drug rules are being considered.

The rule changes, based on proposals of national racing industry groups, are intended to "ensure that drugs will not be used in a manner that could endanger a horse and jockeys or manipulate the outcome of pari-mutuel horse races," according to an agency document outlining the proposed rules.

The NYSGC is being asked to consider "per se" thresholds for 24 drugs, most identified by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, that set a specific floor above which a horse will be considered to test positive for prohibited levels. The move has been described as being akin to creating a version of a DWI-like minimum level for various drugs given to race horses.

The new thresholds will accompany long-held, time-based rules described by the agency as more simple instructions to trainers barring the presence of various drugs in a horse's urine or blood for a set period before a race. Some of those rules date back to 1982.

The final set of rules, for instance, would create a threshold for use of acepromazine (10 nanograms per milliliter in urine), betamethasone (10 picograms per milliliter in plasma), and clenbuterol (140 picograms per milliliter in urine or at any level in plasma).

Another rule would ban a horse from racing for at least seven days following a joint injection of any corticosteroid, and three corticosteroids may only be injected into a joint: betamethasone and any formulations of methylprednisolone and triamcinolone.

Based on some industry group's comments, such as those from The Jockey Club, a notice for the Nov. 24 NYSGC meeting said some of the medication rules proposed last November were revised in March. The agency notes that "national proponents of the thresholds abandoned the original concept of strictly prohibiting the presence of any other drugs in race-day samples."

"Measures to limit therapeutic medications close to race day might severely reduce the number of horses shipped to race in New York, absent a consensus with other states," the agency memo said.

Exceeding the new threshold levels for the various drugs would constitute an automatic rule violation, according to the final proposal under consideration.

The document states that national adoption of the drug thresholds makes it easier for trainers to work in New York and elsewhere.

"Although trainers who participate in other states are expressly not assured that the use of the 24 drugs at their own recommended withdrawal times will prevent the occurrence of a positive post-race test, trainers may rely on our time restrictions, when following accepted veterinary practices (e.g., clinical doses), to ensure their compliance with these thresholds in all states," the agency document states.

Significantly, the package of final rules also addresses administration of methylprednisolone acetate.

"Rather than prohibit the use of this drug, which some veterinary practitioners believe is the best therapeutic option in some circumstances, a use restriction that the horse must test negative and be released to race by the stewards will limit the use of this drug to such circumstances and provide the (NYSGC) and regulated parties with a use restriction that is reasonable to apply," the agency said.

NYSGC staff conducted a survey of horses in 2013 at New York Racing Association tracks and found that some had the drug in their system from anywhere from seven days to as many as 80 days after administration. The substance, known as Depo Medrol, could cause joint damage.

Given the difficulty in having a time restriction for the drug, the NYSGC rule will permit its use but a horse cannot run until it has tested negative for it.

The NYSGC last year initially proposed what the agency called strict prohibitions of the presence of any other corticosteroids in race-day samples "before the national proponents of the 24 drug thresholds abandoned their national support for a limit-of-detection threshold for all such 'unapproved' drugs.'' As such, the NYSGC is being asked by staff to no longer consider final adoption of the proposed rule.