Page 200 - Speedhorse April 2019

SNAPSHOTS
Hair Testing at Remington Park Remington Park, Oklahoma City, OK • March 20, 2019 Photos by Susan Bachelor, Speedhorse Story by by Debbie Schauf, OQHRA Executive Director
In a bold and precedent setting move, Remington Park implemented a require- ment that all horses must be hair tested for prohibited performance enhancing drugs before they were allowed to enter any race during the 2019 Quarter Horse Meet at
the Oklahoma City racetrack. Remington Park along with OQHRA, the recognized horsemen’s representative, responded to a suggestion from racing commission chair- man Joe Lucas. Lucas suggested that if the industry was really concerned about doing something to add a higher degree of integrity to the meet, the track could implement the testing program as an added way to insure all horses participating in the meet had not been using the prohibited drugs to enhance their performance. OQHRA agreed to facilitate the collection of the hair as a service to its
member horsemen. Both on-site and off-site hair collection was made available, with all off-site horses also required to be DNA veri- fied to insure the hair submitted came from the correct horse. The laboratories being
used are Industrial Laboratories for on-site testing, and both Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab and Maddy Lab at UC Davis.
“The details of the paperwork to track payment and chain of custody as well as testing dates to meet the 45 day requirement for entry are extensive,” said Debbie Schauf, OQHRA Executive Director. “But, we feel the whole project has been very worthwhile. It has required a staff of up to seven people some days to facilitate the collection and shipping of the hair, but in another year I can see many ways to streamline the process and use less labor.
“As of March 30, we have tested 2,164 horses, and 1,985 of them were tested here at Remington Park with 179 off site kits distributed.”
The staff of OQHRA does not receive any of the test results. All results are reported directly from the labs to the Remington Park racing secretary Tim Williams. Tim reported there have been about 65 positive tests, with those horses being denied entry. There is no penalty for failing the toxicology test other than the horse cannot enter or run at this meet until it does produce a clean hair test. In a conversation this weekend with the Stewards at Remington Park, they all asserted they could see a big difference in the qual-
ity and competition this year as compared
to previous years. This has definitely been a successful program.
Mike Smith DVM, Trey Buck, OQHRA Exec. Dir. Debbie Schauf, Troy Winfrey, Krissy Bamberg & Sierra Meadows
198 SPEEDHORSE, April 2019