Page 22 - July 2016

Dr. Scot Waterman
Clenbuterol or other beta-agonist drugs with significant anabolic effects that are not currently Penalty Class A drugs;
Other drugs designed to promote growth or muscle, including but not limited to growth hormones, somatotropins, insulin growth fac- tors and gene modifying agents;
Cobalt in excess of allowable concentrations specified, pursuant to NMAC 15.2.6.9.
The new rule mandates that the horse
stay on the stewards list for a minimum of 60 days. At the end of 60 days, the horse must be presented for testing by an official veterinarian. If the sample comes back positive for any of the prohibited substances previously mentioned, the horse shall remain on the stewards list for an additional 60 days. If the test is negative, the horse will be immediately removed from the stewards list and permitted to enter and run in races once again.
The rule was fashioned after the California Horse Racing Board’s rules for clenbuterol
use in Quarter Horses, with Trejo calling
New Mexico’s rule a beefed up version of California’s rules. California’s rules, passed in February, prohibit clenbuterol at any level in racing Quarter Horses. If clenbuterol is needed therapeutically to treat a respiratory illness, the horse must be placed on the veterinarian’s list and cannot race until he tests clear.
One of the biggest debates surround-
ing clenbuterol has been its usefulness as a therapeutic agent versus its abuse as a perfor- mance enhancer. In 1998, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Ventipulmin (clenbuterol hydrochloride) Syrup for use in horses. While the drug is valuable for treat-
ing respiratory problems in horses at approved doses, its proven anabolic steroidal effects make it a prime candidate for abuse as a perfor- mance-enhancing drug.
Ismael “Izzy” Trejo
“In the rule, we do have an avenue for
a horse to be able to use some of the thera- peutics,” Trejo explained. “A trainer can voluntarily put his horse on some prescribed medications that are FDA label approved, but the horse will be put on the vet’s list for 30 days after the last administration of the drug as prescribed. That way, when we do out-of-com- petition testing, that horse is not vulnerable
to facing a sanction, nor is his trainer, if the proper paperwork is turned in and the horse is knowingly on a therapeutic drug.”
It was the prevalence of positive drug tests in New Mexico’s out-of-competition testing that led NMRC Chairman Ray Willis to begin exploring alternatives to the existing drug rules. Like other jurisdictions, the NMRC had tried various adaptations of rules, from banning clenbuterol to allowing small doses in test samples, to deal with the issue of drug abuse. None of them seemed to work.
“We had had too many clenbuterol bad tests. So in July of last year, we disallowed
the use of clenbuterol altogether,” Willis said. “For two to three months, we thought we had it under control, and then all of the sudden
it started popping back up again. We started getting it in out-of-competition testing, and we knew we had a problem when we did that.”
NMRC Commissioner Beverly Bourguet has been an outspoken opponent of clenbuterol for some time. Most importantly, she said, everyone needs to remember that it is the horse that suffers due to unsuccessful drug policies.
“First and foremost, we forget about the horse himself who is ingesting this,” Bourguet said. “New Mexico has had a clenbuterol prob- lem for a number of years. I think we’ve had various attempts to try and curb it, and it just seems that whatever we’ve tried, there’s either been a loophole or we’ve just been unsuccessful.
“We feel that this is
a maneuver that not only protects the horse, but also protects the wagering public by keeping these horses that have these illegal substances
in their system from participating,” Trejo stated.
I have spoken about banning clenbuterol because I felt it was being so abused. We weren’t looking at 300 picograms, we were looking at thousands of picograms overages. It was being more than abused.”
“It’s sad, but there are people out there who use [clenbuterol] for more than therapeutic.
I’ve been involved in racing for many, many years, and I’ve been on the backside quite a bit,” Willis contributed. “I made a statement to the RCI about five years ago that probably 90 percent of the horses on the backside were on a daily dose of clenbuterol, and that’s not thera- peutic. They could not believe it, but now they do believe it. So, those are things that we’re doing our best to do away with. I think the Commission has taken a proactive stance on it now instead of being reactive to everything that shows up. We have to be proactive, and maybe think outside the box a little bit every now and then, and keep things under control.”
That sort of “thinking outside the box” led to the development of the new rule, which is
a marked departure from how drug violations have been penalized by racing jurisdictions
in the past. Rather than solely penalizing the owner and/or trainer, the new rule’s strength lies in its focus on the horse.
“It’s against the horse. It addresses the rule violation and it addresses the safety of the jockey riding that horse,” Willis explained. “We do have due process that we have to go by, but when the due process is delaying action against the horse -- delaying the safety process for the jockey -- then it’s a problem.”
Under the previous rules, when a horse received a positive drug test, the owner and trainer were notified and a hearing date set. The trainer could request the split sample be sent out for testing to confirm the posi- tive. Once a hearing was held in front of the
20 SPEEDHORSE, July 2016