RMTC

Preakness Entrants Undergo OOC Testing; MD Only TC State Not to Apply for Grant Money

By T.D. Thornton

Horses for the GI Preakness S. were subjected to a form of out-of-competition (OOC) testing Thursday afternoon, but in terms of pre-race testing, the entrants in other graded stakes this weekend at Pimlico Race Course will only undergo raceday TCO2 testing, according to Maryland Racing Commission officials.

“We’ll do OOC testing for the Preakness. We take pre-race bloods on the other horses, that type of thing,” said J. Michael Hopkins, the executive director of the MRC.

When asked for details on the protocol, Hopkins did not elaborate.

“Graded stakes–we follow the TOBA

[Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association] recommendations, that’s what we do,” Hopkins said.

Dr. David Zipf, DVM, the longtime MRC veterinarian, was attempting to work through a busy Thursday afternoon of manning his position at starting gate for Pimlico’s nine-race card while simultaneously overseeing the testing protocol for the Preakness entrants.

“It’s a whole scale of all the different possible medications–corticosteroids, stimulants, sedatives–it’s a whole gamut, everything we would test a winner of a race for,” Zipf said when asked what tests are included in the pre-race Preakness screening.

Zipf said the MRC would make no pre-race announcement if the Preakness horses tested clean, and that a disclosure would only be made in the event of a bad test.

“The OOC testing is very limited as far as what you’re looking for,” Hopkins said. “You’re looking at the blood-doping agents, the EPOs [erythropoietin] of the world. None of that has come up,” he added, since the MRC began testing Preakness entrants several years ago.”

Apart from the standard post-race testing, Zipf said the other graded stakes entrants at Pimlico this weekend would only be subject to TCO2 screenings several hours before their respective races.

“Unless it’s indicated, we don’t do any OOC testing on any of the other [graded stakes entrants] unless we have some reason to do it,” Zipf said, like a tip that “somebody might be playing games.”

Among the three jurisdictions that host Triple Crown races, Maryland is unique in that it is the only state whose host track has yet to apply for a share of $250,000 worth of grants that have been offered by The Jockey Club the past two years to help defray the costs of OOC testing.

Both Churchill Downs, home of the GI Kentucky Derby, and the New York Racing Association, which hosts the GI Belmont S., applied for testing grants in 2014, and both are expected to be reimbursed again in 2015, according to Matt Iuliano, executive vice president and executive director of the Jockey Club.

“It just hasn’t come up on the radar screen,” said Hopkins when asked why the MRC hasn’t teamed with Pimlico to apply for the grant money.

But Iuliano said The Jockey Club contacted officials in Maryland earlier this year to make sure they knew about the funding. And as far back as 2013, the availability of The Jockey Club grant money was specifically referenced in a report titled “Sunset Review: Evaluation of the Maryland Racing Commission” published by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services (DLS) prior to a legislative extension of the commission’s powers for 10 years.

Sal Sinatra, vice president and general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club, did not return a voicemail message before deadline for this story seeking comment on the Preakness OOC testing and whether the MJC would pursue the grant funds on behalf of Pimlico.

Iuliano said tracks and commissions can apply for reimbursements after races have been run so long as their testing met the specified standards. But Maryland’s 48-hour testing protocol would appear to be excluded from the funding, because The Jockey Club guidelines state that the tests are only eligible for reimbursement if they have been conducted no closer than seven days before the graded race.

In another aspect related to drug testing, Maryland also stands apart from Kentucky and New York: Its state racing commission does not have an equine medical director listed on the staff directory.

The same above-referenced 2013 legislative report noted in its recommendation section that “DLS finds that MRC could benefit from an Equine Medical Director to ensure compliance with the recently adopted stringent equine testing and drug policies. An Equine Medical Director would provide MRC with an additional resource to further enhance the safety and welfare of the horses running races in Maryland.”