RMTC

By Tom LaMarra

The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium hopes to have a recommended testing threshold level by late April for a naturally occurring amino acid that has a calming effect on racehorses.

The substance in question—gamma-aminobutyric acid, commonly known as GABA—was banned by the United States Equestrian Federation in 2012 because of adverse reactions in horses. GABA, natural to a horse’s system, is present in a supplement called Carolina Gold and can relax a horse when administered in higher doses.

The idea behind its use is to relax a horse enough a few hours before post time to keep it from “running” its race because of pre-race nervousness.

RMTC executive director Dr. Dionne Benson said March 30 at the Racing Officials Accreditation Program conference in Delaware the organization hopes to have a recommendation on GABA ready for the Association of Racing Commissioners International convention that begins April 21. The RMTC already has submitted a recommended testing threshold for the mineral cobalt, also a naturally occurring substance in horses.

Two years ago racing industry officials confirmed they were looking into reports that GABA was being administered on race day along with furosemide—the anti-bleeding medication also called Salix or Lasix—or adjunct bleeder medications in states in which private veterinarians administer race-day shots. The drug’s effects generally are gone in three to four hours.

That was about the time racing jurisdictions began mandating that furosemide be administered by third-party veterinarians rather than private vets. In Kentucky, tests on racehorse samples indicated greatly reduced findings of GABA.

Benson, who discussed “tactical research” at the ROAP convention, said that in the case of cobalt, its use was greatly curtailed when some racing jurisdictions began testing for it and made public their findings.

“It’s unbelievable how quickly the numbers went down when people knew we were looking for it,” Benson said of cobalt, which is classified as a “known emerging threat.”

As for “unknown emerging threats,” finding them requires diligence and sometimes good fortune. Benson said the RMTC has ordered tests on 50-60 substances the last two years, and all but a couple samples showed nothing of interest. When something is suspected the RMTC works with laboratories to develop accurate testing methods.