Press Release:
The International Federation of Horseracing Authorities’ reference laboratory accreditation program continues work towards its mission to raise lab standards across the world, according to a presentation at the organization’s annual conference Monday.
Louis Romanet, chairman of the IFHA, reported five labs have met the organization’s standards, including University of California-Davis in the U.S. and LGC Group in Great Britain, which operates in the states via HFL Sport Science in Lexington, Ky. The approved labs, called “reference labs,” adhere to a set of quality guidelines, conduct research, and pass rigorous on-site inspections in addition to proficiency testing.
The guidelines for IFHA’s reference lab accreditation are closely based on the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium’s accreditation guidelines.
Part of the purpose of the reference lab program is harmonization in operations, in addition to operation quality. ISO (International Standards of Operations) accreditations vouch for the quality of a lab’s operations, but do not require harmonization between facilities.
“I think there is a misunderstanding from a lot of the laboratory community and racing authorities about the difference between ISO accreditation and reference labs,” said Romanet.
That harmonization is rapidly becoming a bigger problem, as Romanet noted lab testing technologies have become 1,000 times more sensitive in the past 10 years.
The IFHA hopes all Grade/Group 1 contests will one day be tested by a reference laboratory, with at least two reference labs on each continent.
Currently, there are 60 labs worldwide analyzing 520,000 samples related to racing. Besides differences in standards, they also have wildly different budgets, depending on the contracts they have with local racing associations. This is one area where the IFHA is unable to help, as the organization does not have a mechanism in its budget to boost reference labs’ operations.
The purpose of program, besides harmonizing practices and speeding the development of new doping detection technology, would be to raise the bar for many of those 60 labs — not necessarily to certify all of them.
“It’s not intended that all racing analytical labs will become IFHA reference labs and if a lab does not become IFHA reference lab, it’s in no way a reflection of the quality of that organization,” said Andrew Harding, IFHA executive director. “This is intended to be a measure to assist development as much as it is grading labs that already have that capability. We want to inspire other labs to move up.”
In additional anti-doping news, Romanet announced the IFHA will remove horses from its rankings list if they are found to a have a drug positive. This means Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Masochistic and G1 Gran Premio Latinoamericano winner Don Inc will no longer appear anywhere on the IFHA’s World’s Best Racehorse rankings.
