In unanimously approving a new testing procedure, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission became the first major racing jurisdiction to implement key elements from a 1991 study aimed at making drug testing more efficient.
Under the current system, stewards take blood and urine samples from the winner of every race and at least one other horse of their choosing, typically a beaten favorite or long shot who finishes in the money. Those samples are then analyzed by the state's testing lab at the University of Florida and screened for steroids and other banned substances.
In the new procedure, samples will likely be taken from more horses, but fewer of them will actually be analyzed. For example, favorites who win as expected might only be screened half the time, randomly selected by the lab. Instead, there would be additional scrutiny of horses that finish lower but are deemed suspicious.
All samples - even those not screened - will be retained by the lab. If there is a positive test, every sample collected from the race in question would be analyzed.
"The deterrent factor remains high, but we can be more efficient in our expenditure of a racetrack's testing dollar," said Mary Scollay, Kentucky's equine medical director.
From March 4 through Aug. 31, Kentucky was billed $455,400 for post-race blood and urine testing. Scollay estimates costs will be 25 to 30 percent lower under the new system.
The change will have less effect on the higher end stakes races like the Kentucky Derby because there is a provision in the new guidelines requiring the sampling - and testing - of at least the top three finishers of any race with purses topping $100,000.
However, it is extremely rare for a positive test to turn up in a race of that level. In this year's Derby, for example - the first to test for anabolic steroids - the top four finishers were deemed by the lab as clean of steroids and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
Irregularities are still rare - albeit somewhat more common - in the lower-end claiming or allowance races.
"It just comes down to basics," said John Ward, a member of the racing commission. "Why run a bunch of tests if we can be more efficient and still prove our business model is safe?"
Racing commission executive director Lisa Underwood said Kentucky is the first state to dust off the recommendations from the 1991 McKinsey Report, which aimed to make testing better yet cheaper, but she predicts it won't be the last.
She is making a presentation next week to the Association of Racing Commissioners International, which represents racing jurisdictions across the United States and Canada, and several of those states also have indicated an interest in what Kentucky is doing.
"It has taken a group of people who really wanted to make it happen get together and pool their brainpower," Underwood said. "We're the first state to actually take the time and energy to do that."
