Breaking news from the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred and the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association:

In a bold move towards the uniform regulation of medication and drug testing in North American racing, the regulators of eight states in the Mid Atlantic and Northeast have committed to implement a uniform medication and drug testing program.  The agreement, spearheaded by the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (THA), represents the most dramatic change in medication regulation and testing in the last 50 years and could pave the way for national uniformity.

The participating states—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Massachusetts—will implement the Mid Atlantic Uniform Medication Program.  The Program divides medications into two new categories—Controlled Therapeutic Substances and Prohibited Substances.  The Controlled Therapeutic Substances category will limit horsemen and veterinarians to 24 medications that have been recognized as appropriate for therapeutic use in racehorses to treat illness or injury.  These medications were identified following intensive consultation among the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC), the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) and the industry’s chemists and pharmacologists.  These medications will each have a specific published restricted administration time and uniform laboratory detection level which, when combined, will enable the therapeutic treatment of the horse while ensuring that no pharmacologically significant residue of the medication will be present in the horse during a race.  The presence of these and any other medication or drug in a sample collected from a horse will be strictly prohibited.

The Controlled Therapeutic Substances are click here to read the rest of the article…