by Jessica Barnes, the Indiana Horse Racing Commission

Indianapolis, IN — The Indiana Horse Racing Commission has terminated its contract with Truesdail Laboratory (Tustin, Calif.), its primary laboratory, after Truesdail failed to report positive findings in three samples that contained drugs in violation of Indiana’s medication rules.

The drugs, isoflupredone and betamethasone, were detected by the Commission’s audit laboratory, Industrial Laboratories (Denver, Colo.), and confirmed by referee laboratory LGC Science, (Lexington, Ky.). The concentrations of the drugs found were approximately two to five times the thresholds established by Indiana’s medication rule, which is the same threshold as the RCI model rule.

Truesdail’s inability to detect the foreign substances in the three samples is a failure to meet agreed upon performance metrics. Effective immediately, all testing of equine samples will be performed by Industrial Laboratories, its new primary laboratory.

“The Commission established its quality assurance program for just this reason — to double-check the proficiency of its primary laboratory. The program worked well and we are now able to improve our drug testing moving forward,” said Joe Gorajec, Indiana’s Executive Director.

The three positive audit findings came after only three weeks of racing at Hoosier Park’s Standardbred race meet, which opened on March 27. Once the audit of Truesdail’s testing is complete, a staff report will be issued to the Commission and Indiana’s Department of Administration. The IHRC has no plans to proceed with disciplinary action related to any of the medication overages that Truesdail failed to detect when it was serving as the Commission’s primary laboratory.