from Dr. George Maylin

Editor’s note: In an e-mail sent to the trade publications, Jeff Gural commented that people have asked him for an explanation of the difference in drug testing between New York and Pennsylvania. Gural notes that he received a written explanation from Dr. George A. Maylin, director of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board’s drug testing and research program. Gural added that “I hope this clarifies the matter. I would still like to see the USTA do a survey to determine if our members in the states that have slots would be willing to allocate one percent of the slots revenue to pay for additional drug testing which I think would solve the problem.” Below is Dr. Maylin’s explanation.

In response to your query regarding drug testing in New York compared to Pennsylvania, there are several factors that must be considered as to why the horsemen did not want to have the samples tested in PA.

The first factor is the difference in drug rules between the two jurisdictions. New York has had a long standing withdrawal time for various drug classes whereas in PA these same drugs would be illegal at any level. Methocarbamol (Robaxin) is an example. Anti-ulcer drugs and corticosteroids are another. There is now movement at the national level to establish thresholds and withdrawal times similar to New York rules and PA will be “forced” into compliance by national organizations.

A second factor could be anabolic steroids. New York was “forced” into adopting a threshold for anabolics in urine by the RMTC/ARCI. The rule should have been for blood tests. Anabolics can be administered close to racing and not reach the thresholds in urine. In blood, the same administrations would be violations. The RWB has attempted to change the anabolic rule but apparently the request has not been approved by the State Executive Offices. Until the rule is changed in this regard, anabolics will be used closer to post time in New York than they are in PA. Any rule change must be approved by GORE.

A third factor has been the lack of sufficient analytical instrumentation to test for the anabolic steroids in harness. A liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer/mass spectrometer (LC/MS/MS) that costs about $400,000 is required. We have had one to test Thoroughbred samples because the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (NYTHA) purchased one for their exclusive use. The New York harness horsemen have showed no interest in such a purchase and use. Morrisville has underwritten a lease agreement to purchase a LC/MS/MS to test for anabolics in harness. The instrument cost is $461,000 and is being installed this week. For purposes of comparison, the PA Lab has 14 LC/MS/MS instruments and New York will now have two.

The major reason for the disparities listed above is the funding for drug testing in New York is the same in 2011 as it was 10 years ago. It is ridiculous that the RWB cannot get funding for drug testing to keep up with the drug problem. Division of Budget (DOB) is just not concerned with horse racing. DOB gives no credit to the RWB/Morrisville who saved over one million dollars by moving from Cornell to Morrisville last year.

Everyone wants the best drug testing available but nobody wants to pay for it. It is a problem that plagues racing in the US, not just New York.