Editor’s Note: There were more than 90 million prescriptions for Metformin filled in the United States last year, making it the most widely used diabetes medication taken by mouth. If you’re not on it, you almost certainly know someone who is. It is everywhere.

Metformin lowers blood sugar levels while improving the way the body processes insulin. No one seems ever to have heard of a trainer or a veterinarian administering it to a horse because, as one vet told us, “it would make that horse go slower, not faster.” As a performance-enhancing drug, Metformin is a nonstarter.

As we’ve often said, however, the racing industry’s testing capabilities far exceed the common sense of some of those charged with interpreting those results, and apparent trace amounts of Metformin, almost undoubtedly caused by environmental contamination, have led to significant, career-altering problems for several Thoroughbred horsemen at the hands of the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU), the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority’s (HISA) enforcement arm.

The Metformin penalties distract from a failure to make meaningful progress in detecting and punishing those that would cheat by using illicit, performance-enhancing substances. The USTA urges all horsemen and members to read about trainers Michael Lauer and Jonathan Wong and their experiences with HIWU, and to understand the protocols that HISA would bring to harness racing if the courts allow it to stand.

Thoroughbred trainers Michael Lauer and Jonathan Wong both had horses test positive for Metformin.

Thoroughbred trainer Michael Lauer served a 75-day HIWU suspension for a Metformin contamination positive. Coady photo.

Lauer faced a two-year suspension from HIWU, but successfully argued that it was due to contamination from a groom and saw his penalty reduced to “only” 75 days.

Trainer Jonathan Wong is facing a two-year suspension from HIWU for a Metformin positive. Benoit photo.

Wong remains provisionally suspended and is also facing a two-year ban.

Both were – and in Wong’s case, still is – considered guilty until proven innocent.

Read the Lauer and Wong stories at the links below…

Michael Lauer:

https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/a-diabetes-drugs-outsized-contested-role-in-horse-racings-anti-doping-crusade/

Jonathan Wong:

https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/wong-suspended-for-metformin-our-game-has-been-hijacked-says-attorney/