Racing Medication Testing Consortium

All this week, the TDN has been trying to nail down concrete details surrounding the studies performed for the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium's (RMTC) Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) into the way metformin behaves in Thoroughbreds. It turns out that the first of the three papers stemming from this study was published Wednesday in the online journal, Drug Testing and Analysis. In short, the study finds a "prolonged detection time" for the drug. This first study involved 12 Thoroughbreds aged between two and seven years of age. It was broken...

Dr. Mary Scollay has retired from her full-time duties as the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit's chief of science, effective immediately, HIWU announced Tuesday. While Scollay will continue to serve as a consultant to HIWU, Dr. Michael Hardy has assumed the position of acting chief of science. "Dr. Scollay was integral to the creation of HIWU and the launch and enforcement of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program," said Ben Mosier, executive director of HIWU. "In the three-plus years since our first introduction at Turfway...

Lexington, KY--The final day of the Organization of Racing Investigators (ORI) Training Conference at Keeneland escalated the focus on enforcement and how investigators can broaden their expertise. Though participants regularly receive training at home, the ORI sessions offer equine knowledge that is highly specialized which can be taken back to their own jurisdictions and applied. Mike Singletary, vice president of security for the Maryland Jockey Club, said when his team walks the shedrow at Pimlico or Laurel being cognizant of your surroundings takes time and effort to hone. "Information is...

Dr. Michael Hardy has been hired as its next Executive Director of the Racing Medication & Testing Consortium. In his new role, Dr. Hardy will be responsible for the management of the RMTC's Laboratory Accreditation and External Quality Assurance Program in conjunction with the new Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit. He will also be charged with the administration of the RMTC's Scientific Advisory Committee process, the monitoring of emerging threats to the integrity of racing and the health and welfare of racehorses, administrative oversight of RMTC-funded research projects, and coordinating...

The Racing Medication & Testing Consortium (RMTC) has announced that it will fund the research proposal, "Detection of Bisphosphonates Using Metabolomics," submitted by Dr. Bethany Keen at the University of Pennsylvania's Equine Testing and Research Laboratory. Dr. Keen's research to date has been conducted in Australia and focused on equine anti-doping, analytical chemistry, and statistics. Metabolomics is an emerging field in doping control and represents a novel testing approach that identifies cellular effects unique to a class of drugs rather than identifying the specific molecule responsible for those effects. "The...

The Racing Medication Testing Consortium (RMTC) and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Safety & Integrity Alliance have announced that registration is full for the third annual Reg Vet CE Conference scheduled for Mar. 2-3, 2020, at Santa Anita Park. A total of 60 veterinarians representing North America and the Caribbean, Australia, Hong Kong, Great Britain, and Chile will participate in 18 hours of continuing education approved by the Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE) program of the American Association of Veterinary State Boards (AAVSB). Lectures, labs, and on-track drills...