One of my most recent columns strongly advocated for the passage of the Horseracing Integrity Act to eliminate cheating in Thoroughbred racing. There has been much written about this legislation, but I do not believe that there is a broad-based understanding of why this bill would be such a game-changer. I think most people in racing would agree that the current decentralized rag-tag regulatory structure simply does not work, but perhaps people are unclear what the Horseracing Integrity Act will do to correct the current serious problem.
One of my most recent columns strongly advocated for the passage of the Horseracing Integrity Act to eliminate cheating in Thoroughbred racing. There has been much written about this legislation, but I do not believe that there is a broad-based understanding of why this bill would be such a game-changer. I think most people in racing would agree that the current decentralized rag-tag regulatory structure simply does not work, but perhaps people are unclear what the Horseracing Integrity Act will do to correct the current serious problem.
The proposed legislation H.R. #1754 opens with the following statement:
To improve the integrity and safety of horseracing by requiring a uniform anti-doping and medication control program to be developed and enforced by an independent Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority … because the various states have been unable to adopt a national anti-doping and medication control program, national uniform regulations with respect to the use of, and testing for, drugs capable of affecting the results of a horse race and therapeutic medications used in horseracing, such rules, procedures and enforcement policies should be implemented, consistent with internationally accepted best practices, by an independent anti-doping and medication control organization authorized by an act of Congress.
Please read the paragraph above again. The United States Thoroughbred racing industry has no anti-doping and medication control program and the cheaters control much of the sport.
Unless major changes are made in the anti-doping regulations, the addition of serious penalties and the resources and technology to catch the cheaters, the industry could lose significant participation from owners and bettors that provide the economic engine that drives the sport.
The Bill goes on to establish the Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority, which will be a private, independent, self-regulatory non-profit corporation with responsibility for developing and administering an anti-doping and medication control program for covered horses, covered people and covered races.
The Bill designates a board including the CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), six executives from USADA and six racing industry members from designated industry segments. It stipulates that, within 12 months of the formation of the board, USADA will take over all responsibilities for all aspects of the medication rule-making, drug-testing and enforcement.
It is important to point out that, while federal legislation is creating this new entity, all aspects of the program are run by USADA, which is a private, independent, non-profit corporation. There is no federal bureaucracy that will run the Thoroughbred anti-doping and medication control program.
USADA is a non-governmental, 501-3C organization and is the national anti-doping organization (NADO) for the United States based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport, USADA provides education, leads scientific initiatives, conducts testing and oversees the results management and the enforcement process.
Two decades in the business
In 2001, USADA was recognized by the U.S. Congress as the official anti-doping agency for Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic sport in the U.S. It is important for the racing industry participants to note that USADA has been in the anti-doping business for almost two decades.
USADA’s status and independence from the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) is an exception to the norm in sport in the U.S. Most professional sport organizations (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) manage the anti-doping of their own sports. USADA’s proposed independence from the current system in Thoroughbred racing that involves the racetracks, horsemen, owners and regulators will provide an extremely important component of this legislation by overhauling a completely dysfunctional medication and testing environment.
In line with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) International Standards for Testing (ISTI), USADA considers, at a minimum, the following standards when developing its test distribution plan:
- Physical demands of the sport and possible performance-enhancing effects that doping may elicit.
- Available doping analysis statistics.
- Available research on doping trends.
- History of doping in the sport and/or discipline.
Is there any regulatory body, racetrack or horsemen’s group that is addressing these issues?
Bringing USADA into the U.S. Thoroughbred racing industry will provide tremendous change and opportunity as outlined above. I say this with full confidence given what USADA has accomplished in our Olympic sports, especially in swimming, cycling and track and field.
If you look carefully at the use of performance-enhancing drugs in these three Olympic sports scrutinized and carefully tracked by USADA, you will find that our sport is facing many of the same performance-enhancing drug challenges. Thoroughbred racing will have intelligence, knowledge and experience in medication and performance-enhancing drugs that the industry will never be able to develop on its own.
Travis Tygart had been the President and CEO of USADA since September, 2007. He had a very active involvement in the investigation and prosecution of the Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team doping conspiracy. Here is an excerpt from Tygart’s USADA statement on the Armstrong/U.S. Postal Service Doping case:
“Our mission is to protect clean athletes by preserving the integrity of competition, not only for today’s athletes but also the athletes of tomorrow. We have heard from many athletes who have faced an unfair dilemma — dope, or don’t compete at the highest levels of the sport. Many of them abandoned their dreams and left sport because they refused to endanger their health and participate in doping. That is a tragic choice no athlete should have to make.”
Click here for the complete statement.
A very recent example of USADA’s successful efforts in track and field was the four-year ban announced on September 30 of Alberto Salazar, a renowned Olympian and three-time winner of the New York City Marathon and head coach of the Nike Oregon Project, and Dr Jeffrey Brown, who had worked closely with Salazar.
While none of the very successful runners who worked with Salazar and the Nike Project had ever tested positive for a banned substance, the ban stemmed from violations including trafficking in testosterone, tampering with the doping control process and administering improper infusions of L-carniture, a naturally occurring substance that converts fat into energy.
Travis Tygart, CEO of USADA, issued a statement that Salazar and Brown had “demonstrated that winning was more important than the health and well-being of the athletes they were sworn to protect”.
Of particular relevance to me in reading about the Salazar/Brown case was the number of medications that appeared regularly in protocols for track runners that have also surfaced as ‘therapeutic’ or illegal drugs in horse racing.
There were regular mentions of prescribing prednisone, a corticosteroid often given to runners who did not have asthma to block pain and potentially enhance oxygen consumption.
Lack of out-of-competition testing
In racing, corticosteroids are used frequently in joint injections with little or no regulation. Cytomel, a thyroid hormone medication, was prescribed for individual runners without a thyroid problem and were used as ‘fat burners’. It is well documented that some prominent trainers have had a routine regimen of thyroid medication for their entire barn. Micro-dosing of testosterone was alleged to have been used by runners and there appears to be an increase in micro-dosing of certain drugs for horses to avoid detection.
Finally, there is EPO, a performance-enhancer in horse racing going largely undetected because of the complete lack of out-of-competition testing. EPO remains a great concern in track athletics.
One of the criticisms that has been aimed towards USADA in this legislation is that they know nothing about the Thoroughbred racing industry. The sophisticated USADA team may not know what a furlong is, but I will guarantee that they know in great detail virtually all the legal as well as the illegal performance-enhancing drugs that are being used at racetracks across America.
Here is a September 30, 2019 New York Times article by Jere Longman and Matt Hart on the Salazar/Brown ban which provides some interesting insight.
While Nike have stated that they remain supportive both Salazar and Dr Brown, in their appeal against the ban, on October 10, they announced that they are closing the Oregon Project, which has been in operation, run by Salazar since 2001.
No better partner
I am fully convinced that the Horseracing Integrity Act provides Thoroughbred racing with the opportunity to gain unprecedented, knowledge, science and experience that will allow us to take back the sport from the cheaters.
There is no better strategic partner for Thoroughbred racing in the United States than USADA. This organization was founded and operates on the importance of a level playing field in sport. Take a hard look at your state racing regulatory board and your state politicians. They do not acknowledge that we have a problem, and, even if they did, they would not have the resolve to fix it.
Finally, in this recent article, the Sport Techie newsletter is interviewing Travis Tygart and USADA Chief Science Officer Matt Fedoruk. Take a minute and read the answers from the two gentlemen regarding the question How does the anti-doping community learn about new performance substances and evaluate them?
I think you will agree it would be brilliant to have USADA on our team.