From the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium
The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium sponsored an equine racing chemist workshop to foster uniformity in drug testing of the androgenic anabolic steroids from April 27-30 at the University of California at Davis.
Analysts representing seven international laboratories and 16 of the official 18 U.S. laboratories participated in the workshop. RMTC executive director Dr. Scot Waterman opened the program by describing the model rules on AAS and discussing some of the challenges involved in regulating these drugs.
The workshop was organized by Dr. Scott Stanley from UC-Davis and Dr. Richard Sams from the University of Florida. The three-day event featured a slate of renowned experts, including internationally recognized authorities Dr. Don Catlin, former director of the UCLA Olympic Laboratory and current director of the Anti-Doping Research Institute, and Dr. Ed Houghton, developer of many of the methods used to detect and identify AAS and their metabolites in racehorses.
The workshop also provided participants with opportunities to witness analysts in the UC-Davis Maddy Equine Laboratory performing state-of-the-art doping control approaches needed to regulate anabolic steroids in horses racing in the U.S.
Dr. Lawrence Soma from the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center and Dr. Catlin were featured speakers at dinners on Sunday and Monday, and Dr. Houghton provided a full day of lectures on anabolic steroids in horses. Dr. Rick Arthur from the California Horse Racing Board compared the urine thresholds for AAS in the U.S. to those adopted internationally, and led a discussion on regulatory control of AAS.
All participants gained practical knowledge in the analysis of AAS and were given copies of standard operating procedures, as well as the latest scientific information for detecting and identifying AAS in horses.
“I would like to thank all of the organizers and speakers for their hard work in putting together a very successful program,” said Waterman. “I would also like to thank the attendees for giving up their valuable time to attend, so that as an industry, we can move forward together. The RMTC will continue to look for opportunities to sponsor workshops like these.”
