THE JAMAICA Racing Commission (JRC) has established thresholds for six specific types of medication, effective September 1.
This was announced by the JRC's senior veterinarian, Dr. St. Aubyn Bartlett, at a press conference last Thursday at the Winchester Road offices of the Commission.
The medication types are Banamine, Phenylbutazone (Butes), Ketoprophen, Salicylatc (pain killing medication), Furosemide (Lasix) and DMSO.
Thresholds mean measuring the allowable use of the specific drugs. If the allowable level set by the JRC is exceeded, the trainer can be penalised. There is also new medication restrictions pertaining to the unauthorised use of needles and syringes by trainers and other racing personnel at Caymanas Park.
Under the new regime, trainers can now be fined up to $250,000 (up from $100,000) and be banned for a period up to seven years for positive findings for class one drugs.
REACTION
Members of the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers Association (JRTA) have reacted swiftly to the JRC's decision. They are unhappy that the JRC went ahead and implemented the changes without giving them enough time to constitutionally convene a general meeting to discuss the issue and have withheld nominations for tomorrow's scheduled midweek meet as a mark of protest.
Vin Edwards, president of the JRTA, said in a statement on Saturday that "positive findings in the racing industry take place under circumstances far different from those in the athletic field".
"The athlete cannot have a positive without personal knowledge of it, whereas a prohibited substance can be administered to a horse without the trainer's knowledge of it.
RULES
"For this reason, rules involving punishment should be worked out with those likely to be involved," Edwards said.
With this in mind, Edwards said the new rules demand stringent attention to the following.
(a) Chain of custody of samples (collection and store of these need to be addressed).
(b) Stalls to be individualized.
(c) The sharing of stables by more than one trainer.
(d) The matter of observation of the B sample.
(e) Relationship of the referee chemist with trainers.
(f) The need for the B sample to be tested by a chemist other than the chemist who also carried out the test of the A sample in the same lab.
Also of conern to the trainers was the length of time it took the Commission to approve the payment of purses, moving from the usual 10 to 14 days period to four weeks. They demanded a reduction of the time period as a matter of urgency.
Edwards, however, was quick to point out that Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) was not at fault re the late payment of purses.
Orville Clarke
