by Richard A. Sams, PhD
Think you'd never get caught with a positive drug test? Think again.
Trainer Richard Mandella, who normally gets headlines for his winning Thoroughbreds, caught headlines in 1996 when one of his top runners came up positive in California for scopolamine, an atropine-like drug. Mandella vehemently denied any involvement and alleged that the horse actually contracted the substance through natural means. Could he have been right?
As a matter of fact, he could have been and was. Testing horses for the presence of forbidden substances has long-been a means of curbing cheating in almost every area of competition. Trouble is, we may have gotten too good at it in some cases.
Substances such as morphine, caffeine, ephedrine, as well as many others, may be present as a result of the administration of various natural products to horses or environmental contamination.
For example, in racing jurisdictions across the United States, the number of reports increased for caffeine after an enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) test became commercially available for detection of caffeine in 1990. Investigations revealed that some of these findings were attributed to beverages, food, natural remedies, nutritional supplements or contaminated feeds. All unknown to the horsemen.
Several reports for the presence of morphine in official samples have appeared in the last decade. These findings were vigorously contested by horse trainers who claimed no knowledge of the use of morphine or morphine-containing products in their stables. One trainer attributed the morphine in the urine sample to an unintentional feeding of poppy seeds containing morphine. Bagels were identified as the possible culprit and the trainer was exonerated after an expert witness testified that the feeding of poppy seeds to research horses resulted in morphine concentrations higher than those measured in the official sample.
Other natural products which have contained illegal substances range from herbal products containing Ephedra to hay made from reed canary grass to jimsonweed.
Horses which share a sweet tooth with their riders or trainers also have a problem, especially if they have a weakness for candies like M&Ms. Theobromine and caffeine were detected in urine samples collected from research horses given 20 M&M chocolate peanuts daily for eight days. These studies were conducted because a trainer claimed this must have been the source of the caffeine in his horse's sample. Horse owners view with some humor their animals strange eating habits and take delight in a horse that will eat candy from their hand or drink from their soft drink can, but are dismayed later when the horse is tested only to find their innocent act resulted in positive drug test due to some substance present in the snack or drink.
And with the rise in popularity of herbal remedies, many owners and trainers should be aware that some could result in positive tests. Ma Huang, Ephedra and Herbal Ecstasy are among a few. In addition, it is thought that some herbal products are "legal," and can therefore be administered. Not so. Substances like Yunnan Paiyao and Endurox are available in health food stores and nutrition centers and are used with the belief that their use is permitted by racing or they are undetectable. These are reported to contain Chinese herbal remedies. However, the validity of these claims has not been reported and the conditions of manufacture may be less stringent that those required by prescription products.
There is considerable evidence that various products sold to horse trainers as well as some environmental contaminants are responsible for some drug violations. The recognition of these sources by veterinarians may help trainers avoid drug violations.
Richard A. Sams, PhD, is a professor and director of the Analytical Toxicology Laboratory at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He presented his findings at the 1997 AAEP Convention in Phoenix, Arizona.
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