HIWU Announces Changes to Enforcement of Provisional Suspensions and Public Disclosure Protocols for Select Banned Substances
Following discussions with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority’s Anti-Doping and Medication Control Committee, the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) will no longer impose Provisional Suspensions on Covered Persons upon the service of an Equine Anti-Doping (EAD) Notice for an Adverse Analytical Finding (i.e., positive test result) for Banned Substances that are recognized as substances of abuse in humans. Examples of Banned Substances that fall under this category include cocaine, methamphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
If a Covered Horse’s A Sample tests positive for one of these Banned Substances, a Provisional Suspension will not be imposed on the relevant Covered Person until B Sample analysis confirms the presence of the Banned Substance or B Sample analysis has been waived by the Covered Person. Consequently, in compliance with Rule 3610(b), such cases will not be published on the HIWU website’s Public Disclosures page until after these steps occur. This change to the Public Disclosure protocol is consistent with current procedures for presence violations (i.e., positive tests) for Controlled Medication Substances.
This policy applies retroactively to current pending cases, and Provisional Suspensions have been lifted on all Covered Persons who have not been charged and are waiting for B Sample results to be issued. This update is intended to address concerns within the industry that the names of Covered Persons were being publicly disclosed in cases involving the aforementioned types of substances before the Covered Persons had an opportunity to determine the source of the substance at issue, including whether it was the result of unintended human transfer.
About the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit
The Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) was established in 2022 by Drug Free Sport International to administer the rules and enforcement mechanisms of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority’s (HISA) Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program. The ADMC Program establishes a centralized testing and results management process that applies uniform penalties for violations efficiently and consistently across all American Thoroughbred racing jurisdictions that HISA governs. As the enforcement agency of the ADMC Program, HIWU oversees all testing processes, including the selection of horses to be tested, training of sample collection personnel, and chain of custody procedures. Additionally, HIWU is charged with industry/stakeholder education, laboratory accreditation, results management and adjudication, and investigations. For more information, please visit hiwu.org.
Contact:
Alexa Ravit, HIWU Director of Communications & Outreach
(816) 516-9572