Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council Targets Corticosteroids

The Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council (KEDRC), citing a need to explore use of corticosteroids in racehorses, agreed Feb. 9 to take bids for research into one of the drugs in the research planning phase.
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The Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council (KEDRC), citing a need to explore use of corticosteroids in racehorses, agreed Feb. 9 to take bids for research into one of the drugs in the research planning phase.

The KEDRC, which makes recommendations to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC), received a letter from The Jockey Club urging Kentucky to take the lead in the research. The drug council receives a portion of revenue from pari-mutuel handle in Kentucky, and is believed to have about $3 million on hand.

Though most racing jurisdictions in North America have greatly curtailed the use of race-day medication, corticosteroids, commonly used in racehorses, are getting a hard look from industry officials.

Corticosteroids have strong anti-inflammatory capabilities and are designed to be used therapeutically. They are injected into joints to alleviate swelling and not currently regulated. Corticosteroids are being studied by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, the broad-based national group that makes recommendations to regulators for use in model rules. Nine corticosteroids have been identified for development of threshold testing levels, which means they would be treated like anabolic steroids–permitted for therapeutic non-racing use but banned on race days

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Tom LaMarra, a native of New Jersey and graduate of Rutgers University, has been news editor at The Blood-Horse since 1998. After graduation he worked at newspapers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania as an editor and reporter with a focus on municipal government and politics. He also worked at Daily Racing Form and Thoroughbred Times before joining The Blood-Horse. LaMarra, who has lived in Lexington since 1994, has won various writing awards and was recognized with the Old Hilltop Award for outstanding coverage of the horse racing industry. He likes to spend some of his spare time handicapping races.

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