The equine drug-testing program at Ohio State University is no longer providing split-sample testing as a result of an institutional policy.

Dr. Rick Sams, director of the analytical toxicology laboratory at OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said he was informed in late July that split-sample testing would no longer be performed at the lab.

Under the equine drug-testing system, horsemen whose horses test positive for some substances in post-race testing can request that a portion of the test sample be sent to a second lab for conformation of the positive finding. Most racing jurisdictions maintain lists of labs from which horsemen can select the sample to be sent; some dictate the lab for the split-sample testing.

Sams, who on Aug. 6 declined to detail the reasons why split-sample testing has been dropped at OSU, said it was unrelated to the lab’s role in the recent rash of positive tests for the prohibited substance clenbuterol among horses racing in California. The California Horse Racing Board reported 20 positives for clenbuterol between May 16 and July 11. Only one of the samples proved negative in split-sample testing. Most of the split samples were tested at OSU