The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has approved new procedures that regulators say will streamline and reduce the cost of equine drug testing in the state by as much as 25-30%.

Under the new procedures, approved unanimously by the commission Dec. 1, at least two horses out of every race will be taken to the test barn where samples, including blood and urine, will be collected under the direction of the official veterinarian. Based on the discretion of stewards, there may be more than two horses selected for blood and urine samples to be drawn, but a sample will always be taken of the winner and any other horse(s) as designated by the stewards.

Once the samples are taken, not all of them will be tested for prohibited substances. From the samples taken, some will be designated with either a gold or red label, again, at the discretion of stewards. The samples with gold labels will be tested 100% of the time while 50% of the red-label samples will be tested. Once the samples are logged into the Lab Information Management System, the computer would be programmed to randomly select the red-labeled samples for testing.

For listed and graded stakes and any race with a purse of $100,000 or more, the top three finishers would have samples drawn and tested under the new system