Picture : Greg Bortz has taken a strong stance against equine medication violations (Photo: Cape Racing)
A new local race condition implemented by Cape Racing reads: “Any horse that is the subject of a pending or ongoing NHA investigation or inquiry pertaining to any classified Class 1 or Class 2 Prohibited Substance matter, or any Forbidden Substance matter, shall at the time of final declarations, be automatically precluded from being accepted with unless prior exceptional circumstances are presented to the Operator, who in such event, shall have the sole discretion to deviate therefrom on good cause shown.”
Notice that there will be preclusions only for horses in an investigation or inquiry pertaining to A CLASS 1 OR CLASS 2 prohibited substance or pertaining to any FORBIDDEN substance.
Turf Talk, in a recent article, clarified that a “prohibited substance” under the NHA’s rule falls into five different classes.
The source of that article was a NHA document entitled GUIDELINES FOR CLASSIFICATION OF
PROHIBITED SUBSTANCES.
The five different classes are described within that document which can be viewed by CLICKING HERE
In the recent NHA press release confirming the specimens taken from AXEL COLLINS and YOURE MY SUNSHINE had tested positive for a prohibited substance, the substance found to be present was Lidocaine.
Lidocaine is registered as a class 2 substance, meaning that the two horses mentioned in the above press release would “be automatically precluded from being accepted with unless prior exceptional circumstances are presented to the Operator.”
Two South African horses in a subsequent press release were tested positive for Dexamethasone and Flunixin.
Both trainers involved signed admissions of guilt in the above two cases, but in the event that they had not and it had gone to an inquiry those two horses WOULD NOT have been precluded from being accepted with in a Cape Racing event, because both of the above substances are CLASS 4 prohibited substances.
