RACING REGULATOR’S PROACTIVE POLICING

While it may have passed relatively unnoticed, over 80 horses were subjected to out-of-competition and pre-race testing by the National Horseracing Authority at the Summerveld Training Centre on Friday 30 June and at Hollywoodbets Greyville Racecourse on Hollywoodbets Durban July day.

NHA CEO Vee Moodley told the Sporting Post that the tests were random and done to ensure compliance and stamp out the use of banned substances.

It was recently announced that the NHA laboratory recently achieved a 100% external test result.

The Association of Official Racing Chemists (AORC) supply blind plasma and urine specimens, on an annual basis, to racing laboratories in order for them to confirm their international analysis compliance.

Prohibited substances and metabolites from the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities racing screening and confirmation requirement list are prepared within these specimens at concentrations which are required to be detected and correctly identified. For many prohibited substances, the concentrations are at low levels. The screening requirement is often more demanding for the forbidden substances (such as anabolic entities, drugs, and prodrugs).

The NHA Laboratory was recently notified that it achieved a 100% result during this 2023 international racing laboratories proficiency test.

The NHA also reported that during the past 24 months they were informed of full (100%) compliance when a range of their racing negative specimens from different racing centres tested negative at overseas racing laboratories which ‘tested’ them during this time period.

Seven prominent international racing laboratories were involved in this external testing process of NHA specimens, inclusive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Laboratory.