Post by the believer on Feb 18, 2007 13:25:01 GMT -5
Monticello Raceway's deadly drug secret
Horsemen say illegal EPO use runs rampant at trackBy Justin Rodriguez
Times Herald-Record
jrodriguez@th-record.com
February 18, 2007
The drug EPO makes horses run faster for longer periods of time.
It can also kill them.
Despite that, several horsemen at Monticello Raceway say EPO is being used rampantly on horses competing at the track.
"It was a problem when I got to Monticello (seven years ago) and it's a problem now," veterinarian Gary Smith says. "It's a problem all over the industry. There is no way horses should be put on EPO. The long-term effects put their life in danger."
It's also illegal.
Tony D'Acunto, who for a decade has owned horses that compete at Monticello, believes half the horsemen are using EPO.
"Maybe a little less," he says. "People are becoming pretty brazen about it. You have people that ask you matter of factly if you want to put a horse on EPO if it isn't performing."
The risk-reward factor is skewed heavily in favor of the horsemen who use EPO. It's difficult to catch the cheats, and the penalties are minimal. The New York State Racing and Wagering Board rules for harness racing require only that a horse testing positive for the EPO antibody be sidelined until it tests clean again.
The horse isn't even disqualified from the race after which it tested positive, and the trainer's responsibility provision of the state harness commission's rules — which makes trainers accountable for the condition of any horse under his care — is waived.
"The trainer isn't penalized because he may not have been the one who gave the horse the EPO," says Joseph Lynch, chief of racing operations for the Racing and Wagering Board.
Several sources say horses at Monticello are being injected with Epogen, a brand name for one type of erythropoietin, and Aranesp, a more powerful form of EPO, and snake venom, which is used to deaden pain in the animals.
And the drug cheats are way ahead of those trying to catch them. Solid tests to detect EPO in horses' blood and urine are still being developed and the ones that exist are easy to beat. There is no test for snake venom.
"It's like you read about in the Olympics; they are ahead of the game," says Dr. George Maylin, director of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board's Equine Drug Testing Program at Cornell University. "We're trying to play catchup and that might always be the case. It's easy to get around it at this stage of the game."
Monticello leads the way
Maylin said he thinks the use of EPO is isolated in racing, but added that four of the 13 horses caught with EPO in their system since 2003 have been Monticello horses. The others came from Yonkers (3), Saratoga (1), Batavia Downs (2) and Buffalo (3). The numbers are low because the tests are easy to beat.
Brice Cote, detective sergeant with the New Jersey state police's horse squad, thinks the problem is more widespread.
"It's an epidemic in the industry, all over the country, including Monticello. People are using it there," says Cote, who has investigated Monticello horsemen who also compete in New Jersey. "There's no doubt about it. Horses are just going faster and faster."
Monticello general manager Shawn Wiles declined comment when asked about EPO use at the track, referring all questions to Raceway spokesman Charles Degliomini.
"We currently have no notification from the New York State Racing and Wagering Board regarding the use of EPO or snake venom at Monticello Raceway," Degliomini says. "While the testing, fines and enforcement of Epogen and venom usage are strictly regulated by the board, track management plans on contacting the board to inquire if they have any additional information for us, which may enhance procedures to address this issue. We do everything we can to insure the integrity of racing at Monticello Raceway."
EPO, the drug of choice for many world-class track athletes and cyclists, is banned for use on horses by the Food and Drug Administration under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Still, risking a horse's life by using the drug is worth it for some owners and trainers. EPO can make a horse go anywhere from two to six seconds faster during a race. That spike can turn an average standardbred into a champion, making its handlers lots of money.
Illegal stamina-boosting
EPO is used to treat anemia in humans by boosting the production of red blood cells. The drug can also enhance stamina by increasing the oxygen supply to muscles, and it has the same effect when injected in horses.
Racing and Wagering Board documents confirm that four horses have tested positive for EPO at Monticello in the past three years. They include Rare Jim, trained by Jim Cosenza (May 2004), Space Hero (August 2004), trained by Ross Cohen, Shining Jesse (June 2006), trained by Tina Adamczyk and Silly Lilly (July 2000), trained by Melissa Beckwith.
However, the test for EPO detects use of the drug only within 48 hours, Maylin said, and only the top three finishers in a race are tested. But EPO is most effective when used well ahead of a competition, allowing a horse to reap the benefits but not test positive.
Cohen, who declined comment, was fined last year at Pocono Downs for "milkshaking" horses, a dangerous procedure to minimize cramping by filtering baking soda through a tube leading from a horse's throat into its stomach.
Several horsemen at Monticello suspect that Adamczyk, who didn't return phone calls, is still doping horses with EPO. Adamczyk purchased Guten bye Mac from Brent Schlossberg on Jan. 5 and he ran a 2:05.3 at Monticello on that day in a claiming race. Two weeks later, Guten bye Mac blazed a 2:00.3 on the same half-mile oval and two weeks after that, the horse led by seven lengths before breaking gait. Guten bye Mac still finished in 2:02.4.
This from a 10-year-old horse that was running between a 2:04 and 2:11 at Monticello last February. Guten bye Mac's personal best (1:58.2) came in 2000 as a three-year-old.
"That horse never came close to being that fast when I had him," Schlossberg says. "People make adjustments, but come on. Common sense has to tell you something."
Steroids mask EPO
Smith and Dr. Cornelius Uboh, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Equine Toxicology and Research Lab, said EPO shouldn't be used on horses.
Many "chemists," as clean horsemen call them, give horses "cocktails" of various steroids to mask the EPO in the animal's system. It's easy. Smith said the steroids can exit the system as quickly as 24 hours. Just the EPO, alone, can risk a horse's life.
"EPO is an illegal substance and I've made it very clear that it shouldn't be used on horses," Uboh says. "EPO is not meant for a horse and you have to remember, it's a single animal. It may kill the horse."
According to Dr. Scott Waterman, executive director of The Racing and Medication and Testing Consortium, a group that develops model drug policies for the industry, a horse on EPO can stop making red blood cells.
That leads to a breakdown in the immune system and the animal can develop aplastic anemia. The racing condition of the horse deteriorates and, ultimately, "crashes" and could die if not nursed back to health.
"The blood often becomes way out of whack and turns into sludge," Waterman says. "The heart can't pump its blood and it could end up having a heart attack."
Renowned in the industry, Uboh has developed a test that can effectively identify Epogen in horses by identifying signature peptides, which are the products of the protein found in EPO. But the test costs $1,500 to administer and the Racing and Wagering Board doesn't have the finances or manpower to travel the state to test horses.
Needed: More fear
EPO is a prescription drug, but Cote thinks it should be classified as controlled substance, which would carry stiffer penalties for those caught in possession. He also thinks that officials across the country should be able to test horses unannounced at any time at tracks and private farms.
That likely will never happen, but sweeping changes in the industry could be on the way.
The Saratoga County District attorney's office, along with state police, are investigating the potential of doping of standardbreds at Saratoga Raceway last summer. According to multiple industry sources, indictments are expected later this month, and Monticello horsemen could be charged.
The Racing and Wagering Board began testing for EPO in 2003. According to D'Acunto, when fliers were passed around the paddock, alerting owners and trainers about the testing, the place freaked out.
"One of the leading trainers, I won't say her name, ran out of the paddock, screaming what the (expletive) am I going to do," D'Acunto says. "There were a lot of people pulling out of races that day because they didn't want to get tested, I would say a dozen."
Back then, D'Acunto had a horse, Big Willy, that he says ran in the middle of the pack. Suddenly, the pacer became competitive without his times improving. The rest of the horses had slowed down.
D'Acunto thinks the dopers stopped using EPO then because they were afraid of getting caught.
They aren't scared anymore.
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Horsemen say illegal EPO use runs rampant at trackBy Justin Rodriguez
Times Herald-Record
jrodriguez@th-record.com
February 18, 2007
The drug EPO makes horses run faster for longer periods of time.
It can also kill them.
Despite that, several horsemen at Monticello Raceway say EPO is being used rampantly on horses competing at the track.
"It was a problem when I got to Monticello (seven years ago) and it's a problem now," veterinarian Gary Smith says. "It's a problem all over the industry. There is no way horses should be put on EPO. The long-term effects put their life in danger."
It's also illegal.
Tony D'Acunto, who for a decade has owned horses that compete at Monticello, believes half the horsemen are using EPO.
"Maybe a little less," he says. "People are becoming pretty brazen about it. You have people that ask you matter of factly if you want to put a horse on EPO if it isn't performing."
The risk-reward factor is skewed heavily in favor of the horsemen who use EPO. It's difficult to catch the cheats, and the penalties are minimal. The New York State Racing and Wagering Board rules for harness racing require only that a horse testing positive for the EPO antibody be sidelined until it tests clean again.
The horse isn't even disqualified from the race after which it tested positive, and the trainer's responsibility provision of the state harness commission's rules — which makes trainers accountable for the condition of any horse under his care — is waived.
"The trainer isn't penalized because he may not have been the one who gave the horse the EPO," says Joseph Lynch, chief of racing operations for the Racing and Wagering Board.
Several sources say horses at Monticello are being injected with Epogen, a brand name for one type of erythropoietin, and Aranesp, a more powerful form of EPO, and snake venom, which is used to deaden pain in the animals.
And the drug cheats are way ahead of those trying to catch them. Solid tests to detect EPO in horses' blood and urine are still being developed and the ones that exist are easy to beat. There is no test for snake venom.
"It's like you read about in the Olympics; they are ahead of the game," says Dr. George Maylin, director of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board's Equine Drug Testing Program at Cornell University. "We're trying to play catchup and that might always be the case. It's easy to get around it at this stage of the game."
Monticello leads the way
Maylin said he thinks the use of EPO is isolated in racing, but added that four of the 13 horses caught with EPO in their system since 2003 have been Monticello horses. The others came from Yonkers (3), Saratoga (1), Batavia Downs (2) and Buffalo (3). The numbers are low because the tests are easy to beat.
Brice Cote, detective sergeant with the New Jersey state police's horse squad, thinks the problem is more widespread.
"It's an epidemic in the industry, all over the country, including Monticello. People are using it there," says Cote, who has investigated Monticello horsemen who also compete in New Jersey. "There's no doubt about it. Horses are just going faster and faster."
Monticello general manager Shawn Wiles declined comment when asked about EPO use at the track, referring all questions to Raceway spokesman Charles Degliomini.
"We currently have no notification from the New York State Racing and Wagering Board regarding the use of EPO or snake venom at Monticello Raceway," Degliomini says. "While the testing, fines and enforcement of Epogen and venom usage are strictly regulated by the board, track management plans on contacting the board to inquire if they have any additional information for us, which may enhance procedures to address this issue. We do everything we can to insure the integrity of racing at Monticello Raceway."
EPO, the drug of choice for many world-class track athletes and cyclists, is banned for use on horses by the Food and Drug Administration under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Still, risking a horse's life by using the drug is worth it for some owners and trainers. EPO can make a horse go anywhere from two to six seconds faster during a race. That spike can turn an average standardbred into a champion, making its handlers lots of money.
Illegal stamina-boosting
EPO is used to treat anemia in humans by boosting the production of red blood cells. The drug can also enhance stamina by increasing the oxygen supply to muscles, and it has the same effect when injected in horses.
Racing and Wagering Board documents confirm that four horses have tested positive for EPO at Monticello in the past three years. They include Rare Jim, trained by Jim Cosenza (May 2004), Space Hero (August 2004), trained by Ross Cohen, Shining Jesse (June 2006), trained by Tina Adamczyk and Silly Lilly (July 2000), trained by Melissa Beckwith.
However, the test for EPO detects use of the drug only within 48 hours, Maylin said, and only the top three finishers in a race are tested. But EPO is most effective when used well ahead of a competition, allowing a horse to reap the benefits but not test positive.
Cohen, who declined comment, was fined last year at Pocono Downs for "milkshaking" horses, a dangerous procedure to minimize cramping by filtering baking soda through a tube leading from a horse's throat into its stomach.
Several horsemen at Monticello suspect that Adamczyk, who didn't return phone calls, is still doping horses with EPO. Adamczyk purchased Guten bye Mac from Brent Schlossberg on Jan. 5 and he ran a 2:05.3 at Monticello on that day in a claiming race. Two weeks later, Guten bye Mac blazed a 2:00.3 on the same half-mile oval and two weeks after that, the horse led by seven lengths before breaking gait. Guten bye Mac still finished in 2:02.4.
This from a 10-year-old horse that was running between a 2:04 and 2:11 at Monticello last February. Guten bye Mac's personal best (1:58.2) came in 2000 as a three-year-old.
"That horse never came close to being that fast when I had him," Schlossberg says. "People make adjustments, but come on. Common sense has to tell you something."
Steroids mask EPO
Smith and Dr. Cornelius Uboh, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Equine Toxicology and Research Lab, said EPO shouldn't be used on horses.
Many "chemists," as clean horsemen call them, give horses "cocktails" of various steroids to mask the EPO in the animal's system. It's easy. Smith said the steroids can exit the system as quickly as 24 hours. Just the EPO, alone, can risk a horse's life.
"EPO is an illegal substance and I've made it very clear that it shouldn't be used on horses," Uboh says. "EPO is not meant for a horse and you have to remember, it's a single animal. It may kill the horse."
According to Dr. Scott Waterman, executive director of The Racing and Medication and Testing Consortium, a group that develops model drug policies for the industry, a horse on EPO can stop making red blood cells.
That leads to a breakdown in the immune system and the animal can develop aplastic anemia. The racing condition of the horse deteriorates and, ultimately, "crashes" and could die if not nursed back to health.
"The blood often becomes way out of whack and turns into sludge," Waterman says. "The heart can't pump its blood and it could end up having a heart attack."
Renowned in the industry, Uboh has developed a test that can effectively identify Epogen in horses by identifying signature peptides, which are the products of the protein found in EPO. But the test costs $1,500 to administer and the Racing and Wagering Board doesn't have the finances or manpower to travel the state to test horses.
Needed: More fear
EPO is a prescription drug, but Cote thinks it should be classified as controlled substance, which would carry stiffer penalties for those caught in possession. He also thinks that officials across the country should be able to test horses unannounced at any time at tracks and private farms.
That likely will never happen, but sweeping changes in the industry could be on the way.
The Saratoga County District attorney's office, along with state police, are investigating the potential of doping of standardbreds at Saratoga Raceway last summer. According to multiple industry sources, indictments are expected later this month, and Monticello horsemen could be charged.
The Racing and Wagering Board began testing for EPO in 2003. According to D'Acunto, when fliers were passed around the paddock, alerting owners and trainers about the testing, the place freaked out.
"One of the leading trainers, I won't say her name, ran out of the paddock, screaming what the (expletive) am I going to do," D'Acunto says. "There were a lot of people pulling out of races that day because they didn't want to get tested, I would say a dozen."
Back then, D'Acunto had a horse, Big Willy, that he says ran in the middle of the pack. Suddenly, the pacer became competitive without his times improving. The rest of the horses had slowed down.
D'Acunto thinks the dopers stopped using EPO then because they were afraid of getting caught.
They aren't scared anymore.
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