Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) The commission veterinarian shall,
whenever physically possible, collect a minimum of fifty milliliters of urine
and a minimum of thirty milliliters of blood specimens from each horse selected
for testing by the judges.
(1) The official
laboratory shall retain all portions of each specimen in secure, limited
access, frozen storage at a site approved by the commission for the time period
required by this rule;
(2) If the
results of tests on a specimen are negative, the official laboratory may
discard all portions of said specimen;
(3) If the results of tests on a specimen are
positive, the official laboratory shall retain all portions of said specimen
until the matter has been finally adjudicated or until directed to forward the
specimen or a portion there of to another laboratory for independent
analysis;
(4) The trainer and/or
owner shall not be entitled to a retained specimen in those instances where the
official laboratory deems it necessary to consume the entirety of an official
specimen for official laboratory testing purposes.
(B) The results of all tests performed by the
official laboratory shall remain confidential until the time of the judges'
hearing, if any, and shall be communicated only to the executive director of
the commission, the presiding judge, and the trainer. The trainer shall be
responsible for notifying the owner of a horse of a positive test result as
reported by the official laboratory.
(1) The
trainer or owner of a horse for which a positive test result was reported may
request that the retained specimen or a portion there or be retested in
accordance with this rule. A commission approved independent laboratory or the
official laboratory must perform the retest;
(2) Approved independent laboratories are
identified on a list maintained by the commission;
(3) Approved independent laboratories must
establish reasonable fees for testing that may include the costs of testing
negative control specimens if requested by the trainer or owner;
(4) The request for retesting shall be in
writing and shall be delivered to the judges not more than forty-eight hours
after the issuance of the notification to the trainer
regarding the positive by
the judges. Notice of a positive test result shall be communicated in writing
to the trainer and may also be communicated orally to the trainer. Failure to
request retesting of the retained specimen within forty-eight hours of issuance
of notification to the trainer regarding the positive
by the ruling of the judges shall constitute a waiver of this
right.
(5) The laboratory selected
by the trainer or owner for independent testing of the retained specimen shall
be contacted by a representative of the commission to request acceptance of the
specimen for testing;
(6) The owner
or trainer is entitled to be present at the retest if they have requested
retesting of the retained specimen by the official laboratory;
(7) The results of testing by an approved
independent laboratory shall be furnished to the commission and may be
introduced as evidence in any hearing;
(8) If a retained specimen is sent to an
independent laboratory for retesting, the official laboratory shall arrange for
shipment of the specimen in a manner that ensures the integrity of the sample.
Costs of shipping and handling will be paid by the owner or trainer requesting
the retest;
(9) The identity of the
drug or drug metabolite(s) identified by the official laboratory shall be
communicated to the independent laboratory in writing;
(10) Should the independent laboratory
determine that there is insufficient sample volume to retest the sample, or if
an act of god, power failure, accident, labor strike or any other event beyond
the control of the commission or its representatives prevents the retained
sample from being tested, then the results of tests performed by the official
laboratory shall be prima facie evidence of the presence of the substance(s)
identified by the official laboratory.
(11) The trainer or owner may request that
negative control samples be tested with the retained sample. The relative
identities of the negative control samples and the retained sample shall be
known only to the official laboratory.
(C) The independent laboratory shall send a
confidential written report of the results of its tests to the commission,
which in turn shall send a confidential report to the trainer and owner
forthwith.
(1) No action shall be taken
against the trainer or owner if the results of the retesting are
negative.
(2) Should the results of
retesting prove negative, the owner or trainer shall be reimbursed by the
commission for all costs of retesting.
