Bill Seeks to Shift Some Horse Testing to UC Davis

Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), reacting to the furor that resulted from six horses testing positive for cocaine after they ran in races, has introduced a bill in the state legislature that would shift some of the responsibility for equine drug testing to the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis.

Maddy’s bill asks that at least 25% of the drug testing for horses be done at Davis. All of the horse testing--about 35,000 post-race samples each year--is being performed by Truesdail Laboratories, a Tustin firm that has done business with the state for about 40 years. Truesdail’s current contract is worth more than $1.3 million.

Maddy couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday, but his bill appears to be part of the mounting pressure that has been put on Truesdail recently. All six of the trainers--including Wayne Lukas and Laz Barrera, two of the biggest names in racing--have denied responsibility for the positive cocaine tests, and Truesdail’s testing procedures have been questioned.

Six months ago, horsemen throughout the state began paying for urine samples already tested by Truesdail to be sent to another laboratory in New Mexico. This action was interpreted as a lack of confidence in Truesdail.

At a recent hearing for Roger Stein, another trainer who had a horse test positive for cocaine, it was revealed that Truesdail lost some of the testing data on the horse because of a computer foul-up. Truesdail was accused by Stein’s attorneys of not saving any of the horse’s blood for an independent test.

And Len Foote, secretary of the California Horse Racing Board, told how Truesdail had lost more than 600 frozen samples when a shelf broke. Foote also said that Truesdail employees were having difficulty getting identifying labels to stick on jars containing horses’ urine.

“This legislation is in response to the potentially disastrous situation in California wherein the urine samples of horses under the care of some of the most outstanding trainers in the world are testing positive for cocaine,” Maddy said in a prepared statement.

“The credibility of the entire sport is in question. The reputations and livelihood of a great many people are at stake in the drug testing process. When trainers with the international reputations of Laz Barrera and Wayne Lukas are tarnished by the accusations, it is imperative that our test procedures be beyond question.”

Maddy, a horse owner and former groom who used to rub horses’ legs at Hollywood Park, said that money to finance the equine testing at UC Davis would come from the betting at the satellite facilities throughout the state.

“By mandating that at least 25% of the tests be processed at the university, it gives warning to the industry that any one sample may be exhaustively tested and new procedures utilized,” Maddy statement read. “It is a deterrent factor.

“By allowing the racing board to have discretion in respect to the remaining 75%, it will continue to keep testing within the private sector and will not overburden the university’s capabilities.”

It is not unusual for a state to use university facilities to test horses. All testing of horses in New York is done at Cornell University and the University of Kentucky also tests horses.