California Racing Board Orders New Random Drug-Testing of Horses

Race horses in California will be subjected to urine-testing for performance-enhancing drugs beginning this week at Hollywood Park, Golden Gate Fields and Los Alamitos.

Racing Commissioner Rosemary Ferraro said Wednesday that the new procedure--which supplements the current testing done by Truesdail Laboratories--could begin as soon as today throughout the state, and “certainly no later than Friday.”

International Diagnostic Systems of St. Joseph, Mich., has been granted official status by the California Horse Racing Board to conduct the supplemental program, which will examine about 50 random samples taken at each race track every racing day.

IDS spokesman Charles Prange said that any confirmed positives will be sent on to the equine-testing department at Cornell University for further verification. Cornell is the official testing facility of the New York racing industry.