HORSE RACING : Testing Lab Is on Defensive Again

The laboratory that conducts tests for California horse racing tracks was put on the defensive again Wednesday, this time not because of the validity of its positive results, but from members of the state racing board who are questioning the company’s worth.

Truesdail Laboratories, the Tustin firm that has been testing horses in California for decades, has been criticized since six trainers--including Wayne Lukas and Laz Barrera--were accused of running horses with cocaine in their systems earlier this year.

Charges against five have been dropped by the California Horse Racing Board for lack of evidence. The other, Roger Stein, said this week that he also hopes to be exonerated. Stein said that his $25-million lawsuit against Truesdail, filed earlier this year, would be pursued even if charges against him are dropped.

Now, Truesdail is being criticized because of the time it takes to announce a positive result. On Oct. 18, acting on information from Truesdail, the stewards at Santa Anita took purse money from a horse that had finished second in a $15,000 race at Hollywood Park three months before.

David Hall, Truesdail’s chief chemist, said Wednesday at a meeting of the racing board’s medication committee that the delay was a result of a “missed guess” after laboratory technicians first analyzed the sample. The medication committee also was told that a horse in Del Mar tested positive, but the result was not announced for six weeks. Hall said he was not familiar with the case.

“We’ve been told by the (racing board’s) staff to take as much time as we need to determine positives,” Hall said.

Racing board members attending the meeting were Rosemary Ferraro, who is chairman of the medication committee, and Henry Chavez.

After hearing Hall and Dr. Norman Hester, the president of Truesdail, defend the laboratory, Chavez said: “I’m quite concerned about what I’m hearing. The problems we have are more severe than I thought they were.”

According to Truesdail’s $1.328-million contract with the racing board, a two-year agreement that runs through next June, the laboratory is supposed to complete a test within 48 hours. Also, a written report is supposed to be filed to the board within another 24 hours.

“Things have changed since that contract was signed,” Hester said. “There have been problems with the custody of the samples, and with the need for back testing (of existing samples). I’ve been waiting four months to hear about how the board’s budget has changed.”

Hester said that Truesdail recently spent $100,000 to buy a second mass spectometer, a machine that separates substances in the urine into levels that can be analyzed. “That amount of money represents the profit that the company might make in a year,” Hester said.

Hester said that after a busy summer, when the state-wide racing schedule is the heaviest, the laboratory has caught up with regular testing, but a backlog still exists for samples that are being re-tested.

“The backlog on those tests is six to eight weeks,” Hester said. “That’s about twice what it should be.”

In an interview, Hester would not say how many samples still need testing.

Rick Arthur, a veterinarian and a member of the medication committee, said: “If they are taking more work than they can handle, they should still be responsible for their obligation. Regarding those cocaine positives, if they needed five, seven or nine mass specs on each sample to find out what they had, then they should have taken the time to do it.”

Arthur emphasized that trainers want tests to be analyzed quickly, even if they turn up positive.

“If a trainer makes a mistake in medicating a horse, it’s imperative that he know (soon) so he can modify his treatment and make sure he doesn’t get another positive,” Arthur said. “That trainer who came up with a positive three months after the race could have been running his horses all that time without knowing that he was doing something wrong and there could have been more positives.”

In February, the racing board will begin accepting bids from laboratories for a contract that starts next July. It is likely that Truesdail will bid again for the contract.

“What’s going on is absolutely ludicrous,” Arthur said. “Truesdail is in violation of the contract. The situation is out of control.”

Don Robbins, general manager at Hollywood Park, believes that Truesdail has a “hardware (equipment) problem,” which Hester says will be somewhat solved through the purchase of new equipment.

Truesdail, which also tests for other states, sometimes seems to be overwhelmed with the volume, some contend. Bill Bell, a veterinarian, said a courier from Los Alamitos got an ice chest of sample tubes at Truesdail last week to take to the track.

“He thought the chest was a little heavy, but he took it, anyway,” Bell said. “When he got to Los Alamitos, what he had was a group of samples from a rodeo in Bakersfield.”

The samples increase on weekends. For security reasons, only custodial employees hired by the racing board have access to the laboratory freezers that store the samples.

“Since we don’t have a key, frequently we have no place to put them,” Hall said.

Arthur asked for a state review of the Truesdail operation.

“There’s a lack of communication between the racing board and the lab,” Chavez said. “We need a state agency to look in and give a definitive report, but that would take months and an interim solution is needed. Any review should focus, too, on whether the racing board’s staff is doing the job.”

Horse Racing Notes

Sunday Silence’s next race will probably be the San Fernando at Santa Anita in mid-January.. . . A field of 11, headed by Claire Marine and Brown Bess, is expected to run Sunday in the $400,000 Yellow Ribbon at Santa Anita. Also probable for the 1 1/4-mile grass race for fillies and mares are Delighter, who won the race a year ago; Darby’s Daughter, who was scratched out of Wednesday’s Linda Vista Handicap; Colorado Dancer; Be Exclusive; Miss Unnameable; Nikishka; River Memories; No Review and Sherarda. . . . Eight horses, including top-weighted Frankly Perfect at 122 pounds, are projected to run Monday in the Burke Handicap as the Oak Tree season ends. Other top weights that may run are Mill Native, 122 pounds; Alwuhush, an also-eligible who was unable to run in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, 120; and Mister Wonderful and Pranke, 118 apiece. . . . Hollywood Park’s season opens next Wednesday.