|
One big problem for both humans and horses is that the supplement industry is not required to obtain an FDA certification before selling their substances. Firms that sell supplements are required to do three things:
- ensure the products it distributes are safe
- not make any false or misleading claims about the products
- ensure the products comply with the federal food, drug and cosmetic act and FDA regulations in all other respects.
Previous testing on human supplements has shown many compounds do not contain the specified amounts of the listed ingredients, or contain contaminants. Human or horse, supplements from many companies are a crap shoot and frankly trainers who spend their owner's money on them may be just burning it.
It appears clear that Sedlacek was hoping to cheat by using a supplement containing ITPP (myo-inositol tris pyrophosphate). For those not familiar with ITPP, it is a relatively recently developed drug that is supposed to increase the release of oxygen from red blood cells. Given that Sedlacek pled guilty, whether or not he know the supplement contained AH-7921 is irrelevant.
The information on both ITPP and AH-7921 as it related to race horses is sketchy. There was an ITPP study done on mice in which researchers demonstrated ITPP did boost endurance capacity. However, the transference to horses is speculative since the spleen in a horse releases large amounts of red blood cells under stress, thus increasing oxygen capacity beyond what might be expected from the injection of ITPP. And apparently Sedlacek's sample was not shown positive for ITPP.
AH-7921 is a drug that was synthesized in the 70's. Researchers initially were looking to develop a pain reliever, but after development any efforts to commercialize the drug ceased and the drug was abandoned. Speculation is that Chinese and Indian labs were able piece together the formula and it has been used in Japan in the manufacture of synthetic marijuana. It is thought to have 80% of the pain killing capacity of morphine, and may function as a mild stimulant. Of course, considering there have been no studies done, it's anybody's guess as to how effective it might be at various dosages.
There were a number of questions that came to mind regarding the Sedlacek hearing. In the reports the level of the drug was never given, although the testing lab testified that it had been given on race day. Without the level we don't know whether it might have been cross-contamination from a synthetic marijuana user, at a level where there was no efficacy perhaps suggesting contamination from the supplement maker, or at a real performance enhancing level. Second, it was not clear if the lab tested the supplements to determine if they were the source of the AH-7921. In fact, the media reports never identified the "oral substance" by name. I believe racing fans have a right to know all those details.
If NY had named and tested the supplement, other horsemen could have gotten the information and made sure not to use it. For me this was not particularly about Sedlacek. His intent was to cheat, regardless of the drug, he pled guilty and got his five years. What this was about for me was making sure the Commission, and ultimately ARCI, stopped looking at the trainers as the enemy, and started creating an alliance to educate and hopefully eliminate the use of sketchy supplements. Products on horseprerace.com with names like Blast Off, Game Time Injection, Numb It, Green Speed, and my favorite, Superfecta are meant to sell performance enhancement, even if the listed ingredients are table salt, citric acid and alcohol (the actual listed ingredients for a product called Hemo-Stopper, a supposed diuretic). Even if many of the products are the equivalent of snake oil, rather than focusing mainly on catching cheaters after the fact, how about we see jurisdictions equally try to ensure these substances are not even showing up at the racetrack by exposing them through testing.
|
