BC Expands Steroid Ban

[MaryS]

tp://www.courier-journal.com/article/20 ... /908100354

Breeders' Cup to expand steroid ban
BY JENNIE REES • JREES@COURIER-JOURNAL.COM • AUGUST 10, 2009

The Breeders' Cup announced Monday that it is expanding its anabolic steroid ban to include all Class 1 and 2 drugs starting with this year's Breeders' Cup World Championships at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meet Nov. 6-7.

Such drugs already are not allowed in a horse's system during a race in any racing jurisdiction. But the expanded policy means trainers who have a horse test positive for such substances in a Cup event will be prohibited from running any horses in the championship races the next year. A third violation would bring a life-time ban.

The ban for the next year's Breeders' Cup would go into play once a horse is disqualified for a drug violation detected in post-race testing, a Cup spokesman said. It is independent of any sanctions track stewards and/or the state regulatory body might ultimately impose.

The ban only applies to positive findings in Breeders' Cup races, not any other races in which a trainer might participate, including races on the Cup undercard...

[JDinSD77]

A rule the Europeans and other international horses have been pushing for some time. Hope it does attracts some extra 1st tier horses and doesn't subtract any American horses with suspect training methods.

[Srotagtbs]

I'd love this if it applied to ALL races, but that's just me. A good start on harsher penalties though.