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Steroid tests change turf in horse racing
7 horses test positive at Presque Isle Downs, none since June 1
By DOUG SALVATORE
Contributing writer
Published: August 09. 2008 2:00AM
Random testing performed on 400 thoroughbreds and 400 standardbreds in Pennsylvania two years ago found at least one steroid in the system of about 60 percent of the horses tested.
It's a statistic no one expects to see again, not since the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission decided to put an end to the abuse of performance-enhancing steroids in horse racing.
Trainers throughout Pennsylvania and in surrounding states were given plenty of notice this past winter that a steroid ban would be initiated starting April 1 and harsh penalties for positive tests would follow once the policy takes full effect in October.
The commission later announced that it had collected 2,061 pre-ban samples for testing from the start of January to Feb. 22 - 98.8 percent of which tested negative for anabolic steroids. It seemed as though almost all trainers were taking the ban very seriously.
However, a steroid case-tracking report from the racing commission shows that since April 1, 48 different thoroughbreds have tested positive for an anabolic steroid after a race at one of the state's three thoroughbred tracks, including seven at Presque Isle Downs.
The report identifies things such as the name of the horse that tested positive, the date of the positive test, the age and sex of the horse, the track where the race took place, the specific steroid found, the amount of the steroid found in the horses' blood and the penalty given.
The report does not identify the name of the trainer whose care each horse raced under. It's important to know if these horses testing positive are trained by out-of-staters shipping in a horse or two who might have somehow been unfamiliar with the new rules, or if they are in-state horses trained by people who want to play with fire.
Using archived result charts, I was able to look up each race where a horse tested positive out of and identify each trainer of the 48 horses. The list was dominated by one in-state trainer and featured multiple offenses from a few others.
One high-profile trainer whose army of horses didn't produce a single positive test was Scott Lake, who currently ranks second in the nation in races won and has a large stable racing in Pennsylvania. While the big-volume Lake stable pitched a shutout, horses trained by the magical Stephanie Beattie racked up an alarming 13 positive steroid tests -- eight more than the next highest trainer.
Beattie ranks fourth in the nation in races won -- an amazing ranking, considering many top trainers have much larger stables. Her win percentage is much higher than any trainer in the top 15 nationally, and horses who enter her barn for the first time most often seem to improve sharply, while horses who leave her barn most often see a sharp decline in form.
The Daily Racing Form's Formulator software shows that if you bet every single Beattie-trained horse over the past five years, you would have made a 6.5 percent profit on every dollar bet. Her horses are especially dangerous going longer distances, as they tend to be less immune to fatigue.
If you simply bet $100 to win on every Beattie-trained horse racing at a distance of one mile or more over the past three years, you'd be ahead $11,088 without putting much thought into what is a complex and demanding game that is tough to beat.
"I probably shouldn't talk about this because I'm going to put my foot in my mouth," Beattie said by phone this past week. "I don't believe in this testing. I don't think they're ready for it in Pennsylvania. The media is going completely out of control with steroids."
Beattie said Pennsylvania isn't the only state where she has racing interests.
"I run horses in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. I need them to be able to compete at their best wherever they run," she said.
Beattie apparently did not receive anything more than a "reprimand" for each of her horses' 13 positive tests. Her most significant overage was with Angela's Rainbow, who was slightly more than four times over the legal limit for the steroid Boldenone after an April 19 race at Penn National.
Beattie said she had a split sample sent to a lab in Louisiana that found legal levels of the steroid in the horse's blood, voiding the original positive result.
By comparison, trainer Ryan Beattie -- nephew of Stephanie Beattie's ex-husband, Todd Beattie -- had only one horse test positive, but he lost a purse and was fined $500 because his runner Lotsa Ileana had more than 20 times the legal limit of the steroid Stanozolol in her system after a May 29 race.
Lotsa Ileana is one of seven horses that tested positive for steroids at Presque Isle Downs since the 2008 meet began May 9. There have been no reported positive steroid tests since June 1 at the Downs.
The elimination of steroids in horses on race day is not something that will level the playing field among trainers. Some trainers spare no expense on horses -- they employ the best help and most aggressive veterinarians; find and treat little problems before they become critical ones; and even legally use things such as hyperbaric chambers and shock wave therapy machines to get the best out of each horse. Just as some trainers cut corners, hire incompetent help, and rarely identify little problems until it becomes too late.
Still, if correctly enforced, a steroid ban becomes one less edge a sharp trainer can gain. The more the sport is about horses and the less it is about trainers, the better off it always will be.
"Anything that is being done for the welfare of the horse is a good thing," said Debbie Howells, Presque Isle Downs director of racing.
As steroid bans continue to sweep across the racing landscape, many trainers will stop administering steroids and instead use more than normal amounts of Clenbuterol, a drug that has steroid-like effects when administered in big doses. In June, for instance, trainers Rick Dutrow, who saddled Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown, and Larry Jones, who saddled Derby runner-up Eight Belles, each had a positive test come back for excessive amounts of Clenbuterol.
The glory years of horse racing featured great equine warriors such as Rosben, Exterminator, Equipoise, Seabiscuit, Assault, Whirlaway, and Citation -- horses that often were heavily raced on short rest, had tremendously long careers, were shipped all over the country and built huge followings. Sadly, the top horses of the past few years have been lightly-raced fragile types, running in an era when horses are overmedicated, and owners of promising colts are offered lucrative stallion deals before they ever accomplish much.
The days of horses running on hay, oats and water are gone forever. Hopefully the days of them running on steroids will soon be as well.
DOUG SALVATORE can be reached by e-mail at sports@timesnews.com.
Presque Isle Downs Steroid Positives:
Race Date, Horse, Trainer, Steroid, pg/ML found in blood, Race Result
May 9: Where'smynotebook Steph Beattie Boldenone 275 Won
May 10 Repenting* Jamie Ness Boldenone 224 Won
May 22: In Grand Style Eric Reed Stanozolol 294 Won
May 24: Nereus Tom Amoss Stanozolol 580 3rd
May 29: Lotsa Ileana Ryan Beattie Stanozolol 4,110 2nd
May 30: Abbalicous Todd Beattie Testosterone 1,349 Won
June 1: Inheritance Lost Doug Johnson Testosterone 555 Won
* Repenting won $100K Tall Ships Stake
Four previously legal steroids in Pennsylvania that are no longer allowed to appear in post-race drug tests at excessive levels are boldenone, nandrolone, stanozolol, and testosterone. The permitted levels for the first three steroids have been set by the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission at 200 picograms -- or 200 trillionths -- per milliliter of blood. The permitted levels for testosterone vary depending upon the sex of the horse. Fillies and gelding obviously have lower permitted levels than ungelded males.
-- Doug Salvatore
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