metformin

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has affirmed an earlier Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) arbitration panel ruling against trainer Jonathan Wong, suspending him for two years and fining him $25,000 for a 2023 post-race metformin positive. Metformin is a type 2 diabetes drug that HISA has classified as a banned substance. The next step in the appeals process would be a request for review by the FTC of the FTC administrative law judge's decision, according to a Horseracing Integrity and Safety Unit (HIWU) spokesperson. Wong will instead take the...

A casino is supposed to be on the way, but in the meantime these are tough times for racing in Chicago and its only remaining racetrack, Hawthorne. They still don't have any outside revenue from a casino, their purses are meager and their simulcast signal gets lost on days like Saturday, when they went up against the likes of Aqueduct, Gulfstream, Keeneland, Oaklawn and Santa Anita. The handle Saturday was $1,019,178. It should have been three times that. We've seen a lot of tracks experiment with lower takeouts. The latest...

High-profile trainer Robertino Diodoro, who is serving a provisional suspension from the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) after the banned substance levothyroxine was found in his barn at Oaklawn Park, has entered a horse for the April 18 card at Lone Star Park. On opening night, he has entered Master of Disguise (Mastery) in a maiden special weight race with a purse of $33,000. Diodoro is eligible to race in Texas because the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) does not have jurisdiction in that state. Diodoro did not...

According to the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) a horse trained by New York-based conditioner George Weaver has tested positive for the banned substance metformin. Weaver has asked for a test on a split sample and will be allowed to continue to train pending the results of that test. The horse in question is Anna's Wish (Dailed In) and the alleged violation occurred after she was tested following the March 16 Cicada S. at Aqueduct in which she finished third.  Metformin is listed as a banned substance by HIWU,...

As a Clinical Pharmacologist (human) and an avid horse player, I have grown tired of these instances of biologic samples from horses having banned substances found and the "interesting" explanations as to how the exposure happened. One recent example was a story of a horse in which three samples of blood had metformin (a drug used to treat type II diabetes in humans) detected. The explanation was that a groom and later the trainer was taking metformin and "touched the horse's face." This explanation is questionable from a clinical pharmacology...

Trainer Jonathan Wong has been suspended for two years and fined $25,000 for a post-race metformin positive from last June after a Jan. 9 hearing before the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's arbitration panel. The two-year period of ineligibility retroactively starts July 1, 2023, when Wong's initial provisional suspension was first imposed. He will also pay $8,000 of HIWU's share of the arbitration, in addition to his own arbitration fees. As the maximum possible sentence for such a violation, the ruling marks the latest twist in a case that became...

Trainer Mike Lauer is now a month past serving what he believes was an unjust 75-day suspension because a Thoroughbred under his care at Horseshoe Indianapolis tested positive last summer for metformin, a drug used to treat diabetes in people. With more 20 million patients taking it, metformin ranks as the nation's third-most-prescribed human medicine, according to the consumer healthcare website Healthgrades. Before Lauer's case made it to an official arbitration hearing, the 72-year-old conditioner with five decades of licensure was able to present enough evidence to the Horseracing Integrity...

Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among the key rulings from the last seven days is the saga surrounding Tankinator (Uncle Lino), a horse at the center of two positives within 17 days. On Oct. 21, Tankinator finished sixth at Delaware Park. Tankinator was claimed out of Webster Gayle's barn that day before running again on Nov. 7 for Bonnie Lucas at Parx Racing. Tankinator was pulled up and vanned off in that race....

From an altitude of 10,000 feet, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)'s mandated goal is a simple two-pronged affair. Uniformity in welfare and safety. Uniformity in drug testing. Over the past few months, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU)--HISA's enforcement arm--has made several announcements that have peeled the curtain back on just how difficult the second part of that equation will be to accomplish. Internal reviews of the six HIWU-contracted laboratories uncovered different limits of detection in blood for diabetes drug Metformin and for benzoylecgonine (BZE), a metabolite...

Just one week after the Horseracing Welfare and Integrity Unit (HIWU) issued a public disclosure on its website that top Mid-Atlantic trainer Anthony Farrior had a horse test positive for the banned substance Metformin, Farrior's attorney Drew Mollica said that he has been informed by HIWU that the charges have been dropped. "The system worked and we are happy to clear his good name and his reputation," Mollica said. Mollica said HIWU's decision came about after a review of the split sample, which was requested by Mollica and Farrior. Mollica...

Trainer Anthony Farrior is facing a possible suspension after a horse he trained allegedly tested positive for the banned substance Metformin, according to a posting Friday on the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit website. His status is listed as "Pending: Provisional Suspension--Postponed." Alexa Ravit, the director of communications & outreach for HIWU explained that the wording means, "that B Sample analysis has been requested following a positive A Sample result, so the implementation of the Provisional Suspension is postponed unless/until the B Sample comes back positive." Farrior will be allowed...

In a statement Thursday, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU)--the enforcement arm of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)--said that an internal review of the six accredited laboratories used by the agency had unearthed different limits of detection in blood for metformin, a banned substance at all times under HISA. "Following this review, which was conducted in collaboration with the laboratories, it was determined that not all applied the same Limit of Detection in analyzing samples for the presence of Metformin. HIWU has since met with all six...