Ky. hires British lab for racehorse drug testing

By JEFFREY McMURRAY

LEXINGTON, Ky.

Racehorse drug testing in Kentucky is going local -- with a little help from overseas.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission unanimously agreed Tuesday to hire HFL Sport Science, based in England, to open a new lab in Lexington that would handle testing for all the state's standardbred and thoroughbred races, including next year's Kentucky Derby.

For decades, Kentucky -- the self-proclaimed horse capital of the world -- has sent blood and urine samples out of state for testing. Currently a lab at the University of Florida does the job. Although the racing panel also agreed Tuesday to extend that contract through January 2011, it would likely be replaced by the Kentucky lab after that.

"This agreement is much more than just drug testing of racehorses at Kentucky tracks," said Robert Beck, commission chairman. "Kentucky will be on the receiving end of world-class testing with the opportunity for this company to expand into other areas."

Beck said the company would soon announce a location and suggested it would likely take over an existing building rather than construct a new one.

The state had previously announced a series of tax breaks and a forgivable loan to lure the company to Lexington, where more than a dozen employees are expected to be hired just to handle the Kentucky contract. The numbers could grow if other states sign on, and the contract includes a clause requiring the company to lower Kentucky's fee if another state gets a better deal.

Lisa Underwood, executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, said the state and its racetracks spend more than $900,000 on drug testing in a year, and the move to an in-state company could cut those costs by 20-25 percent.

Kentucky has beefed up its testing lately, including sampling horses for one of the strictest steroid tests in the nation. Last year's Kentucky Derby was the first in which a steroid ban was in place.

HFL is a division of Quotient Bioresearch, a leading provider of early stage and specialist drug development services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device clients worldwide.

The company was chosen over other applicants, including the United States Equestrian Federation, which signaled it too could do racehorse testing at a new lab in Lexington. That lab was discussed by the racing panel Tuesday both as a potential fallback option should something go wrong with HFL and for the in-state competition of having a second premier horse lab nearby.

But Jerry Yon, chairman of an equine drug research panel that spent months considering various contract offers for the state's drug testing bid, said he is convinced no lab in the world does it better than HFL.

Among the technologies, the Lexington lab is expected to use a contraption allowing hundreds of different drugs to be tested at once. Yon said the machine also could interact with a similar machine in England, expanding its database of performance-enhancing substances as new designer drugs hit the market.

"If they find something first over there, we're going to know about it before anybody in the United States may," Yon said.

Although the contract was approved unanimously, commission member Ned Bonnie raised concerns that the company doesn't currently have an American presence, despite its overseas track record.

"There's no laboratory in existence in this country run by HFL," Bonnie said. "There's no building, no equipment and no personnel."

Yon pointed out that the company, operating since the 1960s, was aggressively seeking accreditation in North America. He didn't rule out that happening before the 2011 Kentucky Derby.

"HFL is not a Johnny come lately," Yon said. "This company knows how to do research. This company knows how to do lab tests. It's got the most up to date equipment. The fact it hasn't been on North American soil doesn't rob it of its abilities and accomplishments over the years."