Centre to study drug withdrawal times.

THE BHA is setting up a new centre for racehorse studies, where one of the main objectives will be to produce data on withdrawal times for medication legitimately used in training racehorses, but which is banned in racing, writes Howard Wright.

Tim Morris, BHA director of equine science and welfare, said: "We conduct extensive surveillance for evidence of misuse of drugs in horses, or the inadvertent presence of veterinary medications, and our figures show that inadvertent carry-over of such medication is the most common reason for a positive drug test on racedays.

"Our focus is therefore on education and prevention, which involves training, information and advice to trainers and their veterinary surgeons."

Research on withdrawal times, which was previously carried out at the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory near Newmarket, has been taken on by the BHA following the January 2007 sale of HFL for pounds 20.25 million to the venture capitalist-owned company Quotient BioResearch.

The work will be carried out by the BHA in partnership with the British Racing School, which will use a new barn at its Newmarket site to house and prepare a group of former racehorses to a level that makes them as representative of horses in training as possible.

The horses will be given the same treatments as if they were in training, and blood and urine samples taken as on raceday and other testing will determine drug levels over time.

Morris said the centre would be subject to government inspection and that the ethics of the studies would be independently reviewed.

"Independent veterinary surgeons will advise on welfare, and we will share our results with other racing authorities via the European Horseracing Scientific Liaison Committee," he added.

The BRS will use the centre to add medication control to the content of relevant training courses.