Survey on 9 years of anti-doping controls in horse races in Italy.
Authors: Roccaro, Rinnovati, Stucchi, La Rocca, Cascio, Peli
Journal: Equine veterinary journal
Summary
# Anti-doping violations in Italian racehorses: a nine-year overview Between 2014 and 2022, Italy's national laboratory screened 104,770 racing samples and confirmed 536 doping violations (0.49% prevalence), with strikingly similar rates between trotters and gallopers (approximately 0.5% annually). The detected substances represented a diverse pharmacological picture: whilst steroidal anti-inflammatories dominated at 19%, the profile—which included stimulants (16.4%), NSAIDs (15.5%), anabolic steroids (9.9%) and sedatives (9.7%)—suggests most violations stemmed from deliberate administration rather than accidental contamination. The most frequently identified individual drugs were dexamethasone, cocaine, testosterone, caffeine and theophylline, warranting consideration of why performance-enhancing and masking agents remain attractive to those operating outside regulatory boundaries. A critical limitation of the Italian testing protocol is its focus on placed horses, which risks missing violations in lower-performing competitors where welfare compromises might be equally or more severe. For equine professionals involved in racing environments, these data underscore both the relative rarity of detected violations and the potential blind spots in surveillance systems that may obscure the true extent of prohibited substance use, particularly in animals with limited competitive success.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Current testing protocols that only target top-placed horses may miss widespread doping in lower-performing animals, compromising welfare assessment across the racing population
- •The prevalence of deliberate performance-enhancing drugs (anabolic steroids, stimulants) versus accidental contamination varies by substance class; understanding which drugs are most likely intentional can help guide surveillance priorities
- •Veterinarians overseeing racehorses should be aware that steroidal anti-inflammatories and NSAIDs dominate violations, suggesting either therapeutic misuse or inadequate washout periods before racing
Key Findings
- •536 horses tested positive (0.51% prevalence) across 104,770 samples analyzed over 9 years (2014-2022)
- •Steroidal anti-inflammatories (19.0%), stimulants (16.4%), and NSAIDs (15.5%) were the most common drug classes detected
- •Dexamethasone (8.4%), cocaine (7.1%), and testosterone (6.5%) were the most frequently detected parent drugs
- •No significant difference in violation rates between trotting horses (0.48%) and galloping horses (0.50%)