First-Ever Elective Testing For All Olympic Horses

28 July 2008

The Hong Kong Jockey Club's Racing Laboratory will be offering Post-Arrival Elective Testing for all horses coming to Hong Kong for the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic equestrian events at the request of the International Equestrian Federation.

Unlike the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) system used for human athletes, there is traditionally no out-of-competition testing of horses in equestrian sports. However, in a bid to help teams avoid inadvertent infringements, pre-competition testing in the form of Post-Arrival Elective Testing (PAET) will be conducted immediately after the horses' arrival in Hong Kong for the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic equestrian events.

PAET is being offered as a voluntary once-off service for all Olympic and Paralympic horses, including reserves, to help teams establish whether residues of therapeutic substances are present in urine samples collected well before competition. PAET, which is being offered free-of-charge to the teams, is effectively an advisory health check to help riders abide by the rules of competition and ensure that they do not accidentally fall foul of the regulations.

"The FEI has asked us to do Post-Arrival Elective Testing on the Olympic and Paralympic horses and we are happy to provide this service to the FEI and to the teams", said Club Chief Executive Officer, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges.

 "This is a major step forward in the fight to prevent positive test results", FEI Secretary General Alex McLinsaid. "There were four positives in Athens and it was very damaging to the sport, particularly as it involved gold medal winners, but offering Post-Arrival Elective Testing in Hong Kong should help prevent inadvertent infringements. The only reason that we are able to conduct this extensive level of testing is because of the capabilities of The Hong Kong Jockey Club's Racing Laboratory. Without this on-site facility, and the financial support of the FEI, we simply couldn't do it."

Urine samples taken from the Olympic and Paralympic horses within 12 hours of their arrival at the Hong Kong Olympic Equestrian Venue (Sha Tin) will be tested for therapeutic substances only. The tests will not cover doping agents or any medications outside the scope of normal FEI Elective Testing.

The test results will remain confidential and will only be transmitted to the relevant team vet or representative. The results are unofficial and for reference only. The FEI has requested that PAET results be reported to the Federation after the end the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but all data referring to horse identity or nationality will be removed to maintain anonymity.

No sanctions will be imposed for medications found in the PAET samples (i.e. pre-Games) and riders - officially deemed the Person Responsible under FEI regulations - can submit a further Elective Testing sample for testing closer to the start of the Games to ensure that any medication residue has been eliminated from the body of the horse by the time of competition. Under FEI rules, horses can be medicated out of competition - and often need to be - but there is zero tolerance of both therapeutic and non-therapeutic substances in competition.

In addition to the PAET service, the number of traditional post-competition regulatory tests conducted during the Olympic and Paralympic equestrian events will be at least 25 per cent higher than in Athens 2004.

Background Information:

The Hong Kong Jockey Club's Racing Laboratory was appointed as an International Equestrian Federation (FEI) Reference Laboratory in 2001. There are only four FEI Reference Laboratories in the world. The other FEI Reference Laboratories are in Paris, New York and Sydney. The HKJC Lab is the sole FEI Reference Laboratory in Asia.

The Club's Racing Laboratory is the first-ever on-site testing facility for Olympic equine samples and has promised fastest ever turnaround of the samples.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club was designated "Outstanding Contributor, Beijing 2008 Olympic Equestrian Events" by the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) in recognition of its contribution in building the venues and back-up support and facilities, including the Racing Laboratory.

The total number of horses involved in the Beijing 2008 Olympic equestrian events will be 220 horses. There will be 74 Paralympic horses.