The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit has posted updated banned substance findings on its website, with three trainers not previously reported by BloodHorse facing alleged violations for equine medication violations. The cases have not been adjudicated.
Trainers Mike Lauer and Angel J. Castillo Sanchez face potential sanctions related to the presence of metformin in samples taken earlier this summer from their respective horses, Mowins and Pylon , and Carlos Milian is alleged to have a hydrochlorothiazide positive with his horse Junglherly Love . The three horses have been provisionally suspended.
In July, HIWU modified its rules to allow some trainers to continue to have their stable compete without an immediate provisional suspension pending the results of a split sample for certain banned drugs, provided a trainer does not have multiple violations. Based on the types of medications found in their horses testing positive, the three trainers appear eligible to run pending the results of those second tests. Lauer and Milian have started horses in recent days.
Metformin can be used to treat insulin resistance associated with equine metabolic syndrome in horses. It is Federal Drug Administration-approved and regularly prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes in humans. Drugs and medications used by people can increase the possibility of equine drug testing contamination.
Hydrochlorothiazide may be used in equines to treat hyperkalemic periodic paralysis by helping to reduce the amount of potassium in the blood, according to online resources. The FDA has approved the drug to treat hypertension in humans.