Ky. horse racing panel authorizes first new research studies in more than a decade

Ky. racing panel to fund equine research studies

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky horse racing officials agreed Tuesday to bankroll six new research grants to be conducted through the University of Kentucky, the first such projects in more than a decade approved by the cash-strapped panel that oversees the state’s signature industry.

The projects, approved unanimously by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, target a variety of areas of interest to horse racing in Kentucky and elsewhere, including efforts to curb equine herpes and other diseases, control infections in horse populations and develop a new optimum standard for better drug testing.

State equine medical director Mary Scollay, who was hired in part to help restart horse research programs that have been largely dormant since 1998, was vocal in selecting the six projects from 13 nominations submitted last fall.

“I feel really good we came up with something for everybody,” Scollay said. “The proposals presented today well represent the needs of the industry.”

Jerry Yon, director of the racing panel’s equine drug subcommittee that pushed for the spending, said the racing commission had been saving the research money for several years without spending it. The cost would be about $286,000 this year and another $99,000 in 2011 for the projects that extend to a second year.

Scollay’s salary and the projects approved Tuesday marked the first major spending from the fund in more than a decade, Yon said. He said the research being authorized was significant, including as a symbolic gesture to show the world’s racing industry that Kentucky is committed to improving the sport.

“I think we’re committed to making sure we are the leaders,” Yon said. “What we can do to help the industry in Kentucky and throughout the nation we want to be able to do.”

Although the racing commission approved the matter with little discussion, there was more dissent earlier Tuesday during a meeting of Yon’s drug research panel.

At issue there was who would benefit if one of the projects became profitable? Officials from the University of Kentucky, who are leading the research, agreed that any proceeds would be redirected into other horse research initiatives.

The programs included under the grants approved Tuesday are studies concerning:

— a search for anti-viral medications effective against equine herpes, including the neurological type that has no known cure

— how best to treat a chronic bacteria infection common in populations of young would-be racehorses

— gastrointestinal antibiotics and efforts to reduce the cases of diarrhea when they are administered

— proper doses of corticosteroids for therapeutic uses on joints

— methods to suppress the estrus in mares without risking human contamination

— development of optimum standards for medication testing