In the war against substance abuse, new developments have come to light.................
writes Clinton Payne[ AuS]
Trainers be warned – Stewards can test for xenon and argon gas
Clinton Payne - 01 Apr 2015
Racing NSW stewards have issued a release warning trainers that "xenon and argon gas are prohibited substances” and a German university has developed "methods of analysis for the detection”.
Xenon and argon gas "are categorised as both erythropoiesis-stimulating agents and also hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1 stabilisers”.
Inhaling the gas encourages the production in the body of the hormone Erythropoietin (EPO), which encourages the formation of red blood cells in the body to improve performance.
"Racing NSW is committed to ensure that the practice of xenon and argon administration does not pose a threat to the integrity of thoroughbred racing,” the press release said.
"Recently the Institute of Biochemistry, German Sport University, Cologne, Germany was included into AR1 as an Official Racing Laboratory and Racing NSW places participants on notice that samples found to contain these substances by Official Racing Laboratories shall be reported to Racing NSW Stewards in accordance with AR178D(2).
"Further participants are advised that samples stored at the Australian Racing Forensic Laboratory, may under the provisions of AR178DD(2), be re-submitted to be analysed for xenon and argon.”
Xenon and argon gas was placed on the prohibited list by the World Anti-Doping Agency in May last year after reports that Russian athletes had used xenon gas in the lead-up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics where they won 13 gold medals and topped the final medal tally.
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Comments ..2
Finally someone has turned on the light.
1/04/2015 9:08:28 PM from thirsty
They need to come down on this with an iron fist and that includes cobalt just let these trainers know you get caught it's a life ban because no matter how important you think you are or how big your name is the sport doesn't need you. All the people who spend big money on race horses and don't use drugs are being cheated by these people and there should be zero tolerance shown for it.
1/04/2015 8:29:41 PM from steve3842
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