ArticleEquine veterinary journal2025
Survey on 9 years of anti-doping controls in horse races in Italy.
Article in Equine veterinary journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Survey on 9 years of anti-doping controls in horse races in Italy.Equine veterinary journal · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDoping in racehorses is a threat to horse welfare and the integrity of the sport. Despite its relevance, the literature on the prevalence of anti-doping violations worldwide is limited.
objectivesTo analyse anti-doping violations in racehorses in Italy. STUDY
designRetrospective observational study.
methodsData on horse races, anti-doping testing, and confirmed violations between 2014 and 2022 were collected and analysed. Positivity rates, most common drug classes and parent drugs, and differences between trotting and galloping horses were investigated.
resultsDuring the considered 9-year timeframe, the national laboratory analysed a total of 104,770 samples. A total of 536 horses were confirmed to be positive (92.8% positivity rate at second analysis). The average prevalence over the years was 0.48 ± 0.15% in trotters and 0.50 ± 0.15% in gallopers. Seventy-seven parent drugs, belonging to 29 different drug classes, were detected. The five most represented drug classes were steroidal anti-inflammatories (19.0%), stimulants (16.4%), NSAIDs (15.5%), anabolic steroids (9.9%) and sedatives (9.7%). The five most frequent substances were dexamethasone (8.4%), cocaine (7.1%), testosterone (6.5%), caffeine (5.6%) and theophylline (4.1%). MAIN LIMITATIONS: Our data derive from official analyses performed in compliance with the national regulation on anti-doping controls in racehorses; information on the concentration of the detected analytes was not available. Testing only the best-placed horses does not allow for correlating drug administration and improved performance; horses with less chance of winning might slip through the control system with negative consequences on their welfare.
conclusionsThe percentage of confirmed doping violations in horse races in Italy in the 9 years (2014-2022) evaluated in this study was low (0.49 ± 0.15%). Considering the drug classes found most frequently, violations might have been more often the consequence of deliberate administration rather than accidental feed contamination.
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