It has come to our attention that several web based preparation supplier companies are selling a variety of equine products. These are allegedly sourced by some local racehorse trainers and owners and these are administered to racehorses. Many of these companies have only website addresses as their only point of contact or do not have a physical address or only have an overseas address which cannot be verified.
Several such preparations were sourced by the NHA and these were screened for the presence of prohibited substances at the NHA Laboratory. The analysis of these products indicated that these preparations do not contain the components that are claimed on the label. Prohibited substances are not present within these preparations.

It is important to be aware that these label and web advertisement claims are inaccurate and misleading. The use of these products does not constitute the administration of the indicated prohibited substance. This would result in such false claims being made by trainers and owners which use these products. 
The findings by our Laboratory that the label claims of these products are not correct is substantiated by similar testing of these and other such preparations at other racing laboratories. The findings at these laboratories mirror ours.  Some examples of such substances include ITPP, Aranesp (a form of Erythropoietin/EPO), ACTH and TB-500 (a peptide drug). Within some of these products which were tested the claimed vitamins and amino acids have been shown present, but not the claimed major component.  In some products the claimed prohibited substance is present but is contained in a much lower concentrations than indicated or at a level much lower than would affect the horse.
The pricing of many of these products are suspiciously low considering the amount of the chemical or biochemical substance which the product is claimed to contain. The storage conditions specified for the product is often not consistent with the stability of this actual substance. The labelling is also not at all consistent of a legally registered pharmaceutical product of reputable quality and verifiable content and potency. Be aware of recent reports that some of these web based companies are currently actively being investigated and warned by the FDA in the USA for non-compliance which will result in serious action.
Note that several equine studies have been conducted on many of the actual, scientifically verified pure substances which some of these products claim to contain and there is evidence that several of these substances do not result in therapeutic benefit to the horse. 
The NHA Laboratory, as an active member of the Association of Official Racing Chemists and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, is aware of the range of prohibited substance of concern to racing on a worldwide and also local basis and continue to investigate such substances as part of the screening conducted on racehorse specimens. 


Where and when preparations such as those describe above are sourced these are thoroughly investigated and researched at our Laboratory. 

Dr S. S. de Kock


Laboratory Director


17 August 2016