The Indiana Horse Racing Commission has announced that two Standardbreds have been found with elevated cobalt levels midway through the 160-day race meet at Hoosier Park.
The commission’s release did not state particulars in regard to the horses or trainers.
The cobalt threshold in Indianan is 25 ppb (parts per billion). The positive tests from Hoosier had elevated levels of 26 ppb and 80 ppb. There were 159 Hoosier Park horses that were tested, and the average concentration was 4.06 ppb and the mean 2.55 ppb.
The release states that, in Indiana, cobalt testing is performed on all claimed horses, out-of-competition samples, and selected days of post-race samples.
The IHRC release states that there hasn’t been any violations of its cobalt regulations up to the midway point of the 120-day Thoroughbred race meet at Indiana Grand.
Indiana was the first state in the United States to regulate cobalt. Testing began in September 2014.
The commission has stated that its goal is to test a minimum of one thousand cobalt tests during the 2015 racing season.
(With files from the IHRC)