Has horse racing gone overboard with its regulations? One vet thinks so.

There are two sides to every story.

Actually, Dr. Clara Fenger thinks there could be many sides.

An equine veterinarian who for 15 years worked for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, Fenger does not know what went on in Bob Baffert’s barn that caused Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit to test positive for betamethasone in a postrace sample.

She “absolutely” believes that the Otomax ointment that Baffert says was being used to treat a skin condition on Medina Spirit’s hindquarters and flank, and that contains betamethasone valerate, could have produced the positive test that might ultimately strip the colt of his Kentucky Derby victory.

To Fenger, however, the issue goes beyond one race — even a race as big as the Kentucky Derby — or one trainer. She believes the issue is that in their efforts to make the sport safer, Thoroughbred racing jurisdictions have gone overboard with their regulations, without properly acknowledging how easy it is for environmental and incidental contamination can occur.

“Restrictions on therapeutic medications is necessary, but they’ve gone to an extreme,” Fenger said this week.

Citing research done in conjunction with other veterinarians and scientists, Fenger has testified to that belief in front of several bodies, including the Association of Racing Commissioners International, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, and the Arkansas Racing Commission last year after two of Baffert’s horses were disqualified when lidocaine showed up in their systems on Arkansas Derby day.

Baffert argued that the lidocaine could have been transferred inadvertently from a pain patch worn by assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes to the horses through the application of tongue ties. After 13 1/2 hours of testimony from 14 witnesses over two days, the commission voted unanimously to return the horses’ victories and prize money and waive Baffert’s 15-day suspension.

The Kentucky Derby case involves betamethasone, a corticosteroid, or anti-inflammatory. According to Dr. Fenger, betamethasone is used in intra-articular injections as a way of preventing joint damage in horses, especially Thoroughbred race horses who undertake a strenuous career.

“It has been misrepresented in the press widely as a steroid,” Fenger said. “All steroid means is that it is made of sterol, a type of carbon chain. It’s not an anabolic steroid. Anabolic steroids have been banned in every jurisdiction and only used in extreme restrictions to the point they are essentially not used in horses.”

The purpose of corticosteroid injections with betamethasone is to “stop that inflammatory cascade causing damage to the joints,” Fenger said. “It’s protective. It doesn’t cause damage. It doesn’t mask lameness, meaning it doesn’t make a horse that has such an inflamed joint it’s unsound, at risk of further injury. It’s not that powerful of an anti-inflammatory.”

Still, as of last year, the threshold in Kentucky for betamethasone is zero. In Kentucky, joint injections cannot be made two weeks before a race, replacing the previous rule of seven days. Fenger testified on behalf of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) and other organizations that the rule should not be passed without having scientific evidence that betamethasone will not be present after two weeks. Her testimony was dismissed by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, which said it had evidence supporting the rule. Fenger contends she has not been shown that evidence.

Fenger also says her studies show environmental sources can cause betamethasone positives. Last December, she testified before the Association of Racing Commissioners International, arguing that the threshold should be raised because of environmental factors. To this point, it has not taken up the issue.

Fenger contends that 21 picograms is the equivalent of “a single drop of water in three Olympic-size swimming pools. It’s a minuscule, meaningless amount.” Fenger wants the threshold raised to 100 picograms to take into consideration possible environmental contamination.

Why has that been ignored?

“It’s a knee jerk reaction to the spike in the number of horses who broke their legs at Santa Anita (in 2019),” Fenger said. “The issue was, ‘Well, horses are being injected too much.’ I’m not going to say that at some point that wasn’t true.”

Indeed, Fenger believes there should be restrictions. There is at least one corticosteroid that has been shown to cause joint damage in horses. But she thinks what happened at Santa Anita had more to do with weather changes and surface conditions. She cites last month’s cancellation of live racing at Laurel Park in Maryland because of surface problems with the main track.

“I’m not saying no one sends a horse out that is at risk,” Fenger said. “But most breakdowns, certainly the spike in breakdowns like what was seen at Santa Anita, what was recently seen at Laurel Park, is related to surface. It’s related to the weather. It’s related to how the surface was managed.”

If it is easy for a horse to test positive through environmental or incidental contamination, then why aren’t we seeing more disqualifications?

“We are,” Fenger said, arguing that because it’s not high-profile trainers the general public doesn’t hear about it. “In our own research project, it is about one-in-50 risk. And that was for dexamethasone, which is closely related to betamethasone. That was with a five picogram threshold. Take the threshold away and you probably get more than triple that.”

She’s talking about random positives after a horse has supposedly cleared the medication out of his or her system.

As for the topical ointment used on Medina Spirit, Dr. Jeff Blea, former president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, told WHAS-11 in Louisville that Otomax is commonly used at the race track and in barns. Still, he said, studies have not been done on how long betamethasone stays in a horse’s system.

Moreover, Fenger said there is also the possibility that the horse ingested the ointment, causing double exposure. Medina Spirit could have rubbed up against the walls of the stall, then licked the walls for whatever reason. Or he could have been exposed to betamethasone another way.

“People (could say) there’s no way an ointment could cause a positive test,” she said. “Well, until you understand how sensitive the testing is, that’s what you’d think. That’s an insanity that we can absolutely find anything at any level.”

All Fenger wants is for the racing organizations to take all this into account and stop crucifying trainers.

“The regulators need to understand this is high-tech warfare on horsemen,” she said, adding, “Environmental positives are like Russian roulette. You can’t even get excited when your horse crosses the finish line first. You have to wait for the drug test.”

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