New Mexico track employs first equine-specific drug sniffer dog

The ongoing fight against the use of prohibited drugs in racehorses now features a drug-sniffing dog named Chini.

A three-year-old Belgian Malinois, Chini was deployed by Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico during its summer meeting.

Track president and general manager Jeff True explained the initiative during a panel on racing integrity on Tuesday at the University of Arizona's Global Symposium on Racing in Tucson.

"We've got a dog that can smell clenbuterol. We've got a dog that can detect albuterol. We put that dog on the stable gate at five in the morning, and we were sweeping cars," True said during a discussion titled Tools of the Regulatory Trade: Insuring Integrity in Racing.

Drug-sniffing dogs are not entirely foreign to racetracks, as they have been used to detect recreational drugs in barn areas, but True said Chini is likely to be the first dog used to detect prohibited equine medication.

While Chini was working on detecting equine medication, another dog was working to find recreational human drugs.

"We found some substances in the shedrows and in vehicles, the vehicles we were looking at, and we either handed that material over to local law enforcement in the case of human drugs, or we sent them to the stewards if they were in possession of a syringe that they weren't supposed to have," True said after the session.

US racing: taking the fight against drugs to the next levelCredit: Edward Whitaker

True said that discovered medication was sent to a lab to get a report on exactly what the substance was composed of and, once identified, those results were submitted to the New Mexico Racing Commission or the track stewards, although he said the main function for Chini's involvement at Ruidoso initially was as a deterrent.

"We were trying to make the statement that we're going to be in your barns looking for stuff," True said. "It was about deterrence, not about trying to bust a bunch of folks. Would we like to find a bad actor? Of course. But the dog is just the tip of the spear."

True said the dogs discovered "about a dozen" drugs, both for horses and recreational substances for humans, and explained the strength of Chini's abilities, even to detect the plastic of an unused syringe and 12 types of medication.

"The car stops at the stable gate, and while they're checking the license the dog is sweeping, and if the dog hits on something we send them for secondary search," True said. "We had a lady with a purse on the floorboard with an albuterol inhaler inside the purse. That's the level of sensitivity we're talking about."

Ruidoso owns Chini, and the track's horsemen's integrity liaison, Luis Alvarez, is working towards becoming a certified handler. True said he has also offered Chini's services to other New Mexico tracks.

Members can read the latest exclusive interviews, news analysis and comment available from 6pm daily on racingpost.com