California Horse Racing Board Issues Bisphosphonate Complaint Against Jeff Metz

Osphos, one of two bisphosphonates FDA-approved for use in horses four years old and up

The California Horse Racing Board issued a complaint against trainer Jeff Metz last week over a finding of bisphosphonates in the Sept. 27, 2020 post-race sample of the gelding Camino De Estrella, reports the Daily Racing Form. The drugs are not yet specifically classified in California, so the positive is being adjudicated under the “prohibited substances” rule with a Class 1, Category A penalty.

However, Metz’s attorney Darrell Vienna believes the trainer will be exonerated. Popular at the claim box, Camino de Estrella has been in the care of five different trainers since 2019, including Tim Yakteen, Mark Glatt, Steve Knapp, Metz, and most recently Bill Spawr.

“There is a record of a veterinarian administering the drug when he was not in Mr. Metz’s care, in 2019,” Vienna told DRF. “I can say with certainty that Jeff never administered bisphosphonates to that horse. We’re confident that the truth will come out, because we think the CHRB already knows the truth.”

Bisphosphonates were approved for equine use in the United States approximately six years ago, to treat horses with symptoms of navicular syndrome, a common, nagging foot pain in older horses. Before the drugs were approved for horses in the U.S., they were used in Europe and veterinarians could legally import them to treat American horses. Having them available to American practitioners who perhaps couldn’t previously afford the import process has made a world of difference to mature horses dealing with navicular syndrome – and there are a lot of them. Roughly a third of chronic front leg lamenesses are believed to be related to navicular pain. Generally, bisphosphonates have been safe and effective in the population they’re intended for.

Bisphosphonates (sold commercially as Osphos and Tildren) are FDA-approved in horses four years old and up, and are not approved for use in mares who are pregnant or lactating. The reason for those restrictions is unanswered questions about potential side effects. Bisphosphonates do their work by reducing the action of cells called osteoclasts, which clear away damaged bone and make way for osteoblasts to lay down new bone. In a young equine skeleton, this could disrupt the growth cycle.

The CHRB did prohibit the administration of bisphosphonates beginning July 1, 2020, via rule 1867.1, which also prohibits any horse from entering CHRB grounds that has been administered the drug within six months.

Since Camino de Estrella would have been five years old in 2019, administration of a bisphosphonate was legal at that time only if the gelding had a diagnosis of navicular disease.

Vienna argued that “the available science on bisphosphonates clearly demonstrates that the drug can be found more than 2 1/2 years after the drugs have been administered, due to their unique ability to lie dormant in bone but become ‘active’ in the horse’s circulatory system when bone is in need of repair.”

Read more at the Daily Racing Form.