ARCADIA, CA—FEBRUARY 23, 2017—During its regularly scheduled monthly meeting today (Thursday) the California Horse Racing Board unanimously approved a measure to allow races to be run with medication-based eligibility conditions.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court set aside the CHRB's approval of "house rules" last year at Los Alamitos Race Course banning the use of Clenbuterol, Albuterol, Zilpaterol, and Ractopamine for Quarter Horses. The Court found that tracks' "house rules" at the time had conflicts with CHRB rules.

Today they CHRB voted to make their temporary approval to Los Alamitos' "house rules" permanent.

Under the new amendment, racing secretaries in California can establish medication-based eligibility conditions as long as the conditions are agreed to in advance in writing by the acknowledged horsemen's organization.

If such conditions are based on the results of a biological test sample, other than an official test sample by the CHRB, a description of the testing methods and procedures the racetrack (or fair association) uses to collect and analyze the biological test samples must be submitted to the CHRB for approval.

During the 45-day comment period that preceded the CHRB meeting Thursday, Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Racing Association president Dominic Alessio and Breeders' Cup president and chief executive officer Craig Fravel both expressed support for the measure.

One dissenting opinion during the public comment period came from lawyer and former trainer Darrell Vienna, who represented Quarter Horse owner Gustavo De La Torre during the Superior Court case. Vienna took issue with the CHRB delegating medication rules to entities other than itself.

"Contrary to the views opposing this measure, medication policy in the state has always reflected not simply the board's view, but a reflection of horsemen's interest and racing association interest," Los Alamitos attorney Drew Couto said. "A melding of all those interests has led to the medication policies we have. In this particular instance, you have the racing association ... and its horsemen agreeing there was an issue within the industry and there needed to be something done to address that."