This article is in Chemistry in Australia magazine: Issue September 2024
Author: Adam Cawley and David Batty
Image:Without A Fight, ridden by Mark Zahra (yellow with black spots), charges down the Flemington straight on his way to winning the 2023 Lexus Melbourne Cup. | Photo by Jay Town/Racing Photos
Each year approximately 60,000 samples are screened for 10,000 substances that can influence a racehorse’s performance.
The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s greatest horse race. It evokes a sense of pride and passion, feelings of euphoria and despair, together with the enjoyment of food and social gatherings. The Melbourne Cup highlights that racing is a major economic driver in Victoria, generating more than $4.7 billion annually and supporting almost 35,000 full-time-equivalent jobs across the state. In addition, more than 121,000 people are directly employed, volunteer or participate in racing industry activities.
The 3200-metre race takes between three and four minutes to complete. However, beside the track, a centuryold race continues between chemists who assist regulators to uphold integrity and would-be dopers seeking to gain an unfair advantage for financial and reputational rewards.
This story is not new to readers of Chemistry in Australia. Back in 1989, one of Australia’s great racing chemists, Allen Stenhouse, provided an article entitled “Detection of drug residues in urine and plasma from racing animals” (April 1989, pp. 112–14). In this article, Allen explained that doping control for animal sports has three aims of equal importance – to protect:
- welfare and safety for competing animals, their riders and handlers
- integrity, with fairness for participants and the betting public
- the animal breed.
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