The Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council (KEDRC), citing a need to explore use of corticosteroids in racehorses, agreed Feb. 9 to take bids for research into one of the drugs in the research planning phase.

The KEDRC, which makes recommendations to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC), received a letter from The Jockey Club urging Kentucky to take the lead in the research. The drug council receives a portion of revenue from pari-mutuel handle in Kentucky, and is believed to have about $3 million on hand.

Though most racing jurisdictions in North America have greatly curtailed the use of race-day medication, corticosteroids, commonly used in racehorses, are getting a hard look from industry officials.

Corticosteroids have strong anti-inflammatory capabilities and are designed to be used therapeutically. They are injected into joints to alleviate swelling and not currently regulated. Corticosteroids are being studied by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, the broad-based national group that makes recommendations to regulators for use in model rules. Nine corticosteroids have been identified for development of threshold testing levels, which means they would be treated like anabolic steroids–permitted for therapeutic non-racing use but banned on race days