How and why did the executive committee of the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) decide to send the `B’ sample of Queen Latifa to Quanti Lab in Mauritius when the laboratory is not in the reference list of the BTC is the question a group of members are asking. BTC Steward Ajith Saldhana while providing all the answers made it clear that Quanti Lab is on the reference list and the approved order copy circulated by a few disgruntled members is more than a year old.

“It is clear in the old order too that time to time the club can change the list. After learning and understanding that the drug testing lab in Mauritius is one of the best in the world we included it in our reference list and RWITC too has included it in their primary list,” said Ajith Saldhana adding that this is only a disinformation campaign by a group which is only looking to destroy the sport. “The one point agenda of this particular group is to malign the image of the premier racing centre,” said Saldhana.

The members while pointing out and circulating a copy of the amendment to racing calendar (Medication rules) order approved by the stewards of the club on Jan 17, 2016 pointed out that the primary laboratories listed were the, Laboratoire des Courses Hippiques, France and the National Laboratory, New Delhi.

LGC, New Market (United Kingdom), Laboratoire Courses Hippiques and Institute of Bio-Chemistry, German Sport University, Cologne were the reference laboratories and that Quanti Lab did not figure in the list.

The members also brought to light that this was the first time that BTC have sent a urine sample for  drug testing to Mauritius. “They simply have gone to a lab where they can obtain results in their favour and now are claiming that all is clean and crystal clear. Why have they avoided the tried and tested labs in this case?

Ajith Saldhana also explained that that the idea to go to Mauritius was simply to get a detailed and clean report. “In one earlier dope case in Madras Race Club for a similar offence, the secretary of the Madras Race Club, Dr. Karthikeyan, a top senior vet respected by all racing clubs and bodies across the globe  had sought the opinion from labs in Hong Kong and France and they dismissed it as no case,  pointing out the established threshold levels and that’s the reason we sought the services of the  Mauritius laboratory in our effort to provide transparency and get another fresh screening and testing before arriving at a result. The result came clean and there ends the matter,” said Saldhana.