Recent changes to the Rules of Racing are indicative of Racing Victoria's (RV) commitment to the integrity of the sport and ensuring a level playing field for all participants.Central to the strengthening of rules were changes to race-day administrations and stomach tubing of horses, effective from March 1.Under existing rules trainers must not treat horses on raceday, however under the new rule a horse cannot be stomach-tubed or be given alkalinizing agents at any time one clear day before it r

Recent changes to the Rules of Racing are indicative of Racing Victoria's (RV) commitment to the integrity of the sport and ensuring a level playing field for all participants.

Central to the strengthening of rules were changes to race-day administrations and stomach tubing of horses, effective from March 1.

Under existing rules trainers must not treat horses on raceday, however under the new rule a horse cannot be stomach-tubed or be given alkalinizing agents at any time one clear day before it races.

"Racing Victoria is confident the reforms will curtail attempts to push the limits, particularly around elevated levels of TC02 on raceday," RV Chief Executive Officer, Bernard Saundry said.

"The intent of this and other rule changes is to ensure a level playing field every time a horse presents to race."

"Statistical analysis of TCO2 has demonstrated that the probability of a horse being fed a normal racing diet, which has not received substantial quantities of an alkalinizing agent, exceeding the TCO2 threshold is in the order of two-million-to-one," RV Chief Veterinarian Brian Stewart said.

"The threshold for testing is set at the two-million-to-one extreme yet we are regularly testing horses approaching the threshold level.

"Our assumption from this is that there may be some trainers manipulating TCO2 levels and gaining unfair advantage over their colleagues.

"Under the new rules, except in the most physiological circumstances, the detection of TC02 in excess of a threshold on raceday will provide overwhelming evidence of a breach of the rules.""The rules have been tightened and the reasoning is clear; the objective - every horse racing on its merits - is a goal everyone in the industry should support."

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