Procaine

Published: 14 July 1997

As procaine, which is a prohibited substance, has appeared in a number of post-race samples this year, the Jockey Club’s Chief Veterinary Adviser, Dr Peter Webbon, has issued the following advice to trainers:

Procaine is a constituent of several licensed veterinary drugs, either combined with penicillin to increase the duration of the penicillin, or alone as a local anaesthetic. In either event it can be detected in urine as a prohibited substance.

One injection of procaine penicillin may give a positive test 4 – 6 weeks after the injection and in some individual horses the detection time may be even longer.

Trainers are therefore strongly advised to avoid the administration of procaine penicillin, both by injection or as an ointment, to horses in training which are likely to run in the foreseeable future, particularly as there are other antibacterial agents which should be equally effective and are not prohibited substances.