Mid-Atlantic states will resolve most of their differences in regard to anabolic steroids.

By this time next year, every racing state in the Mid-Atlantic region will likely have jumped on the bandwagon, so to speak, regarding anabolic steroids.

As described on pages 20 to 26 of this magazine, getting there is turning out to be a halting, emotionally charged process—in other words, no different from a lot of other things that happen in the industry.

But in this instance all of the states in the region have firmly agreed on a common goal. That is eliminating the use of anabolic steroids in horses who are racing.

After more research data becomes available within the next several months, Mid-Atlantic states are likely to adjust their regulations accordingly, bringing them more closely in line with one another.

Total uniformity may be too much to hope for, but shipping from one Mid-Atlantic state to another to race should no longer require an anxious study of the rules. And the region, as a whole, will have closed a regulatory loophole that existed far too long. /Lucy Acton