12/10/2026
In August 2026, 1,302 doping tests were carried out in Italian horse racing, with five positives, or 0.38% of the total. The figures were released by the Directorate-General for Horse Racing of Masaf, Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry. In harness racing there were 1,041 tests: 967 on race days, with three positives, and 74 in training, all negative. In flat racing there were 261, all on race days, with two positives. Between January and August, 9,380 tests were carried out and 18 were positive, 0.19%, all from samples taken on race days.
A test designed for the race
The monitoring system is presented as a safeguard for fair racing and, at the same time, for the welfare of the horses. But doping control is the minimum requirement of any activity that calls itself a sport: its first purpose is to ensure that a race people bet on is fair. That a horse is not doped seems to us the bare minimum, and it says nothing about how the horse lives, how it is trained, or what happens to it when it stops racing.
Even within this narrow scope, the figures need careful reading. In August, only 74 of the 1,302 samples were taken in training, and none in flat racing. Yet official 2024 data showed a far higher positive rate at training centres than on the track: 2.3% versus 0.35% in harness racing, and 0.96% versus 0.37% in flat racing.
Silence on retirement
What is more, the industry measures what happens to a horse while it is still useful, and stops paying attention once it is not. There is no system for monitoring what becomes of horses that leave racing, no obligation on owners to provide for their keep, and no fund dedicated to rehoming them. It is precisely in this gap that retired horses sometimes pass to dealers, and even into illegal circuits. An industry that depends on exploiting horses for as long as they are profitable cannot claim to care about their welfare by pointing to doping tests.
IHP remains opposed to the use of horses in racing and, for as long as the system exists, calls for post-career protection to become a legal obligation, backed by dedicated funding and genuine traceability. Read also: Equine doping: the Council of State upholds trainer liability Public Money to Tell the Story of Horse Racing the Way They'd Like It to Be Varenne, harness racing's most profitable prisoner A one-year-old colt sold for $3.1 million