Compulsory reading
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/horse...18-12sr08.html
Quotes:
In Hong Kong, where the threshold is half that of Racing Victoria at 100, 7500 urine samples have been tested for cobalt since 2006. They showed unsupplemented horses to have urine cobalt levels in the range of five to 10, with an average level of 3.7.
The Hong Kong laboratory then performed a detailed study on a variety of legitimate cobalt supplements.
The results showed that oral supplements had virtually no effect on cobalt levels. Whilst injectable cobalt supplements did have the potential to elevate urine cobalt levels over the Hong Kong threshold, this excess over the threshold was very short-lived, lasting only six to 11 hours.
This point is lost on many in the industry. To reach the levels above 200 micrograms would mean that the horse would have to be therapeutically treated on the day of a race, which is also banned in Australia.
The result in Hong Kong caused the laboratory to propose that injectable cobalt supplements should not be given on race days.
That should not be a consideration here, as in Australia all race day treatments are against the rules.
In the US, a study has been done "doping" horses with non-proprietary cobalt from a compounding pharmacy.
In the study, after a single injection of cobalt, urine levels rose to 4000 but within 24 hours had dropped to 240, slightly above Racing Victoria's threshold of 200.
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/horse...18-12sr08.html