Horse Illustrated Magazine

Over the past few years, there have been a notable number of performance horses–mainly Standardbred racehorses–testing positive for the amphetamine, Aminorex. The drug is a banned substance under most rules that govern racing and equestrian sport.

Rumors have been circulating that certain products may incorporate this drug, or an ingredient that tests positive for it. The contention is that these products aren’t listing the drug(s) in their ingredient labels. A product under fire is Freedom Health’s Succeed Digestive Conditioning Program.

In response to the ongoing innuendos, Freedom Health employed a federally accredited analytical toxicology laboratory to conduct independent, random sampling of its product. According to Freedom Health, random samples of Succeed, both oral paste and granular forms, were negative for the presence of Aminorex.

In an effort to further determine the reasons behind the rash of Aminorex positives in the horse racing community, Freedom Health reports that horses injected with levamisole phosphate, an injectable dewormer used to control parasites in cattle, may test positive for Aminorex. According to Freedom Health, its independent lab findings indicate that only those horses receiving an injectable levamisole phosphate product, either orally or intramuscularly, resulted in an Aminorex positive result. Aminorex was not found in the injectable levamisole phosphate product itself, only in the urine of horses after administration of this product, and never in the urine of horses receiving other dewormer products.

Freedom Health hopes these findings will dispel rumors regarding its Succeed product. “It was vital that we not only exonerate Succeed, but also that we determine the true cause of these positives to dispel any residual innuendoes,” says John Hall, President and CEO of Freedom Health LLC.