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Discard Split Sample System in Michigan Stewards Approve Action; Adopt Apprentice Rule in Principle FAIR GROUNDS, Detroit, Mich., May 24. — The Michigan State Racing Commission has discarded the split-sample system of saliva and urine tests on horses at the Fair Grounds. This has the entire approval of the stewards. When the 1948 season closed, the stewards had before them the Northern Deb case, in which the split samples were used, one being sent to the commission laboratory and the other to the laboratory of the Kentucky commission. The stewards held a special meeting on the case and listened to the testimony of its own chemists, those of Kentucky and of the state and track veterinarians. They concluded that the split-sample system was both futile and confusing. Samples at the Fair Grounds area are handled with the most meticulous care by a crew under the direct supervision of W. J. Dowling, assistant commissioner. The stewards feel that where tested samples go along for weeks or months with negative returns and one comes up with an unquestioned "positive" they may accept the report as prima facie evidence that the horse has been illegally stimulated. A positive report docs not carry with it any charge of guilt against any individual. It remains for the stewards to ferret this out and, inasmuch as the rules of the commission provide that no order of suspension shall be issued against aiiyonc until the stewards have finished their investigation, the commission and the stewards both feel that the constitutional rights of all individuals arc properly safeguarded. The commission also has adopted in principle the rule that, where apprentice riders arc incapacitated by illness or injuries suffered in their Hue of duty for-a period of 60 days or more, they shall be allowed no time out for the period of their apprenticeship, but the commission reserves the right to investigate and pass ou each individual casek
