LEXINGTON, Ky. — The University of Kentucky is moving to fire its former equine testing lab director amid allegations of misconduct and mismanagement, including falsifying the results of at least one drug test, the university said Tuesday.

Scott Stanley, a professor at the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment and former director of the Equine Analytical Chemistry Lab, falsified negative results of a test for a banned blood-doping agent called Erythropoietin, and at least four other results from his lab are in question, according to a preliminary audit released Tuesday by UK.

Lisa Lazarus, CEO of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, said during a news conference after UK’s announcement that federal law enforcement officials are also investigating Stanley and trying to determine if he was acting in concert with anyone else.

“We don’t know motive, and I imagine that will be their focus,” Lazarus said.

Lazarus said it’s of “tremendous concern” if Stanley was communicating with any trainers, owners or other racing participants. HISA is seeking more than $1 million from UK for tests that were billed but not conducted properly.

Under HISA, the private anti-doping regulatory agency created in 2020 by Congress, racing has moved toward uniform standards in drug testing across the country. UK’s lab was one of six in the U.S. accredited by HISA to drug test samples for horses. UK tested samples for HISA for eight months, from May 22, 2023, to February 2024. In all, HISA sent the university between 8,000 and 9,000 samples from Kentucky and Florida.

But in March — the same month Stanley was removed from his administrative role at the university — the national racing authority dropped UK’s testing lab from its accredited list, meaning drug tests could no longer be performed there for state regulators.

Stanley was head of the lab, which also performed drug test for the U.S. Equestrian Federation, beginning with the lab’s formation in 2019. And in 2022, the lab began performing racing drug testing for the state of Kentucky.

Lazarus said testing issues at the lab predated HISA using it to test samples.

“This was an institutional, pre-existing problem,” Lazarus said.

Federal legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, that created HISA required the organization use UK’s lab, Lazarus said.

According to UK, before HISA took over drug testing for many states including Kentucky, the UK lab performed testing for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Thoroughbreds from January 2022 to May 2023, on Standardbreds from January 2022 to March 2024 and for one quarter horse meeting in 2023.

The lab did not conduct testing on Medina Spirit, the 2021 Kentucky Derby winner who was disqualified after testing positive for a banned substance.

UK and HISA’s anti-doping unit, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit, conducted separate investigations of Stanley. HIWU informed the university that it had evidence Stanley had lied about analyzing a sample.

Ben Mosier, HIWU executive director, said at Tuesday’s news conference that the organization determined the UK lab misrepresented its abilities to test for substances including EPO and cobalt. No EPO testing was being done at all, he said, and cobalt testing was being done incorrectly. Both are banned blood doping agents.

He said the UK lab had been asked to do confirmation testing on 91 samples that were reported as negative but never had any testing done. HIWU reanalyzed all the tests that were still available and found two false positives and two false negatives.

The false positives will be dropped, Lazarus said, and “the impacted parties will be made whole.”

HIWU will pursue the two false negatives. Mosier would not provide details on medications, states or horses involved. He said that would be made public after the trainers were notified officially.

EPO testing not done

The audit, released Tuesday, found that in at least one case, Stanley told HISA that his lab had found no Erythropoietin in a sample received on Nov. 9, 2023, but the lab had not tested for the substance. His UK lab wasn’t even equipped to do that kind of work, according to the audit.

It is unclear what state or horse was involved.

According to UK, in four cases, all of which were used in racing investigations, the samples “lacked results documentation,” meaning no results were recorded in the university’s system, even though in two of the cases Stanley emailed results to racing officials.

The audit could not substantiate any additional falsifications but found that the lab’s internal systems were inadequately controlled and that “there were numerous opportunities in the (lab’s) standard workflow that could potentially allow for sample tampering or records to be changed,” including “unfettered access” by Dr. Stanley to samples and to records.

UK said it’s “in talks with HISA regarding reimbursement for any tests that were billed but were not performed,” but it is unclear yet how many tests may be involved.

The auditors said they are continuing to evaluate “all accounts to which Dr. Stanley has access over his tenure as EACL director for fraudulent activity.”

According to the audit, investigators “made attempts to meet with Dr. Stanley to discuss these concerns” but he stopped responding to their requests for an interview.

The audit also found that Stanley was paid more than $20,000 by a company that sold scientific equipment to the lab, shared data from the lab with the company and expensed travel for the company to visit UK.

Relationship with lab assistant

Auditors also found that Stanley created a job in the lab to hire a woman with whom he was having a relationship “that went beyond professional.” The woman was a former Thoroughbred horse trainer with numerous family connections in the horseracing industry, according to the audit; the relationship between Stanley and the woman was never disclosed to the university.

According to documents in the audit, Stanley asked that the woman be excused from classes at Eastern Kentucky University for “her assistance in-person” for what actually was a trip to Palm Beach for the Eclipse Awards, racing’s annual top awards banquet.

Recommendations for security

There were several recommendations in the audit of lab, including that a request for proposal be issued for a vendor to provide and maintain a lab information system, and that the lab implement a cybersecurity policy to control access to sensitive data.

“We appreciate our partners HIWU and HISA bringing forth concerns so that we could investigate the problem and act decisively to take corrective action,” said Martin-Gatton CAFE Dean Nancy Cox.

Racing regulators in Kentucky and Florida were informed of issues in Stanley’s labs, and they were told that samples would be sent to a lab in Colorado instead.

“Stanley exploited vulnerabilities in technology, governance and oversight, the audit review concludes,” the university said. “Additionally, the investigation found that Stanley potentially engaged in business and employment relationships that constitute conflicts of interests. Specifically, Stanley purposefully chose not to disclose external work, violating university rules requiring disclosure.”

Stanley was recruited to UK in late 2018 from the University of California-Davis to run Kentucky’s equine program and expand it to a commercial testing lab in partnership with the U.S. Equestrian Federation. He holds a tenured faculty position separate from the lab director role, and university officials found that additional disciplinary measures are necessary, including revoking his tenure and firing him from the university.

UK might sell testing lab

UK is in discussions with private parties about future partnerships or acquisition of the testing lab, UK said. Additionally, university officials are in talks with HISA to reimburse the group for any tests that were billed but not completed.

The following steps have been taken to address quality control in the lab moving forward:

— A quality assurance manager has been hired who reports to the associate dean of research, outside of the lab’s chain of command

— Monthly meetings will be held with the college to review financial compliance, quality control and general operations

— The university is exploring partnerships to maintain the laboratory.

“The research and services provided by our labs, institutes and centers on campus must adhere to the highest standards; be conducted in an ethical manner and follow industry and university regulations,” Cox said. “The university and Martin-Gatton CAFE have an enduring commitment to Kentucky’s signature equine industry. The EACL is integral to that commitment, and we will work to reconstitute the lab with new oversight, policies and procedures to ensure we meet those commitments going forward.”

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