Drugs, medications, and toxins affect horses in specific ways. Performance altering drugs, stimulants, depressants, narcotics, and tranquilizers can all influence racing performance; the program develops highly sensitive tests for these substances. Examples include the development of ELISA tests for narcotics and other drugs abused in horses.

Dr. Stanley currently runs two laboratories: One is a research lab at the Gluck Equine Research Center and the other, The Equine Analytical Chemistry Lab, is a service lab.  One of his research focuses is the Equine Biological Passport (EBP) which aims to identify specific biomarkers that will detect drug use by monitoring these biomarkers over time.