HANDICAPPING INSIGHTS
SEPTEMBER 16, 2011
by Dick Powell
I have the pleasure and luxury of attending just about every horse racing
conference held in the United States. Clients of my consulting business send me
to every HBPA event, RCI, International Simulcast Conference, University of
Arizona Symposium on Racing, Albany Law School Racing Conference and New York
Gaming Summit. I attend all the sessions even though some of them do not
directly affect what I do.
One topic that many of these conferences have covered is race day medication.
I have sat through numerous panels discussing medication issues and have learned
a lot.
For years, I was against Lasix being allowed on the day of the race. Back in
1994, I was still a consultant for the New York Racing Association (NYRA) reporting
directly to the president. When Gerry McKeon retired and was replaced by Kenny Noe, my days were numbered. Being an adviser to Kenny Noe was like being a
deckhand on a submarine. I’m not saying Kenny didn’t listen to his staff but his
idea of a suggestion box was a paper shredder.
So one night at dinner the subject of Lasix came up and Kenny was adamant
about changing NYRA’s stance against its use on race days. His point was how can
the rest of the country be wrong and NYRA be right? We discussed the pros and
cons of legalizing it and I came down on the side of keeping the policy of
banning it. Big mistake; at least, for me.
But as time has gone by and I have not only had the luxury of attending
conference sessions on the topic but having numerous discussions with many
horsemen and veterinarians, my stance has changed.
Exercised induced pulmonary hemorrhaging (EIPH) is what happens when
capillaries burst in a horse’s pulmonary system. At best, the blood from the
hemorrhaging is insignificant and has no effect on the horse’s performance. At
worst, it can result in sudden death to the horse and not every horse that dies
from it has visible evidence of the bleeding coming out of its nostrils. In
between, the severity varies. Nearly all horses racing suffer from it in some
form.
Just about all horses performing in any form suffer from EIPH. Quarter
Horses, Standardbreds, barrel racers, etc. suffer from it in addition to
Thoroughbreds. What makes Thoroughbred racing different is how it is anaerobic
in nature, meaning the horse goes into oxygen debt for lengthy periods at the end
of the race. Anyone that has ever run a 400-meter race on track knows the
feeling. Running hard for long periods of time results in lactic acid being
secreted and muscles tying up. We used to call it rigor mortis.
Not only is the Thoroughbred asked to go into major oxygen debt but often
times has to do it in bad air quality. Throw in heat and humidity and you have
all the ingredients of asking horses to do things that border on being inhumane.
Lasix can relieve the symptoms of EIPH in most horses. Considering the
positive therapeutic effects, it’s hard to understand that it has become the
source of controversy that it is.
I used to think that giving two-year-olds Lasix was a big mistake and that all
two-year-old racing should be devoid of it to see who the best horses are. However, I learned
that the earlier you treat horses with Lasix, the less permanent damage is done
to their lungs.
Lasix, because of its effect of being a diuretic, used to be used as a
“masking agent” for other drugs. But, what everyone seems to agree upon is that
today’s sophisticated drug tests are good enough to detect the banned
medications whether Lasix is being used or not.
The rest of the world bans Lasix so why don’t we? All of the United States,
Canada, most of south America and Saudi Arabia allow race-day Lasix. While that
is still a minority, the fact is that the entire racing world with the exception
of Hong Kong and Singapore allow horses to train on it.
In conversations with many people that have international experience, there
is a feeling that the drug testing that other jurisdictions brag about are not
up to our standards. They test urine, not plasma, and they have high thresholds
that trigger a positive. Adjunct medications are allowed and one trainer told me
he would love to take samples of international horses and run them through our
testing procedures to see who is really “clean.”
We all bemoan the drop in average starts per season in America. Many blame it
on our addictions to race-day medications. Yet, the data shows that the entire
racing world has seen the average number of starts per starter each year has
dropped.
Twenty years ago, the United States was third in annual starts per starter.
Japan was number one and Italy was number two. Now, Japan is still number one,
even though their average starts per starter each year has dropped, South Africa
is number two and the United States is still number three. How can that be?
That’s not what we hear from the Lasix opponents but the statistics are from the
International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA).
Steroids were banned from most jurisdictions a few years ago. While that may
have been the right thing to do, we haven’t seen a jump in starters since it
went into effect. Will we see a jump in starts per starter if we ban Lasix? I
sincerely doubt it as you are removing a therapeutic medication that keeps
horses racing.
As a bettor, we have all had to adjust to the presence of Lasix. First time
Lasix can be a powerful indication of expected improvement. Sometimes second
time Lasix is a big move since we don’t really know how big the dosage was the
first time. For me as a bettor, I don’t want it to be a factor at all. But
rather than ban it, I think we should mandate it.
Nearly all Thoroughbred race horses bleed. If you think we can breed our way
out of this by separating the horses that bleed from those that don’t and breed
a new racehorse that doesn’t bleed and doesn’t need Lasix, you would have to ban
it in training as well which nobody wants to do.
And, how do you explain banning it to the animal rights activists that view
our sport as being cruel and inhumane? We went nuts after Eight Belles broke down in the 2008 Kentucky Derby (G1). Task forces were
formed and racetracks and their maintenance procedures were examined in order to
show the general public that we were doing everything we could to protect the
horses that are racing.
If we mandated that all horses that are racing be treated with the same dose
of Lasix, we take it out of the handicapping equation. We show the general
public that we continue to diligently look out for the welfare of the horses
that are racing. And we do the right thing by the horse by reducing the severity
of EIPH.