Beware: Alkalizing Agents Are Everywhere
Last summer, I walked into a barn at Suffolk Downs and found a trainer dosing a horse (who was not scheduled to run that day) with Maalox. “Upset stomach,” said the trainer when I asked why the horse was getting an antacid.
I’m reminded of this incident after reading the Blood-Horse article about the positive blood test for excess bicarbonate of trainer Jeff Mullins’ horse, Puppeteer, who ran second in a race at Santa Anita on January 22. Mullins denies any “milkshaking” is happening in his barn and claims the horse was accidentally contaminated by alkalizing agents in his feed or through the use of substances to treat stomach problems. Similar statements have been made by two other Santa Anita trainers who have been cited for running horses with elevated carbon dioxide levels. Sure, they’re all innocent. Yet, as Matt Hegarty reports, on Monday “several officials acknowledged that a horse’s blood test could show an excessive level of total carbon dioxide through the administration of widely available supplements …” Milkshake doesn’t have to mean pumping sodium bicarbonate and Gatorade into a horse; it could mean giving a horse supplements that contain ingredients such as phosphates or drugs for stomach ailments that — intentionally or not — raise its carbon dioxide levels.
I’m not sure what the answer is to the problem — I’m sympathetic to Mullins’ “I’m not a chemist” defense* if only because, as Hegarty’s article makes clear, there are many substances that might yield a positive result and few guidelines on their use. It’d be nice to have some uniformity and standardization, and a list of approved supplements and substances that horses might ingest, from feed additives to traditional Chinese herbal treatments (which I’ve known some trainers to give their horses for bleeding and other problems), with anything off the list suspect until it’s tested and its effects on performance determined.
Related: Never mind bicarbonate levels. Let’s set limits on cocaine levels in horses. (Chicago Tribune)
*Sympathetic to, not necessarily defending.
