JC / Railbird

Drugs in Racing

Keep ‘Em Going

Part two of a six-part series on drugs in racing by Ryan Goldberg for the TDN considers the current, not-so-pretty situation (PDF):

It seems a trainer would have to be crazy to use illegal drugs when so many legal ones are at his disposal. Before the days of pharmacological drugs, the goal was to “hop ‘em or stop ‘em,” but what the picture looks like now is an everyday practice of using drugs to manage pain and other complications to get a horse to post. Since the majority of horses race for tags, it makes sense. “The claiming game does not protect the horse,” Scollay says. “It’s like day- trading on the stock market.”

The respiratory drug clenbuterol, its anabolic properties, and the widely differing state-by-state guidelines for its use get particular attention; Massachusetts is among the states listed in Goldberg’s piece as offering no guidelines. That was the case through the 2012 Suffolk Downs meet — since then, though, Massachusetts has joined seven other states in adopting the Mid-Atlantic Uniform Medication Program, which allows for 24 therapeutic drugs and sets guidelines for their use, and the Massachusetts Gaming Commission began the process of incorporating the new rules in January 2013 (PDF). Under the new guidelines, clenbuterol will no longer be permitted within 14 days of racing. Corticosteroids won’t be allowed within seven days.

Posted in Racing on May 10, 2013 / Tagged Clenbuterol, Drugs in Racing, Equine Health, Massachusetts, Regulations, Suffolk Downs, TDN

Nobody’s Clean

Responding to the British turf press, which has become somewhat obsessed with the idea — in the wake of the Zarooni steroids scandal that shook their island nation last week — that Australian raiders on ‘roids might have, or might in the future, run off with Royal Ascot prizes, trainer Peter Moody denied that undefeated Black Caviar was treated with steroids before she won the 2012 Golden Jubilee Stakes or at any other time in her illustrious career, and then dragged in America to make a point:

Moody took a swipe at “lilywhite” English trainers.

“They bang on about steroids but they are the first to use Lasix when they campaign horses in the US,” he said.

Lasix is an anti-bleeding drug outlawed everywhere bar some states in the US.

“Maybe the Poms might start looking at themselves rather than looking at us,” he said.

Moody isn’t the only Australian trainer getting fed up with the chatter.

(Link to Moody’s comments via @claimsfive.)

Posted in Racing on May 1, 2013 / Tagged Australia, Black Caviar, Britain, Drugs in Racing, International, Lasix, Peter Moody, Steroids

Reverberations

Trainer Mahmood al Zarooni’s swift downfall may reverberate beyond Britain:

“We will certainly be using this case as an opportunity to put the consistent use of drugs internationally back on the agenda of the IFHA.”

Pull the Pocket is already contrasting the resolve of the British Horseracing Authority and Godolphin to get to the bottom of what was going on at Moulton Paddocks under Zarooni with the California Horse Racing Board’s response to unexplained sudden cardiac death in racehorses.

More on the Zarooni case collected here.

4/28/13 Addendum: Hong Kong Jockey Club CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, reacting to the Godolphin scandal, also calls for the IFHA to consider a worldwide ban on steroid use. Anabolic steroids are still legal in Australia and some other jurisdictions, a fact taking on more prominence with horses such as Black Caviar’s stakes-winning half-brother All Too Hard expected to ship to Britain for the Royal Ascot meeting in June. “After this past week’s events,” writes Sue Montgomery, “his presence may be an uncomfortable reminder that the drugs playing field for horses is not level worldwide.”

Posted in Racing on April 26, 2013 / Tagged Australia, BHA, Britain, Drugs in Racing, Godolphin, IFHA, International

Answers Wanted

Now that the first shock over the news that 11 Godolphin racehorses turned up positive for steroids in out-of-competition testing conducted by the British Horseracing Authority has passed, Greg Wood has questions:

Assuming that Zarooni was not creeping around the yard after midnight with a rucksack full of syringes, who was helping him? Was a vet — who would fall outside the licensing authority of the BHA — involved, as was the case with Nicky Henderson and the Moonlit Path affair in 2009? And who was supplying the steroids for what was, even if it was inadvertent, such a significant doping programme? Where were the drugs stored and who knew that they were there? How many other horses have been given steroids at Moulton Paddocks since Zarooni took charge in 2010?

All the questions are hugely embarrassing for Sheikh Mohammed. “I have made a catastrophic error,” said trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni. You can read his words as an admission of ignorance, or betrayal.

2:30 PM Addendum: “For Sheikh Mohammed, the mortification could not have been greater had they found a fridge full of cobra venom.”

Posted in Racing on April 23, 2013 / Tagged BHA, Britain, Drugs in Racing, Godolphin, International, Steroids, Testing, Trainers