JC / Railbird

Medications

No Trace

When Kentucky mandated last year that state veterinarians give pre-race Lasix shots, in place of private vets, the results were eye-opening, reports Ryan Goldberg in the final installment of TDN’s drugs in racing series (PDF):

Besides the volume of Lasix [which declined], murkier drugs largely disappeared from post-race tests. Scollay said she had seen evidence that a drug called GABA, short for gamma-aminobutyric acid, was commonplace in Kentucky. The amino acid, which is present in the supplement “Carolina Gold,” is endogenous to horses as well as humans — it’s the predominant receptor blocker in the central nervous system. It has a pain-mitigating and calming effect that can conserve a horse’s energy prior to a race. However, because it’s naturally occurring and leaves a horse’s system within three to four hours, finding suspicious levels in post-race tests is difficult.

Its use in Kentucky was apparently curtailed once regulatory vets came in. The “noise” in post-race samples all but departed. Lasix is administered within four hours of a race; private vets were apparently giving GABA at the same time. There was no trace.

Wow. I wonder if the same thing happened in New York after the NYRA detention barn — in which horses were monitored for six hours before a race and only state vets could administer Lasix — opened in 2005, and if the concentration of Lasix in the blood, as well as the presence of other drugs or supplements in test samples, rebounded after it closed in 2010?

Posted in Racing on June 24, 2013 / Tagged Drugs in Racing, GABA, Kentucky, Lasix, Medications, New York, Reform, Regulations

The Cornerstone

Bill Finley on who should follow RCI’s call for a medication ban:

… the Breeders’ Cup is exactly the organization that should lead the way. Just announce that starting next year no horse will be allowed to race in the Breeders’ Cup on any medications. A grandfather clause is fine. You can allow any horse that raced on Lasix in 2011 to continue to run on the drug, but no one else. The Breeders’ Cup has nothing to lose. There’s not a trainer in America who would decline a spot in the Breeders’ Cup because they’d have to run drug free. And if they do, too bad.

Such a move by the Breeders’ Cup would not only help clean up American racing, it would be a significant signal to the international scene.

Maybe Europe would call off the boycott? (Note the posted date.)

Posted in Racing on April 3, 2011 / Tagged Breeders' Cup, Building Momentum, Drugs, International, Lasix, Medications, RCI