It's a fix to run Breeders' Cup stars on Lasix
0 Comments | Daily Mirror, The; London (UK), Nov 7, 2009 | by Richard Dunwoody
ONE battle the Europeans are not going to win at Santa Anita this weekend is the argument over the use of the Lasix.
The Breeders’ Cup is a fabulous meeting, although I do think the switch to a two-day fixture has diluted the event.
Yet what tarnishes it more is the accepted use of drugs such as Lasix, the trade name for the diuretic furosemide.
Not all American states allow horses to run on the blood- thickener, which lowers blood pressure and thus helps prevent bleeding from the lungs.
New York, for example, prohibits its use. California does allow its use, however.
Supporters of Lasix – which include the U.S. veterinary community and nearly every trainer in the States – say that the raceday use of the drug allows a horse to run to his full potential and that it is almost cruel to deny the drug to a horse that bleeds.
The European and Asian racing communities do not deny that Lasix may alleviate bleeding but they also contend that the drug enhances performance and that any short-term good wreaks havoc with the breed over the long term by propping up chronic bleeders’ race records and giving breeders incentives to propagate bleeders’ genes.
Do we see the very best of a horse when it runs on Lasix, which can also be used as a masking agent for prohibited drugs?
This argument is nothing new.
A case in point is Alysheba, who won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Super Derby in 1987, before Ferdinand beat him by a nose in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Hollywood Park.
All but one of his best efforts came with the aid of the diuretic.
When he ran without Lasix, he was buried in the Belmont – by 14 lengths – and lost narrowly in the Haskell Handicap at Monmouth Park
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