BENEATH LASIX, EIPH IS REAL Cont
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FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2019 TAKING STOCK: BENEATH CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR NEWSOM ISSUES STATEMENT ON RACING LICENSES LASIX, EIPH IS REAL by Dan Ross The California Governor, Gavin Newsom, has weighed into the ongoing saga embattling the racing industry in the state by throwing his support behind a bill designed to give the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) unilateral authority to immediately suspend racetrack operating licensesCauthority the board currently doesn't have. The bill is making its way through the state legislature. "The recent horse fatalities in California are unacceptable," said Governor Newsom, in Thursday's announcement. "We must hold the horse racing industry to account. If we can regulate horse race meets, we should have the authority to suspend licenses when animal or human welfare is at risk." Cont. p6 Barclay Tagg | Christie DeBernardis IN TDN EUROPE TODAY By Sid Fernando BALLYDOYLE SEVEN DOMINATE DERBY "Back in the early 1970s, you'd see horses bleeding from the Aidan O’Brien sends out seven of the 13 runners in nostrils more commonly than you do now," said trainer Barclay Saturday’s G1 Investec Derby. Tagg, who took out his license in 1971. "I had a horse back then Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. that came back after a race, and he was being washed up and suddenly he starts gushing blood from the nostrils. You barely see them bleed from the nostrils now, and that's because of Lasix." Tagg said he was a proponent for the use of the diuretic Lasix to combat exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, or EIPH, a condition that results in bleeding in the lungs from exercise and racing. Its extreme manifestation is epistaxis, or bleeding through the nostrils, and this condition has existed for as long as Thoroughbred history has been recorded over the last 300-plus years. That's a point that gets forgotten when partisans debate Lasix usage. Lasix officially entered the racing landscape in Maryland in the mid-1970s as a therapeutic treatment to reduce the effects of EIPH and is now used almost exclusively on most racehorses in this country on race days, though race-day Lasix is prohibited abroad. As a diuretic, Lasix lowers blood pressure, and this is thought to mitigate bleeding by relieving pressure on capillaries in the lungs that burst during stress. It was known and used by some trainers at least a decade before it was officially sanctioned, and Northern Dancer was reportedly administered the drug by Dr. Alex Harthill for the 1964 Kentucky Derby. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Friday, May 31, 2019 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Amie Morosco Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist Justina Severni The late Tim Conway and Hall of Fame Jockey Chris McCarron at Santa Anita. This Director of Customer Service Sunday, June 2 is to be declared “Tim Conway Day” in Arcadia, California with a Vicki Forbes proclamation from the city in a Winner’s Circle ceremony at Santa Anita. The “Tim [email protected] Conway-Dorf Half Cup” will be carded as Sunday’s sixth race. | Santa Anita Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen MASTER FENCER REMAINS ON TARGET FOR BELMONT 6 Director of Information Technology Master Fencer (Jpn) (Just a Way {Jpn}), a rallying seventh in the Ray Villa GI Kentucky Derby, remains on schedule for the GI Belmont S. He [email protected] stumbled slightly in the stretch during his five-furlong breeze in 1:01.48 Wednesday morning under training assistant Yosuke Kono. Bookkeeper As a precaution, an X-ray was taken of Master Fencer’s front ankles, Terry May [email protected] which did not show any issues. WORLDWIDE INFORMATION TODAY’S GRADED STAKES International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN EST Race Click for TV [email protected] 10:10a Investec Coronation Cup S.-G1, EPS -------------- TVG European Editor 11:30a Investec Oaks S.-G1, EPS -------------- TVG Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 7 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • MAY 31, 2019 maneuver and a deflection from its racing surface, especially as a Jockey Club-led medication reform federal bill that would ban race-day Lasix was introduced in Congress during this period of tumult at Santa Anita. All of this has unfortunately fudged the BENEATH LASIX, EIPH IS REAL cont. from p1 lines between cause and effect for legislators like Senator "I was good friends with Dr. Harthill, and I can confirm that. He Dianne Feinstein, who has called for a suspension of racing at told me personally that he gave it to Northern Dancer," Tagg Santa Anita and a review of medication policies, and journalists said. like Drape and others reporting on the deaths in mainstream Lasix usage has been controversial for a long time and is even media. more so nowadays with the mainstream publicity surrounding Aside from the black eye of the current fatalities at Santa the fatalities at Santa Anita, which have somehow been publicly Anita, racing's image hasn't been helped over the last five or so linked to the drug--without the evidence of science. For years by partisan debates over earlier versions of the current bill example, one of the first reforms instituted during the eye of the in Congress. A lot of the damage is specifically from the chorus storm by The Stronach Group (TSG), owner of Santa Anita, was a of some of the bill's supporters in the media equating Lasix with reduction in the race-day dosage of Lasix, which had the effect illegal "drugging" despite that Lasix is legal and sanctioned by of implying to the public that larger doses may have played a every racing jurisdiction in this country. This confusion has only part in the breakdowns. Joe Drape in the New York Times was added to governmental and public perception outside racing more direct, writing: "[Lasix] is also thought to increase the circles that the sport and industry is riddled with chronic drug chance of catastrophic injury to a horse's thin legs." and animal abuse, and it's brought to the fore groups like the I've read as many legitimate peer-reviewed scientific papers People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which was-- and studies on Lasix dating back to the 1980s as anyone else, surprisingly--invited by TSG to the Santa Anita discussions. PETA and I've yet to come across one that states what Drape did, in is now calling for the suspension of racing nationwide until one of the most prestigious newspapers in the country no less. reforms like those instituted at Santa Anita are applied to all TSG's stance on Lasix is more understandable as a reflexive PR tracks in the country, even though the reforms at Santa Anita TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 7 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • MAY 31, 2019 haven't completely stopped the fatalities. disorder and needs to be addressed and treated one way or The net effect is that the industry is under siege from the another if race-day Lasix is ultimately held as the scapegoat for outside, and within it there's a chasm between a cadre of industry ills and is banned. wealthy owners and "Before Lasix, horses were taken breeders who are against the off water and food 12 to 24 hours use of race-day Lasix and before races," Tagg said. "You'd feel who back The Jockey Club's bad for the poor horses." federal initiative, and Dehydrating them in this manner trainers and smaller owners had the effect of lowering blood on the other side who don't pressure, but not as effectively or as support the proposed humanely as Lasix does. "There was legislation. "Sure, I'd be for other stuff people would give them, getting rid of Lasix," Tagg too. Everyone had their potions," said, "if they found another Tagg said, implying that water, hay, way to treat bleeders that and oats alone is a quaint notion. works. Lasix, if used properly, Dallas Stewart came up as a is not as debilitating as trainer during the Lasix era and said people think, either. If they it's the most inexpensive and are treated right the next Dallas Stewart | Sarah Andrew efficient way to treat EIPH. "Sure, few days after a race and get there are guys that will give them a plenty of fresh water, an electrolyte jug the day after, and get bunch of stuff, but that's expensive versus a $20 or $25 shot of some grazing, they rebound quickly." Lasix," he noted. The cost of treating a bleeder for a small owner Deconstructing this entanglement the industry finds itself in or trainer would skyrocket without Lasix, and this is another line first and foremost requires admitting publicly that EIPH is a real of demarcation between the two warring sides. TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 7 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • MAY 31, 2019 And one other thought that no one seems to have addressed while pinning the tail on the donkey that is Lasix: if the diuretic leads to "catastrophic injuries," as Drape wrote, why would it still be allowed for training? Most bleeders use Lasix far more often in morning workouts than they do in the afternoons.