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Home , Purchase (horse), Salvator (horse)

By Ryan Goldberg

ir Barton was doped. No less an Sauthority than John Hervey, the legendary journalist who wrote under the pen name Salvator, declared this, reluctantly, on Dec. 24, 1932, in the long-gone Record. “I may just as well say here that while was a really wonderful performer, rumor – whether correctly or not – was persistent to the effect that he was what is known in slang parlance as a ‘hop horse’. On account of which the prediction was also made that he would not score a great success as a sire.” Sir Barton’s dam, Lady Sterling, also raced on stimulants, her owner John E. Madden asserted after her career. Madden thought it made a good broodmare. Hops were stimulants, used more or less selectively to win Sir Barton, Derby, 1919 an important race. H.G. Bedwell, Sir Barton’s trainer, had at times been ruled off the track for their use. to speed up a horse but also push it Unlike previous eras, the matter to compete through complications or of legality is now hazy. This is the Still, Bedwell and Sir Barton rest unfelt pain, or to add strength to an legacy of permissive medication. comfortably in the Hall of Fame. already-powerful yet brittle frame. Medication can be used legally, based Which speaks a truth about the on a level each state sets individually, history of drugs in racing, the “...In the last 110 or used illegally by going over that spotlight of this story. Sir Barton’s era level (what trainers like to call “an was an untamed period for hopping overage”); there are drugs like Cobra horses, so much so that it was a years there have venom or Erythropoietin which are necessity even for those who wished always illegal, and then there are not to. For as long as races have been been incredible drugs that occupy a gray area, not run in America, there have been legal in spirit but without tests for horsemen eager to win them with changes in the their existence. The penalties for whatever substance was at hand – a misconduct differ by state, often hundred years ago heroin and cocaine, types of drugs and case by case. They rarely add up – fifty years ago adrenaline in oil and the fifth violation merits the same Benzedrine, and in decades since their intended punishment as the first. The horse, manufactured drugs like Butazolidin as evidenced by its abridged career and Winstrol and Ventipulmin. Every purpose.” nowadays, is probably worse for the decade has stories shouting from wear. rooftops that racing is tainted. This One major divergence comes via the headline – “Dope: Evil of the Turf” – One of the first doping trials occurred fully-stocked arsenal of medications in 1890, in Canada, for the owners once ran in the Times. No, available to horsemen today, the not in 2012, but 1903. George Renwick and Frank Baldwin. sight of which would have shocked According to a paper written by John However, this isn’t meant to trainers from another time. Different, Gleaves for the British journal “Sport offer moral cover to our era. To the too, is that contemporary drugs, in History,” the owners were let contrary, in the last 110 years there based on sound medicine, work: off, but the judge lectured them on have been incredible changes in the modern pharmacology show that the types of drugs and their intended dishonest practices at the track and “hops” popular in stables during the “advised them not to engage in any purpose. For the first half of the 20th first half of the century – cocaine, century, trainers used stimulants or strychnine, mercury, morphine – of the disgraceful tricks so common narcotics meant to get a horse to run in all probability offer little to no at races on American soil.” faster; after World War II, a panoply performance-enhancement and likely To “dope” – to stupefy with a drug of pharmacological drugs entered have deleterious effects. Even alcohol – could go both ways, to help a horse stables, and their purposes grew: was tried in the early days; a quart of win or stop him. Doping had an to manage pain or treat bleeding or whisky before the race, because if it expressed purpose: to make a score sedate or build muscle mass, not only worked for you than maybe the horse too. on a fixed race. The purses were

1 | TDN MAGAZINE, MAY 2, 2013 miniscule then, and hence the risk The drugs used were simple then narcotics like morphine and heroin, of acting on inside information was but over time grew in sophistication remained commonplace, and their deemed worth it. and application. Hervey noted presence on the backstretch attracted American racing was not even 30 major changes, writing in 1932: unsavory characters looking for a “The latter-day stimulants are fix, like a man named “Railroad Red” years old before anti-doping rules much more deleterious than their who served as a guinea pig to test the were passed. The Jockey Club, in 1897, forerunners of thirty to thirty-five purity of heroin before it was given introduced a rule to “put an end to years ago. Moreover, the system of to horses. Low doses of narcotics, the the reprehensible practice of ‘doping’ administration was different. Horses thinking went, would take the edge horses.” Doping, as they defined it, were not, at that time, drugged off a skittish horse before its race. was injecting under the skin of a horse continuously, consistently and some liquid stimulant or opiate, Stories like this gathered such as cocaine or morphine. But weight until the Turf was struck the rationale offered for reform with its most serious blow. For rarely concerned the health of a year, Harry Anslinger, the the horses or the jockeys, but commissioner of the Federal gambling. The men of The Jockey Bureau of Narcotics, had his Club were wealthy owners, often agents monitoring strange wagered large sums, and they occurrences at racetrack stables. wanted fair competition. In 1933, Anslinger pounced: claiming he had evidence of 200 A New York Times exposé separate incidents of doping in 1901 credited “Doc” Ring, a nationally; he arrested dozens regular on the New Jersey tracks, of owners, trainers and stable with originating the practice hands, accusing them of using of injecting stimulants to dope heroin and cocaine in violation a horse. Rather than accept of federal laws. Inaction was no payment, Ring demanded that longer viable – either doping, or the horse’s owner place a bet the perception of doping, had to for him. This was a form of be stopped. protection against claims that he France had a saliva test in might have stopped a horse if he place for two decades, which ran poorly. The Times reported after some study was imported. that Ring’s concoction was Florida put this into practice and composed of “nitro-glycerine, passed a stimulant ban in 1933. cocaine, carbolic acid, and Trainers were so opposed that rose water.” Probably harmful, they nearly boycotted Hialeah’s his stimulant later included then-Florida Derby, which “strychnine, capsicum, ginger” became the Flamingo, until track and other unknown ingredients. president Joe Widener spoke to Doping lurked behind every a group of about 150 owners and inexplicable event on the track. trainers. “Gentlemen,” he told them, “training is no longer a In 1903, the Times called doping matter of skill. It has become a “the scandal of the racing question of formula. There isn’t season.” Recognizing that for a man in this room who can gambling purposes its nature had hold up his hand and truthfully broadened, officials changed the say he has never stimulated language in anti-doping statutes a horse.” His challenge was from “stimulating” to “affected” accepted by general laughter, the speed of a horse. since it was true. The trainers who doped The original saliva test, in which their horses were far from systematically, each and every time the specimen was crystallized professionals. The Thoroughbred they went to the post. The practice and examined by microscope, was Record, on May 23, 1903, told the story was utilized more specifically upon more or less intended for three drugs: of a good horse named Dr. Riddle. His some occasion when high stakes morphine, heroin, and strychnine, trainer, William Howell, injected him were being played for – not as an according to Dr. John McAllister with “12 grains of cocaine” – which every-day thing.” Kater, the original chief scientist of affected his speed but in the wrong the anticrime way. He lost his nerve so completely This condition was tolerated on Protective Bureau (TRPB), which that he was afraid to break. That the turf for 30 years. Caffeine was opened in 1946. Unhappy with its afternoon, he gave up the ghost, a the most popular stimulant of all oversight function, Kater resigned “victim to the wiles of man.” the drugs at the time. Harder stuff, in disgust at the end of 1953. For Life

TDN MAGAZINE, MAY 2, 2013 | 2 in 1955, he wrote a whistleblower’s account on the practice of doping. The saliva test, Kater claimed, was not able to catch the popular amphetamine Benzedrine, or “bennies,” if injected, but the urine test that followed curbed that. Urine testing was simple and cheap to use, but both were necessary, since heroin or morphine often sneaked past this new test. By the 1940s, most tracks were testing saliva and urine. That said, Kater declared in Life that “it is still easy to dope a horse and get away it.” When Kater started at the TRPB, he called drug manufacturers who gave him lists of their customers for various drugs that could be used to hop horses. In one instance, the Pitman-Moore Company of Indianapolis was manufacturing an amphetamine sulfate solution under the trade name of Amfetasul, of which 3 cc. could “hop a horse,” said Kater. He learned of four veterinarians practicing, respectively, at Santa Anita, Fair Grounds, Agua Caliente, and Bay Meadows and Golden Gate. In only a few months and in dealings with a single manufacturer they had bought enough Amfetasul to hop 520 horses. The company had also refused to fill a huge order Harry Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau from a Florida veterinarian. Though of Narcotics¿QHDUWDPHULFDFRP Amfetasul could help treat certain nervous disorders, Kater said, the purchase of more than a bottle or two would seem suspicious. example was testosterone, which prove effective in horses. Some drugs became available to trainers in 1947 that Harthill adapted still are not He gave other examples, such as and allowed them to add spirit to their recognized according to one close an oil solution of adrenaline, which geldings. This was effective and safe, friend of his. Harthill was an avid was found in the barn of a leading but was it doping? Nobody in racing reader of human medical journals West Coast trainer and was one could flatly decide. Testosterone and, quite the pharmacologist, of the most powerful stimulants was neither narcotic nor powerful experimented with drugs in the around. Combined with Benzedrine, stimulant, but it did tamper with a basement pharmacy inside his office. it had a synergistic effect, meaning horse’s normal performance. This He was ahead of the curve and on its combined jolt was greater than question was never properly answered. the cutting-edge of science, and for the parts. Stimulants are excreted these reasons his epithet – brilliant very slowly and wouldn’t appear in In the meantime, these drugs were but controversial – was written half a urine for quite some time, so racing not waiting on shelves gathering lifetime before he died, in 2005. officials had to learn to wait for at dust. Some enterprising veterinarians These prescription drugs were so least two hours after the race to get had to figure out which ones would work in horses. potent that it didn’t take much. a sample. Barry Irwin, the head of Team Valor Kater was studying drugs as Alex Harthill filled this role. International, says he’ll never forget a American racing was about to make Harthill, who came onto the track truism Harthill once told him: “Even a sharp turn. After World War II, in 1948 and treated more than 25 though a horse is five or seven times the science of medicine advanced Derby winners in his career, broke larger than humans, the amount rapidly. Major investment flooded new ground in equine pharmacology. of dope needed to have an effect is the marketplace of drugs with varied He was always on the lookout for so small. An amount on the tip of a capabilities for use on humans. They those human drugs – like for kidney, match would be enough to flick up a were remarkably effective. One such liver, or heart disease – that could horse’s nose to get a spectacular result.”

3 | TDN Magazine, MAY 2, 2013 2013 The 30 years after World War II were characterized by this type of ground-breaking and, consequently, in-fighting between those in favor of permissive medication – what drugs if any should be permitted and in what doses, how long before a race and who should administer them – and those opposed. Racing jurisdictions couldn’t keep up with the hundreds of newly-arriving drugs for which there were no tests. Perhaps the best example is the oft-told story of Harthill giving the diuretic Lasix to Northern Dancer before the 1964 . Later in life, Harthill liked to take credit for this pioneering act. Much room for leeway was afforded. In the 1960s, for instance, highly potent corticosteroids were allowed on race-day and only half the states even tested for cortisone. There was no time to study the effects of the latest drugs, and their proponents seized on them as the answer to year- round racing on horses. A laid-up Northern Dancer, Kentucky Derby 1964, Gallery of Champions horse couldn’t win the large purses on offer. It was a shoot-first philosophy. Butazolidin, a non-steroidal anti- racing commissioner, was frank: its the list of acceptable drugs. inflammatory, was the first drug to horses were “sore-legged” and they Colorado didn’t permit medication reach mass appeal. First synthesized had races to fill. Trainers had to on the day of the race, but it opened in a Swiss lab in 1946, it was report using any medication to the the door slightly. Other states hurried ultimately produced by Kansas City’s commission veterinarian. “It’s sort in. Economics played the biggest Jensen-Salsbery Laboratories in 1957. of a government-of-men-rather-than- part – this was big business for Horsemen loved it. Within three law type of a rule,” Hite said. veterinarians and racing jurisdictions years, Colorado became the first state Colorado officials called this a wanted full fields. Nebraska approved to allow it – up to noon preceding policy of controlled medication. The Butazolidin and in late 1970 race-day. Richard Hite, the state American Association of Equine became the first major racing state to Practitioners, in which Harthill was sanction it. Then Maine, New Mexico, a large figure, came forward with a and Illinois, which approved a long platform patterned after the Colorado list of medications for “supportive rule. “You are not letting the bars therapeutic treatment” before races. down; you are raising them up,” Florida and Kentucky followed in former president Scott Jackson said 1974, then Ohio and Louisiana. The at one late ‘60s roundtable. The drugs “48-hour rule” – no medication during were already on the backstretch, he that period before a race – was going said, and some were quite dangerous, out the window. In 1974, the owner and the only way to control them was Fred W. Hooper told The Jockey Club by regulating their use. roundtable: “I don’t believe that you The idea of medication was itself a can control it (medication) once you subtle language shift, and reflected open up the door.” the changing tenor from stimulants became the first state to or narcotics to substances with allow Butazolidin and Lasix on the more varied purposes. The principal day of the race, and everyone else argument against permissive followed soon after, except for New medication was that the horse, given Jersey and New York. Integrity for a false sense of well-being, would the bettor fell by the wayside; some lose its natural protective instinct states kept this information private, to shorten its stride when hurting. and others mandated its inclusion But permissive medication won out, in track programs. And though and thus began a 40-year current of Ruffian’s breakdown in 1975 and an Barry Irwin, Horsephotos addition, rather than subtraction, to inflammatory 60 Minutes segment in

TDN Magazine, MAY 2, 2013 | 4 1979 encouraged some pushback, it didn’t have in the States. He’d bring didn’t last long. “In general, it in and use it on horses he thought The drugs that escaped detection would benefit from the treatment.” presented far more trouble. New treatments designed Following F.D.A. approval, York, a hold-out on Lasix until 1995, to repair a horse’s clenbuterol could be tested for, and still had its issues. For instance, in there was a wave of positives in the mid-70s, a narcotic painkiller injuries and to California among its leading trainers. called Sublimaze showed up on its alleviate its suffering Even now, its popularity has few backstretch. It was common in the parallels and is a staple in training kits of American medics in Vietnam. are now often used regimens, breathing problems or Sublimaze gave horses such a feeling not. California regulators recently of euphoria that they felt like they to get the animal found clenbuterol in 54 percent of didn’t have legs. In 1979, a test came out onto the track to . Sales in California out, halting its use. By the 1980s, total at least $7 million annually. compete – to force racing introduced a blood test. Saliva The response was always to was history. the animal, like some allow more. Harthill was a leading But most times a new drug was advocate of liberal medication rules detected, racing officials decided punch-drunk fighter, and it showed in Kentucky; not long not to ban it, but allow it, with to make just one ago, a trainer could instruct a vet minor restrictions. Clenbuterol, the to administer any supposedly non- popular bronchodilator marketed as more round.” performance enhancing drug, like an Ventipulmin, is the classic example. anti-inflammatory or diuretic, at any Harthill introduced this in the early ‘80s. --Greg Ferraro dosage level in any combination up “I can remember him coming back to four hours before a race. State by with the first bottle of it – getting it The Food and Drug Administration state, rule books listed hundreds of in France or somewhere in Europe,” didn’t approve clenbuterol for use in drugs in various categories that were says his close friend and colleague horses until 1998. So for 15 years, it permitted and at varying doses. Gary Priest. Priest used it to treat went undetected, and the trainers There were few deterrents. So previously-fatal pneumonia in some fortunate enough to know Harthill, trainers were willing to take their foals. It was incredibly effective but or others who had it, ostensibly shot: in California, for example, once also had lean muscle mass-building benefitted immeasurably. Priest the state began unannounced testing side effects, making it popular admits, “He didn’t always live by the of TCO2/milkshaking levels, it was among bodybuilders. rules. He’d find a source of a drug we discovered that 20 percent of horses

Tonic ads were popular in racing publications in the 1940s in '50s, promising miracle cures such as `energy,' `good wind' and settling CQHUYRXVKRUVHV

5 | TDN MAGAZINE, MAY 2, 2013 illustrated by the oft-discussed Revealingly, a year before the Aqueduct task force report on Mid-Atlantic region made its that track’s 2011-12 fatalities, the announcement, accounts of picture looks unchanged. Doping, Demorphin surfaced, a painkiller in a conventional sense, seemed 40 times stronger than morphine unnecessary with so many legal and derived in its natural state from drugs to choose from. South American frog secretions. :D[\PRQNH\WUHHIURJWKHODWHVW Of course, the agents of reform Thirty horses, both thoroughbreds LQJUHGLHQW have enjoyed victories. Abolishing and quarter horses, tested positive anabolic steroids, after the notoriety across four different states, exposing exceeded the acceptable level. It’s not of Big Brown’s Triple Crown chase an interconnected, interstate network cheating, the saying goes, if nobody’s in 2008, was significant. Ten years of doping. Initial shock gave way to watching. In the early 1990s, ago, the Racing Medication and acceptance; after all, anyone familiar corticosteroids proliferated, flipping Testing Consortium came up with a with the history of drugs in American its stated purpose – with rest they list of about 50 medications which racing would have seen it as offer relief, but with exercise they are were acceptable. Most recently, the time-honored. deleterious – on its head. In 1992, Dr. Mid-Atlantic consortium which is Greg Ferraro voiced his opposition to seeking uniformity in that region had the practice in the North American Review. “In general, treatments whittled its list to 24. Next in the Series: designed to repair a horse’s injuries But drugs are so intertwined in racing and to alleviate its suffering are now that removing them is like pulling a often used to get the animal out thread from a sweater and the whole American Racing's onto the track to compete – to force garment unraveling. This winter, New Dysfunctional Drug the animal, like some punch-drunk York strengthened its medication fighter, to make just one more round.” policy, extending withdrawal times Rules, Penalties and Ferraro estimated that close to for corticosteroids and clenbuterol; in 70 percent of racehorses had been turn, field size at Aqueduct dropped Adjudication System “tapped” at some points in their and the track decided to cut six mid- careers. Twenty years later, as week cards.

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