This article surprised me that it made it to print

[JustRalph]

http://opinions.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=16735

From Bloodhorse.com

Break the Habit
Date Posted: 7/1/03 1:48:20 PM
Last Updated: 7/1/03 1:48:20 PM

By Barry Irwin -- One of Team Valor's 15 trainers recently told me the stable veterinarian had urged the trainer to put half a dozen horses on clenbuterol as an experiment. The vet said the practice's most successful clients had a majority of their horses on the stuff and our trainer was "missing the boat."

The trainer told me that one of the six horses is owned by Team Valor.

I told the trainer not to put the horse on clenbuterol unless it was sick, which is supposed to be the reason the drug is prescribed.

The trainer and veterinarian are sincere professionals. They both try their hardest to put the welfare of the horse first.

Yet, both of them want to jump on the clenbuterol bandwagon for reasons of survival as practitioners of their craft.

The trainer wants to use the drug because the conditioner honestly believes that without the drug, others will have an edge over the stable's runners.

The vet recommends the drug because he thinks it makes horses run so much better that if he fails to prescribe it, the horses under his care will not keep pace with horses treated with the drug. Clients may switch to a different vet.

On the backstretches of the major racetracks in America, horses that are not suffering from an acute respiratory illness are routinely treated with clenbuterol because trainers and vets feel they must in order to keep up with the Joneses.

While prominent vets will tell you until the cows come home that clenbuterol is not all that it is cracked up to be, urban racetrack legend holds that because of its steroidal effects and ability to clear a wide path in the trachea of an equine athlete, it may be the most powerful performance enhancer currently available in the trunk of the veterinary vehicle.

Pro-clenbuterol vets deny the drug has steroidal effects, yet the United States Anti-Doping Association for track and field lists clenbuterol as an "anabolic agent" and it is a prohibited substance, as is the diuretic furosemide, which additionally is listed as a "masking agent." These drugs are banned for competition and for training.

As an owner contemplating the use of clenbuterol I have to consider the welfare of the animal and the cost of the drug. Clenbuterol, if used routinely, costs $250 to $300 a month. Its effects on a horse can be harsh because it makes horses shake like an alcoholic with D.T.'s.

If racing jurisdictions had kept a ban on clenbuterol, which was illegal to possess, let alone be used, until the late 1990s, nobody would have to consider its use today. But now, conscientious professionals feel impelled to use the insidious drug in order to stay in business.

So, along with several other drugs that are deemed illegal and improper for use by Olympic athletes, clenbuterol is now the latest "must" for horsemen.

My trainer has forced me to reconsider my involvement in racing, because I do not see how to break the cycle of the introduction of one new drug after another.

Racetracks want drugs because they have been sold a bill of goods by horsemen and veterinarians convincing them that without these medications there will not be enough horses to put on a racing program.

How is this insanity going to stop?

The only answer is hay, oats, and water.

A policy of hay, oats, and water would place everybody on a level playing field. It would save the expense-plagued owner thousands of dollars every year on every horse in the barn.

Hay, oats, and water will return the onus of getting a horse to perform from the little black bag to the hands of a horseman, where it was in the days when Seabiscuit ran 35 races at two. Under the stewardship of the modern veterinarian, 35 races would be an extraordinarily lengthy career.

This game is running out of players willing to pay the bucks to support a drug habit that is being pushed by the very guardians of our sport.

Who is going to step up into a leadership position and take a stand to roll back the current medication policies?

Barry Irwin is president of Team Valor.

[Kentucky Bred]

...I was just about to start a thread with the same article. Cool.

Well I'm not a big racing partnership fan even with a company that has syndicated many winning horses. The odds of winning are still great with any public partnership even without the markup.

But I can't imagine a more powerfully written article. If sincere, and I hope Mr. Irwin is, he has made a huge statement. What are we doing to the sport we profess to love and provides jobs for so many if we kill the animals that create it?

All animals have no choice. They must accept the powerful drugs we choose to give them. Then with that power COMES RESPONSIBILITY. It is just that simple. If it is true that clenbuteral creates an addiction within the horse and DT's after repeated use then maybe the horse shouldn't run. Run 5 races a day for all I care. Run a healthy horse. Pro atheletes are routinely criticized when they CHOOSE not to play without being completely healed. Is it too much to ask to run a basically injury free horse or not use powerful meds without a valid reason?

My love and appreciation of this sport is manifested in my anger when this subject of drugs and horses come together.

Whenever animals and money are mixed together bad things happen...at least if you're the animal.

Kentucky Bred

[Shacopate]

It is unfortunate that drugs originally created for a horses well-being are now abused as performance enhancers. The horse should come first. I agree with the hay, oats and water idea. Level the playing field.

I have also heard that some trainers are injecting their younger horses with HGH. Human Growth Hormone.

[freeneasy]

just unbelieveable

hgh's huh?
given the value of an animals life, this type of behavior should be set down in the law as criminal and should be criminally delt with along the same level as the law deals with a drunk driver that fortunetly was arrested before an innocent party was hurt or killed,

[andicap]

The bettors hold the answer to this problem in their hands.
If people don't bet, purses decline and horsemen make less money.

I propose that handicappers hold a one-day symbolic boycott of races in a single racing jurisdiction -- say California -- on a weekend to show the tracks and horsemen that we mean business, that if the drugs don't stop we'll take our money to tracks that crack down on this.
With simulcasting WE have the power now --we can take our
business to any number of tracks that are better-friendly and work to stop the drugs.

:mad:

[Tom]

No bets at Kamloops this weekend!
We'll show those $%@^$%&%#!$"%&*!!!!
:rolleyes:

[cj]

I'm in, I won't bet the following this weekend...

Bowie, Garden State, Erie Downs, Jamaica, Hialeah, Tropical Park, and Shenandoah Downs.

Just teasing of course, I just doubt it could ever be put together.

[Buddha]

yea, i dont think a betting boycott could be successful. there will be people who dont know about it, people who dont care about and people who want to make money who will go around the boycott and still bet

[VetScratch]

C'Mon, Guys!

Andicap was serious about this weekend's boycott!!!!!!!

As a matter of fact, after the annoucnement, we made "mutual" plans for the weekend. First, I'm picking Andi up at the Westchester Airport, then we're flying the Learjet up to Nova Scotia to see the partial exclipse of the sun. Mick and Carly are meeting us there. C'mon up!

PS: We'll all be round the campfire singing Foghorn's favorite song, Camptown Races (Doo Dah, Doo Dah!). Hey, Cjmilkowski! I say, wake up Cjmilkowski! Pay attention, boy. I'm cutting but you ain't bleeding. :D

[Buddha]

Originally posted by VetScratch
C'Mon, Guys!

Andicap was serious about this weekend's boycott!!!!!!!



As serious as he or anyone for that matter is, how many people do you think will do it. Assume that there may be 1000 people online that see a boycott. If they don't bet, good. But what about the people who don't have the internet? What about the people who don't see it? What about people who don't know about it? There is no way to get a good enough boycott with simulcasting. How much of an effect do you honestly think an internet started boycott can have? In my opinion, I don't think it will have much of an impact.

[cj]

Originally posted by VetScratch

PS: We'll all be round the campfire singing Foghorn's favorite song, Camptown Races (Doo Dah, Doo Dah!). Hey, Cjmilkowski! I say, wake up Cjmilkowski! Pay attention, boy. I'm cutting but you ain't bleeding. :D

I would pay attention, but I keep getting distracted by that avatar! :D :D :D

[JimG]

Originally posted by cjmilkowski
I'm in, I won't bet the following this weekend...

Bowie, Garden State, Erie Downs, Jamaica, Hialeah, Tropical Park, and Shenandoah Downs.

Just teasing of course, I just doubt it could ever be put together.

I'm betting Shenandoah Downs this weekend, regardless. I love those 3 1/2 furlong races!

;) Jim

[andicap]

(sigh), yes, it was mostly tongue-in-cheek because I knew racing fans would never get together to do this.

I am becoming to believe that racing fans -- like fans of all sports who continue to overpay to attend live events and subsidize the salaries of spoiled, pampered, 6 foot 12 year-olds deserve what they get.

As they say in civics, "If you don't vote, you shouldn't complain"

I say, if you're not willing to take action to right the wrongs
in racing -- mainly drugs -- than why complain. I mean,you're just
spitballing.

(OK, venting helps and its cheaper than a shrink I guess).

I came of age in the 60s when we did more than just complain about what we perceived as societal wrongs -- we acted. (Yes, lots of you would say we ruined society, but that's besides the point.)

I'll be quiet now as I've said my piece.


:cool:

[Tom]

Now I feel bad. So for real, no Kamloops this weekend.
AND, no Yavapai either.
There. I feel better.
:rolleyes:

[takeout]

Originally posted by andicap
The bettors hold the answer to this problem in their hands.
If people don't bet, purses decline and horsemen make less money.

andicap,

I agree with you totally on this in principle. I also agree that as a whole we probably deserve exactly what we're getting. It's hard to see anything ever changing though. Like you said, all we can do as customers is to take our money somewhere else where hopefully they are at least trying to do something about the problem.

[VetScratch]

Warning: this post is deadly serious, and you better look elsewhere if you want a smile or a chuckle! Those of you that regularly watch "60 Minutes" will find this post especially repulsive.

We can only hope that Barry Irwin and Bloodhorse don't get vilified as happens to so many other individuals and publications that blow the whistle on abuses or crusade for reform.

To avoid possible legal repercussions, Barry and Bloodhorse had to sanitize the drug abuse scandal because full disclosure would have created a firestorm and put them in a position where it would have been necessary to provide names and details to defend their credibility.

Now, page two of the story. The horseracing drug scandal has become much more ominous and complicated than the industry will ever voluntarily admit. Maybe we deserve this. Drug-free horses may be a ludicrous quest in a society that can't suppress an epidemic of human drug abuse.

What makes the horseracing scandal so complicated is that there are practically no White Stetsons (pure western hero types) at or around our racetracks.

Here is a traditional backside census for trainers and vets:
(1) White hats: a tiny fringe group of ethically pure trainers/vets who are shunned, derided, or actually persecuted by their peers.
(2) Black hats: a minority group of trainers/vets who are the hardcore villains in backside society. Because everyone else despises them, this is the group that gets policed, exposed, publicized, and sometimes punished. No legitimate horseman condones abuses like safety-pin sabotage, nasty potions applied to equine genitals, felony drug abuse with substances like cocaine, or any other tampering that has been verified as a serious equine health hazard.
(3) Gray hats: all remaining trainers/vets, constituting a clear majority that probably exceeds 90% of the population. This is the majority that defines the ethical and moral bounds for acceptable backside behavior, and the backside has always been a subculture that tolerates extreme gamesmanship and statutory misdemeanors.

Gray hats have always looked for competitive edges. Premeditated use of any performance enhancer that is deemed truly dangerous to horses is where taboos begin. Below this taboo ceiling, trainers and vets generally anticipate that their competitors will employ any means they can get away with to gain an edge.

In fact, almost all gray hats feel disadvantaged if their reputation doesn't imply a willingness to take occasional risks. Owners don't flock to trainers who have alter-boy reputations, and trainers prefer vets who are flexible and know the ropes (if only to gain intelligence about what other barns are doing).

While misdemeanors don't generate sensational headlines or force the industry to exact harsh penalties, going before the stewards to get fined, forfeit purse monies, or be temporarily suspended does have severe consequences with respect to attracting and retaining owners. Getting caught is construed as being inept, and no trainer who develops this reputation can be successful. I know trainers who are pilars of virtue by backside standards and win with little or no chicanery. At the same time, when they deal with owners, they routinely drop hints about murky paths to the winners circle. This is all part of racetrack gamesmanship.

The result of this subculture behavior is that paranoia has traditionally exaggerated the perceived scope of chicanery. This naturally spilled over into the horseplayer population. However, notwithstanding monkey brains, root extracts from Pakistan, mystery elixirs smuggled in from Canada, and "amazing new discoveries" about harnessing Mother Nature to legally circumvent restrictions" (e.g., MSM), policing and testing were able to deter just enough drug abuse keep the ship afloat until about 1990. Today, the deterrent effect of testing has been diminished to point where a positive test may be equally indicative of an attempt to sabotage or an attempt to enhance performance.

Drugs invented for human consumption have literally swamped the racing industry. My first verifiable experience with human drugs in horseracing occurred in about 1994 when a "bloodcount/oxidation supercharger" swept through CD and other Midwest tracks. The drug was a prescription drug for a human kidney/liver condition (I can't remember which human organ). A trainer and his vet convinced an owner-friend to try it. After two months without achieving miraculous results at a cost of about $400/month, my friend and the trainer stopped using the drug.

However, wave after wave of drug fads based on human drugs have hit the racetrack during the last ten years. As Barry Irwin stated, Clenbuterol is the current rage and some racing jurisdictions have even lifted the ban on Clenbuterol! I am sure Barry "could" have listed a dozen other human drugs that are not sanctioned anywhere.

The pharmaceutical industry is far in advance of the racing industry, which has tacitly given up hope that testing procedures and screens can be successfully updated (like PC virus checkers) to combat the use of human drugs.

Now, page three of the story.

If you didn't see it, ask friends about the "60 Minutes" expose of the human drugs counterfeit scandal. Thousands of patients have been victimized by expensive counterfeit prescription drugs, which are usually highly diluted compounds or solutions re-manufactured from full-strength drugs that come directly from legitimate pharmaceutical companies. These same counterfeiters are also the primary source of human drugs used at the racetrack.

Many of the human victims suffer immense harm or simply die. "60 Minutes" interviewed human victims, queried state Attorney Generals, identified the culprits, and described how they operate.

The were also implications of mob involvement, motivated by the fact that drug counterfeiting is a very safe and enormously profitable haven.

Who is technically innocent? Pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and pharmacists.

Who are the culprits? Wholesale distributors of prescription drugs (who supply hospitals and pharmacies).

Federal/FDA/State regulations and laws are virtually devoid of protective or punitive measures. In many states, it is cheaper and easier to become a wholesale drug distributor than to become a licensed cosmetologist (hairdresser)!

As a practical matter, no one regulates, inspects, audits, or polices the wholesale drug industry. There is a "huge black hole" between the shipping docks at the pharmaceuticals and the receiving entrances at hospitals and pharmacies?

Investigations in the few cases where unscrupulous distributors have been exposed were only launched because concerned doctors sent their patient's medications off for independent laboratory analysis. However, I believe no one has yet gone to jail for counterfeiting drugs on any appreciable scale.

Here are some paraphrased anecdotes from "60 Minutes"...

Besides diluting and repackaging, another common abuse is failure to observe the storage recommendations of the manufacturer. At one distributor's warehouse, numerous cartons of very expensive drugs were stored at temperatures far outside the safety limits imprinted on every container by the manufacturer.

After the Florida Attorney General hounded a counterfeiter out of Florida, the same distributor was back in business within a week in another state.

At the racetrack, trainers, vets, and (more frequently) middlemen are not stealing human drugs. They are merely placing phone orders with unscrupulous distributors.

Sadly, only trial and error determines how many of the human drugs may adversely affect horses. Most trainers would like to set the calendar back twenty years, but no one knows how to do this!

[Kentucky Bred]

VetScratch--sorry for the redboarding but that was one of the best posts I've ever read. It takes time to state your case so thoroughly.

However, I was waiting for the paragraph which began..."so the solution I propose is...", but sadly it was not there. And probably for good reason. The needed solution is so frightening in its implications that no racing group can consider it.

Here's a guy with an idea. He says that we need to virtually quarantine the horses for 24, maybe 48...some say 72 hours before a race. Frankel had a fit when they tried it before a big recent stakes race. Frankel won the battle with the racing authority. I think that says a lot.

You can read it here:


http://espn.go.com/horse/columns/misc/1576509.html

I spoke with a former bigtime race track vet at a July 4th party, who showed me pictures of himself with almost every big stallion or racehorse around here during the past 20 years. He confirmed that when the tracks succumbed to the pressure of small fields (which equal small profits for them) by allowing indiscriminate use of Clenbuterol by vets, the entire dynamic changed. He said that Clenbuterol can act as a masking agent for many more designer drugs. We may have just cracked open a Pandora's Box of drugs.

Irwin says go back to hay, oats and water. But you've now got generations of horses already needing lasix just to run without bleeding. The weakening of the racing stock has been upon us for many years now. Are any of these solutions even viable anymore?

There are normally around 40,000 registered thoroughbred foals each year. This has been going on for a long while. But when I look at some tracks, especially out west but everywhere, I see small fields of 6 or 7 or less. Several of the entries often do not look like they belong which can come from racing secretary pressure on the barn to run. The horses are foaled, why don't they race?

I haven't done a study but I believe just by memory that many of the 2 Furlong/2 year old baby races of the winter of this year were filled with horses who don't seem to be running anymore.

I know I'm broadening the issue without intention. It is just that the ruling generation today has got to begin to think about the long term interest of this sport and the viability of it's survival.

Jacking up some horse with a temporary boost for the very next race will destroy the sport they profess to love in the long run because they will destroy the horse.

When a horse has pain, it is nature's way of telling the horse NOT TO RUN! When that horse is injected with a harmful substance that it doesn't understand is being administered to him, the horse thinks he is now OK to run.

Dear Mr./Ms. Racing Commissioner--Is that your plan to increase your field size for the next 10 years?

Kentucky Bred

[VetScratch]

Kentucky Bred,

Very thoughtful post, and unfortunaletly about as gloomy as mine.

When you broadened the scope by asking how the breeding industry could supply horses capable of running without dope, why the industry always prefers shortcuts rather than solutions, you made me more fearful than that racing is doomed.

After all the tracks have slots, the green eyeshades will propose the elimination of live racing and the sale of the valuable acreage occupied by the track and backside.

It wouldn't take much to lure me to Ireland where our family owned its first horse, Gold Plate by Gold Measure, winner of 5 races at 100 Guineas, many years before poverty brought us to America.

[gino]

vettie-
with your unusual diligence and attention to detail, go check out who the chief counsel for the F.D.A. is, and what he did before he got this job...Only In America!!!!
gino
"lefty ain't gonna like this"