Lasix in harness to me has always been one of the most interesting handicapping questions out there. Right to the drug itself (many trainers swear it does not do a thing), and to the intent of the trainer and driver.
1st lasix is sometimes second time lasix, as a trainer will school a horse on it first and get scoped afterwards. For the first start the trainer has confidence to tell the driver to send the horse. Other times, 1st lasix is an experiment, so the connections are cautious 1st time out and then send the horse second time when he scopes fairly clean.
There are a lot of other natural things to use for bleeding too, so first lasix is usually accompanied with some vet work, blood work (I think bilirubin shows some bleeding) so the connections do more first start than just first lasix. Sometimes the horse is fine tuned more than we think first time.
On the sinister side, lasix gives a buffer on the TC02 test. I think 42 mmols are allowed in Ontario with lasix, and 38 without.
It is one of the most odd, difficult things to look at in harness, imo, because we do not have perfect information and there are so many extraneous factors.
|