Quote:
Originally Posted by chadk66
Let me expand on that further. In those days you couldn’t use lasix without proof of bleeding. I had many horses that were winning at a given level and then one day bled. Got put on lasix. And guess what? Not a single one of them performed any better after getting lasix than they did prior to their bleeding episode. Not one went up in class on lasix. And I don’t even recall if any won first time out on lasix. Probably did but it wasn’t something I recall. Has anybody done a study on the number of horses that have moved up in class significantly once given lasix?
|
There was a point, at least in California, where Lasix was definitely being used as an anti-bleeding medication. You had to get your horse scoped, and yes, first time Lasix after a bad start could result in the horse waking up.
I have NEVER contended that Lasix can't work as a bleeding treatment. It obviously could, and did.
But at some point, Lasix's performance enhancing capabilities (and masking capabilities) became clear enough that it became important to horsemen to administer the drug to horses who had never established themselves as bleeders. And what did they do? They got the rules changed so that they could dope their horses.
If you are going to have legal Lasix as a bleeding treatment, all you have to do is treat it the same way WADA treats potentially performance enhancing health treatments in other sports. You get to take it, but the treatment is disclosed to and handled under the protocol dictated by the drug-testing agency, with their own doctors involved.
The fact that this was unacceptable to horsemen and they insisted on just putting almost every horse on it shows the bleeding rationale is, at this point, complete BS.
