What Options Do Lasix-Dependent Horses Have?

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

I'm not a big weight guy, but I never thought about it like that.

So basically close to 50 years later I may still be underrating Forego (like he didn't beat me often enough already).

One good indicator of how important weight was, at least in long races, was the lengths trainers went to in bullying the racing secretary not to assign heavy weights to their horses.

When you get up to 130 and above, it's a significant handicap, especially when the opponents were carrying 113 or something.

[Thomas Roulston]

Do these self-righteous idiots realize what effect this is going to have on yearling sales?

Who's going to spend seven figures on a yearling, knowing that if he turns out to be a bleeder and after he runs through his allowance conditions, he's going to have to be given away in a $62.5k optional claiming race?

Either they're going to have to write money-condition and open allowance races for these horses, or prices of horses at yearling sales are going to plummet even worse than stock prices did in the early 1930s.

[pandy]

They race without lasix all over the world and people still buy and breed racehorses. We raced for a very long time without lasix in North America and people still owned and bred racehorses.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Thomas Roulston

Do these self-righteous idiots realize what effect this is going to have on yearling sales?

Who's going to spend seven figures on a yearling, knowing that if he turns out to be a bleeder and after he runs through his allowance conditions, he's going to have to be given away in a $62.5k optional claiming race?

Either they're going to have to write money-condition and open allowance races for these horses, or prices of horses at yearling sales are going to plummet even worse than stock prices did in the early 1930s.

It's called gambling. Anyone who spent a bunch of money on a yearling like that seeing the public debate that was going on about Lasix may have made a bad bet.

[classhandicapper]

Originally Posted by pandy

They race without lasix all over the world and people still buy and breed racehorses. We raced for a very long time without lasix in North America and people still owned and bred racehorses.

I thought I read you were under the weather. If that's true, does this post mean you are feeling better?

[biggestal99]

Will be interesting when some of the also rans in those non lasix stakes races run back in lasix allowance races. How many points are can be added to figure out his figure that he will run. An 80 in a stakes race worth how much in an allowance race? Did anyone keep track of the speed figures in non lasix races?

Allan

[biggestal99]

Also will the racing form keep track of the ROI for non lasix races for trainers.

Obviously there will be some marked differences?

Allan

[Spalding No!]

Originally Posted by Thomas Roulston

Do these self-righteous idiots realize what effect this is going to have on yearling sales?

Who's going to spend seven figures on a yearling, knowing that if he turns out to be a bleeder and after he runs through his allowance conditions, he's going to have to be given away in a $62.5k optional claiming race?

That could be viewed as a good thing; part of the reason owners retire their horses on a whim or after just a single Grade 1 win is to recoup all the money invested from the outset. The yearling market didn't go crazy really until the 1980s.

The quality of racing will never recover if purse money pales in comparison to breeding fees and yearling prices.

[pandy]

Originally Posted by classhandicapper

I thought I read you were under the weather. If that's true, does this post mean you are feeling better?

Thank God, yes, thanks for asking. I got sick on Dec. 5, fever and all that goes with it for six days and then on Friday, Dec. 11, I passed out and fell and kept passing out and they took me to the hospital. I had Covid. I was in the hospital for two days but they decided that since my heart and blood tests were so good, they would not treat me. They said, "Go home and rest." Pretty strange, I thought, considering that I'm 66 years old.

So I came home on Dec. 12 and I felt like crap until 12/21. Walking up the stairs felt like climbing a mountain. I'm still not 100%, knocked the crap out of me, but much better. Fortunately, even though my wife also tested positive, she didn't get that sick, thankfully.

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Spalding No!

That could be viewed as a good thing; part of the reason owners retire their horses on a whim or after just a single Grade 1 win is to recoup all the money invested from the outset. The yearling market didn't go crazy really until the 1980s.

The quality of racing will never recover if purse money pales in comparison to breeding fees and yearling prices.

This. Especially if you want to see good colts race past 3.

[taxicab]

Thought I read somewhere that Gulfdtream will run lasix free in all stakes on Pegasus day......not sure.
And...
NYRA running lasix free in all stakes races in 2021.......interesting.

[cj]

Originally Posted by pandy

Thank God, yes, thanks for asking. I got sick on Dec. 5, fever and all that goes with it for six days and then on Friday, Dec. 11, I passed out and fell and kept passing out and they took me to the hospital. I had Covid. I was in the hospital for two days but they decided that since my heart and blood tests were so good, they would not treat me. They said, "Go home and rest." Pretty strange, I thought, considering that I'm 66 years old.

So I came home on Dec. 12 and I felt like crap until 12/21. Walking up the stairs felt like climbing a mountain. I'm still not 100%, knocked the crap out of me, but much better. Fortunately, even though my wife also tested positive, she didn't get that sick, thankfully.

Glad to hear you are feeling better!

[Thomas Roulston]

Of course some tracks are refusing to go along with the anti-Lasix crusade: Monmouth Park isn't - and if I'm not mistaken, Indiana Grand isn't either.

[Hambletonian]

Originally Posted by Thomas Roulston

Do these self-righteous idiots realize what effect this is going to have on yearling sales?

Who's going to spend seven figures on a yearling, knowing that if he turns out to be a bleeder and after he runs through his allowance conditions, he's going to have to be given away in a $62.5k optional claiming race?

Either they're going to have to write money-condition and open allowance races for these horses, or prices of horses at yearling sales are going to plummet even worse than stock prices did in the early 1930s.

Gotta be honest, the last group of folks I am worried about are the breeders--the thoroughbred breed has only gone backwards in the last fifty years, which is quite impressive when you consider the billions of dollars that have been spent trying to breed faster horses.

If you spend a million on a yearling, you obviously have a million to lose...so you roll the dice and take your chances. Being a bleeder is one of a thousand things that could go wrong...and how many seven figure yearlings actually turn a profit?

[dilanesp]

Originally Posted by Thomas Roulston

Of course some tracks are refusing to go along with the anti-Lasix crusade: Monmouth Park isn't - and if I'm not mistaken, Indiana Grand isn't either.

Some tracks took longer to adopt Lasix back when it got adopted (NYRA was the last big holdout, and they held out for several years).

So yes, it will take several years to phase out this performance enhancer.