Fascinating article, though I think the gist of it is that the process really stunk in 1945.

"In an era of indiscriminate use of narcotics to stimulate horses..."

The good old days...

Lasix is a thousand times safer than milkshaking. I could give every one of you a lasix injection, and even those of you with kidney and cardiac problems wouldn't get in trouble.

Lasix dilutes the urine. 20-30 years ago, when testing capability was poor, it could dilute out an illegal drug. It hasn't been able to do that for decades. Our testing is too sensitive. So no - lasix doesn't mask drugs. The loop diuretics have extremely well-known pharmacologic actions, and are extremely safe when used therapeutically. They have a rather large margin of safety, especially considering that the race day dose is the low end of the therapeutic dosing range.

Milkshaking? Even if just baking soda and glucose? It doesn't mask a thing either. That's absurd. It's an attempt to alter a horses blood acid-base balance, and it's killed many horses. Sudden death hasn't been uncommon with bad milkshaking. It's very dangerous.

This sport is filled with so much outrightly false nonsense and allegations, it's literally become dangerous to the horses.

Opinion and fact are two very different things, and confusing them kills horses. We can no longer allow old wives tales and falsehoods about drugs in race horses to persist in the 21st century. That some of the biggest names in racing are repeating the falsehoods is sad and dangerous to the sport and the horses.

Yeah, we can go back to 1200-lb animals coked up or on heroin or speed - yay! :eek:

Are you serious? They really raced horses on heroin?

I could see the rationale for coke, but heroin? That would be one pretty docile competitor.

If I recall from my drug days (by that I mean 7th grade Health Class unit on drugs), horses react differently to it. I think its use on equines is how it got the nickname Horse.

Kink with an explanation of how horses react to heroin:
http://tuesdayshorse.wordpress.com/2...-called-horse/

EDIT- I just saw that typo, but it made me laugh so I'm leaving it.

Horses react differently than humans, can react badly to some opiates. That's why so many horses used to die coming up from anesthesia after broken bone repair. They'd be panicky and kicking, groggy and staggering, due to the drugs used for pain control. Blow their surgical repairs apart and die.

Ruffian, unfortunately, comes to mind.

Heroin was nicknamed "horse" because of it's equine use early in the last century. To copy a bit from Risk's link, above:

I'll settle for Clen, equipoise, and tren acetate. lasix too hard

thats the one that got me too.

but i will root for the horse until he loses. i want a triple crown before i say goodbye.

i remember reading somewhere that the whirlaway used to have a little ball of heroin or opium put on his tongue before he won his triple crown races

I like this quote particularly:

“We run pure horses.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/p...,1265988.story

yeah, nice....and his 'daggers thrown' line....because, you know, these accusations all come only from envy-not from drug positives. that's why so many trainers get rap sheets.

except that they don't.

oy vey ismir

:zz::wf

So the potential Triple Crown winning trainer is only facing a 45 day ban now. That's something.

ridiculous. just another day in racing.

but acccording to the drf article, he has to stay clean for 18 months to avoid the rest of the days. anyone want to wager on him staying out of trouble that long??

"TCO2 overage does not necessarily imply that a trainer has milkshaked a horse"

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/ho...t_274689_7.pdf