Haskin: History of Drugs in American Racing
 

Good article. Wish it was published hree years ago!

I found this part amusing Riot:

"As the use of Bute and Lasix became more prominent, statistical reports regarding size of fields, breakdowns, and form reversals increased, but proved inconclusive. Three major reports by the Veterinary-Chemist Advisory Committee to the racing organization NASRC (National Association of State Racing Commissioners) and the California and Colorado racing boards all came to the conclusion that a controlled medication program does not affect the normal breakdown rate of horses. In 1976, the California board received the approval of the American Humane Society."

So, the foxes watching the henhouse don't blame themselves for the recent rash of hen disappearances, that started when the foxes started watching the hens?

That's awesome! Surely it was something in the air that makes the hens disappear!

Oh, maybe it was some mystery germ in the grass!!!

Let's just dismiss the obvious evidence that implicates us foxes and then pretend that we have no idea. Surely our ever faithful believers/followers will come to blindly defending us!

That, simply put, was a biased article and was written with the intent of 'proving' that drugs are good for horses.

Another funny part! When Steve makes it so that drug use today is ok, cause in the past, they used to use much worse drugs!

Brilliant!!

I didn't see it that way.

In fact, as of last year anyway, I believe Haskin was one of the people against lasix and possibly still is.

I like how the Dancer's Image saga is presented like a hard luck story. Bute was legalized just a year after the owner's final appeal in 1973. I guess that somehow means he didn't cheat back in 1968. The only advantage the connections of Dancer's Image took were simply being "ahead of their time".

I also enjoyed the rebuttal to the "60 Minutes" piece about drug abuse in 1979, citing an incomplete statistical presentation. If you count up all the races run in 1978, there was only a major medication violation in roughly 1 out of every 4000 starters. Only 303 major violations. What is that, like one every raceday?

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Needle Park, here are today's changes and major medication violations..."

Of course you did, dear. You don't believe in objective science or critical reasoning skills.

Yeah, he and Lenny Shulman talked about it on And They're Off. Both are against it.

Yes, that's precisely it.

The last top trainer that got caught with morphine had a great excuse. His horses were eating poppyseed bagels. Just appeal for six years until all is forgotten and then you get the best horse in the world named after you

i dont think forego is crazy.

Never posted or read there.