Drug positives at Canterbury Park

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Couldn't you draw the blood levels prerace and match them versus a baseline? If a horses prerace hematocrit level is off the charts then it would be scratched?

I think the cyclists do 50% level = a "positive" test.

In racehorses I like to see the levels over 40 though the "normal" range is usually called at 34-42. Sometimes in the summer we might see a higher level because of dehydration.

Yes exactly. You could do baseline testing on horses in their stall the morning of the race. You would need a couple to establish a horses' own baseline range, though, but easy to do.

The PCV will increase a bit within a couple hours of giving them their lasix for training or racing (the lasix dehydrates them) so a holding barn wouldn't work (plus the anxiety/fretting = splenic contraction = increased hematocrit)

Racing (exercise) brings the PCV to 60-65%.

Horses "dope" themselves via splenic release.

Because the horse "does it naturally" (increases the oxygen carrying capacity during exercise stress) and will still do it anyway even if EPO is used, or altitude training is used, I personally don't see the attraction of increasing the resting hemocrit (and red cell mass, thus hemoglobin) with EPO very much. The PCV can be literally too high. And you risk having a fatal immune reaction if you give human EPO - the horse can mistakenly destroy its own red cells and kill itself.

There was a study done back in the 1960's, that showed elite TB racehorses (the fastest) had a slightly less hematocrit than their slower compatriats did (34-35 vs 36-37) Interesting.

Too many RBC's can be a bad thing - the lungs still have to be able to upload with oxygen. And suck in max oxygen. And RBC's have to circulate. And the tissues have to download that oxygen. All that has to work at maximal efficiency, too. That can all be "trained" into a horse.

I'm into optimal training via monitoring heartrate/lactic acid levels, and nutrition - feeding for sprinting vs feeding for classic distances.