NYTHA Lasix Primer & Letter to NYS RWB

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by pointman

Honestly Rollo, how can you take the position that Lasix is a performance enhancer and that it is ok to train on it? If you believe it is a peformance enhancer, then what scientific evidence exists that shots a couple of times a week to train won't enhance peformance in a race?

I haven't taken any position. I simply quoted a study. Personally, I think all the debate about lasix being a "performance enhancer" is an exercise in semantics.

Didn't someone try and call it a "performance enabler" as an alternative? Good stuff.

The real issue is whether or not its justifiable to allow racehorses predisposed to severe bleeding to benefit competively by the administration of lasix. Why is simple barring/retirement from racing off the table?

Probably because we have extremists clouding the issue by noting that you can find minute evidence of bleeding in over 90% of racehorses, attempting to equate insignificant (from a performance standpoint) levels of bleeding with the more severe ones. In one dubious swoop, you go from having a problem affecting ~2-5% of the population to one that affects nearly 100%.