Prominent horse owners vow to run 2-year-olds without race-day drugs

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by freddymo

The point is racing would be better off without lasix in general. BTW geared down? Please like in 2 jumps a horse is so much slower if the rider relaxes , this stuff is so overrated. Of course I like watching good horses and of course I want to see horses like Lunar Victory run. My issue is how come at Royal Ascot and Longchamps the horses are fine and at Saratoga and Delmar they aren't?

I really think a lot has to do with the difference in the surfaces over which the horses are raced/trained. The fact is that our dirt races, contested with a premium on early speed, in many respects, are a battle of attrition. I don't think it can be seriously debated that dirt races are more strenuous on the horse than turf races are. Few turf races are contested in the same way; in fact, just the opposite, the premium is placed on late speed.

This is more anecdotal than anything else but twice we have owned turf horses that would bleed if worked strenuously (over 4F) on dirt. When we got up here in Saratoga and were able to work them over the Oklahoma turf course, we could work them up to 6F without incident in the morning. It did illustrate that, when a horse is breezed/raced over what was for him a more demanding/uncomfortable surface, he was more apt to bleed (even with Lasix).