Tom Noonan blog

[cmorioles]

There was plenty of love here for Mr. Noonan when he (rightfully IMO) defended NYRA.

How about his blog post on drug use?

http://tenoonan.com/2013/12/08/time-...t-of-the-sand/

[freddymo]

Remember when Dutrow told reporters. "I give all my horses Winstrol once a month" Kind of the same crap.

[cmorioles]

This is a big thing if you ask me. We can't be giving horses drugs as an experiment. That will not go over well with the public. They should be used to treat something, period.

[parsixfarms]

This sort of view on the Baffert situation is the real problem: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-121...#axzz2n4vhFwAj.

So long as the racing media and many of the sport's "leaders" act as if guys like Baffert and Pletcher are bigger than the sport and look the other way, there is an open field for the Joe Drapes of the world to address the issues that they want to ignore.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by parsixfarms

This sort of view on the Baffert situation is the real problem: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-121...#axzz2n4vhFwAj.

So long as the racing media and many of the sport's "leaders" act as if guys like Baffert and Pletcher are bigger than the sport and look the other way, there is an open field for the Joe Drapes of the world to address the issues that they want to ignore.

They are bigger than the sport for the most part. They are our "too big to fail" banks.

The essential issue here is that very few people have any clue as to what health issues are for racehorses or what options exist for their treatment. How people can come to conclusions about what should be done without any real understanding of the issue at hand, just the preception of the issue, seems to be a recipe for disaster.

Ok Baffert was giving his horses thyroid powder and he stopped and they stopped croaking. Must be indiscriminate use of thyroid powder right? Well why don't any other trainers horses die form this? I have used thyroid powder on hundreds of horses and none died. I don't know another trainer or vet who has ever had horse die due to thyroid powder. I do know that if I was using something that I believed potentially was causing my horses to die I'd much rather have something relatively innocuous like thyrol-L take the blame rather than the real culprit. The conclusion drawn is that he was giving thyroid powder to all his horses and it caused 7 to die because Rick Arthur mentioned it as unusual but he did so in releasing a report stating that there was no smoking gun.

The "17 shots" the Pletcher horse got over the period of time are also hardly something that a vet wouldn't prescribe or directly caused any issues.

-1 of the shots was for Adequan which is preventative medicine
-3 of the shots were for Hylauronic acid in the stifles. This is a single procedure done 5-7 days before the race and three shots are required because the joint is large and splitting the does into three areas works better so that the entire joint is lubricated. Horses dont die from broken stifles.
-2 of the shots were sedatives used to calm the horse to allow the vet to do the procedure on the stifles safely.
-2 of the shots were for banamine which is an anti-inflammatory medications. -1 of these banamine shots would be given when doing the procedure on the stifles to lessen the potential of inflammation in the area where the needle goes into the joint. The other was given 48 hours before.
-2 of the shots given were lasix and based on another medication given prerace it appears that the horse had a history of bleeding as 1 was given a week out when the horse presumably had his last work before the race.
-1 was dexamethasone/cortisone also an anti-inflammatory given when work was done on the stifles.
-1 was Estrone which is a hormone given 48 hours before race to help prevent bleeding.
-2 the last 2 shots were for vitamin B-1 and for Calcium which help calm a horse before the race.

So I'm sure that some will be aghast at all those shots being given but they all have a viable reason for being used and the vast majority of them were given during one procedure. The horse appeared to have stifle issues and bled. Often stifle issues are due to conformation issues and dont just go away with rest. The idea that a vet was somehow forced into doing these treatments is simply not reality. There is this misconception that horses are either sound or unsound like a black and white deal. Truth is that they all deal with unsoundness of some degree at some point. It may be as simple as a grabbed quarter but when they arent sound they need treatment. Horses with not so great conformation will need more help as the concussion absorbed by their legs is distributed through the leg in a less than ideal manner.

[cmorioles]

Two things...first, I don't think many really believe the Baffert horses died because of the thyroid stuff. It is just a convenient excuse. Two, I have no doubt horses are being given stuff they don't need way more often than they should. There is plenty of training via chemistry going on, and it is going to blow up in the sport's face eventually.

As for the horses with 17 shots, explained or not, that is never going to sound good to the public. Like it or not we need to worry about image as much as reality, and that image sucks.

[freddymo]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

They are bigger than the sport for the most part. They are our "too big to fail" banks.

The essential issue here is that very few people have any clue as to what health issues are for racehorses or what options exist for their treatment. How people can come to conclusions about what should be done without any real understanding of the issue at hand, just the preception of the issue, seems to be a recipe for disaster.

Ok Baffert was giving his horses thyroid powder and he stopped and they stopped croaking. Must be indiscriminate use of thyroid powder right? Well why don't any other trainers horses die form this? I have used thyroid powder on hundreds of horses and none died. I don't know another trainer or vet who has ever had horse die due to thyroid powder. I do know that if I was using something that I believed potentially was causing my horses to die I'd much rather have something relatively innocuous like thyrol-L take the blame rather than the real culprit. The conclusion drawn is that he was giving thyroid powder to all his horses and it caused 7 to die because Rick Arthur mentioned it as unusual but he did so in releasing a report stating that there was no smoking gun.

The "17 shots" the Pletcher horse got over the period of time are also hardly something that a vet wouldn't prescribe or directly caused any issues.

-1 of the shots was for Adequan which is preventative medicine
-3 of the shots were for Hylauronic acid in the stifles. This is a single procedure done 5-7 days before the race and three shots are required because the joint is large and splitting the does into three areas works better so that the entire joint is lubricated. Horses dont die from broken stifles.
-2 of the shots were sedatives used to calm the horse to allow the vet to do the procedure on the stifles safely.
-2 of the shots were for banamine which is an anti-inflammatory medications. -1 of these banamine shots would be given when doing the procedure on the stifles to lessen the potential of inflammation in the area where the needle goes into the joint. The other was given 48 hours before.
-2 of the shots given were lasix and based on another medication given prerace it appears that the horse had a history of bleeding as 1 was given a week out when the horse presumably had his last work before the race.
-1 was dexamethasone/cortisone also an anti-inflammatory given when work was done on the stifles.
-1 was Estrone which is a hormone given 48 hours before race to help prevent bleeding.
-2 the last 2 shots were for vitamin B-1 and for Calcium which help calm a horse before the race.

So I'm sure that some will be aghast at all those shots being given but they all have a viable reason for being used and the vast majority of them were given during one procedure. The horse appeared to have stifle issues and bled. Often stifle issues are due to conformation issues and dont just go away with rest. The idea that a vet was somehow forced into doing these treatments is simply not reality. There is this misconception that horses are either sound or unsound like a black and white deal. Truth is that they all deal with unsoundness of some degree at some point. It may be as simple as a grabbed quarter but when they arent sound they need treatment. Horses with not so great conformation will need more help as the concussion absorbed by their legs is distributed through the leg in a less than ideal manner.

My son went to the Dr. for a check up.. 4 injections as part of standard vaccination program. He is 60lbs. The issue is people do not understand that caring for a 1200 pound animal is different then a human being. That said CJ is a million percent correct its all about perception.