Steroids

[BitPlayer]

Below is a comment that I saw on the Paulick Report underneath the story on the disqualification of Masochistic from the BC Sprint after testing positive for a steroid.  I have no idea how much of the comment is true, but I am curious how common the purported race-inject-layoff strategy is, not just for the Breeders Cup, but also for the Triple Crown Trail and other big races.

http://www.paulickreport.com/news/the-biz/masochistic-disqualified-breeders-cup-sprint-small-amount-steroid/
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Ellis is probably the victim of bad luck but an important question that needs to be asked of the Breeders\' Cup board is \"does the Breeders Cup condone the use of anabolic steriods in preparing horses to race in Breeders\' Cup races?\"

When U.S. racing put its anabolic steroid policy in place, it opted not to go with a complete ban as trainers and veterinarians made their case at the time
that anabolic steroids are useful in energizing horses and restoring their appetite when they return from illness or injury. Most trainers now do what Ellis has done, give them a shot two days after a run and space the races out so that they don\'t get a positive.

But think about this if you are a European trainer coming over to race in the Breeders\' Cup. From the 2 March 2015, a racehorse in England (and by proxy Europe as all top horses race in England at some stage) must not be administered an anabolic steroid at any point in its life. Any horse administered an anabolic steroid will face a mandatory stand down period from training for 12 months and ineligible to start in any race in Britain for 14 months. So for the last two years at the Breeders\' Cup, the European trainers and owners haven\'t been able to use steroids if they were required as a \'pick me up\'.

This in not like Lasix where the Euro\'s can decide if they want to use raceday Lasix or not. They have no ability to use steroids and the performance benefits it gives. By reading what Ellis and others have said, if he wasn\'t given a steroid he would probably not have been able to recover to compete at the level he did. Over the past two Breeders\' Cup, how many European horses have been beaten by US horses who are being afforded a steroid advantage? Does the Breeders\' Cup board condone this unlevel playing field?

[Wrongly]

\"Whatever the outcome, we have undertaken a review of out-of-competition protocols and rules in jurisdictions where our event is conducted and will seek the elimination of the use of any anabolic steroid in horses in active training toward the Breeders\' Cup,\" Breeders\' Cup officials said in a statement. \"To that end, we encourage the rapid adoption of recently modified Racing Medication and Testing Consortium/Association of Racing Commissioners International model rules governing out-of-competition testing.\"

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/218518/bc-wants-better-out-of-competition-testing

[TGJB]

None of it means anything if they don\'t freeze samples.

[JohnTChance]

Bitplayer said:

< Most trainers now do what Ellis has done, give them a shot two days after a run
< and space the races out so that they don\'t get a positive.

There it is folks. Today\'s racing game stated plainly. A few years ago, major changes were made to much of racing\'s stakes schedule - eliminating, swapping and spacing graded stakes further apart from each other. [For example, the Peter Pan used to be a mere two weeks before the Belmont.] Why the schedule change? Because of anabolic steroid injection recovery times! The trainer/vet lobby started crying and the Racing Lords appeased them.

The joke, of course is anyone today who discusses a horse\'s \"development\" (for example, in a sheets line) without referencing the profound influence of anabolic steroids and other pharmaceuticals.

Maybe a bigger joke is that when ARROGATE suddenly runs a -4 in the Travers or a FROSTED comes back with a -8 in the Met Mile (and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin himself says afterwards he was surprised by the effort)... the subject of WHY those animals ran epic races never comes up! Everyone just gushes. No one, including the racing press, ever expresses doubt those efforts were provoked by something other than hay, oats and water - legal or otherwise. Amazing.

Maybe an even bigger joke is the book AMERICAN PHAROAH: THE UNTOLD STORY by New York Times writer Joe Drape. I\'ve never read it, but I picked it up at a Barne\'s & Noble\'s recently and immediately turned to the index page to look for passages with Bob Baffert\'s longtime vet, Vin Baker. I thought: \"Oh boy! Let\'s get the inside \"untold story\" here!\" Except Vin Baker\'s name was nowhere in the index and therefore, I assume, nowhere in the book. What a joke! Someone\'s written a book about AP\'s inside \"untold story\" without even mentioning the most important person in the animal\'s story! Yer kiddin me right? Hahahahahahaha!