Reading the NYRA website I see that 5 cc of Lasix is going to be the default amount administered to horses. But that a trainer can request to have a dosage of a different amount administered by the Track Vet.
Which makes me wonder if there is going to be any attempt made to keep the public informed of these dosage manipulations?
It seems to me the least the NYRA should do is keep a medication history that can be accessed through the web or through monitors at the track similar to the replay booths now in operation.
Of course, the public awareness of doage histories is going to create another image problem for the track if it turns out, as logic would predict, that there is a correlation between horses running with higher amounts of lasix breaking down more often.
Also, I wonder how same day detention barns are going to effect the flow of one day shippers into the New York tracks. I would expect a drastic cut back in horses shipping in from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, even in horses shipping in from Finger Lakes to Saratoga since the new rules put another six hours into any schedule.
Which should result in smaller fields. Perhaps, made even smaller by the New York trainers now shipping out of town to avoid all the hassles and make their scores. Which really puts New Jersey in an awkward position. The New Jersey circuit is so very dependant upon same day shippers that for them implementing a six hour detention barn really is a major risk. If they make it too inconvenient for horses to ship in they don\'t have any racing. But if they keep the status quo they really could benefit at New York\'s expense.
And so we enter the Brave New World of Racing.
