>> What is the purpose of the race-day limit? To prevent abuse between race >>days? To protect the animal from race-day effects? To eliminate short-term >>performance enhancement?
To eliminate levels that could be considered performance-enhancing.
For example, Pletcher\'s mepivicaine positive. That was a positive - but it was for a level of the drug that was so miniscule, that there was zero chance of a horse being numbed or not in pain from that amount of mepivicaine in the system (and, in fact, the level at which Pletcher pulled the positive was soon changed to be an \"allowable\" level).
For the legal steroids, as they should be given to horses that need them (and if horses need them, they are not ready to race) it would be so that there was an interval from the dosing of the drug to achieving a non-therapeutic trace level.
Again, a level which may show the drug had been given 30 or 45 or 60 days ago, but now is at a level that could have no effect whatsoever anymore on the horse.
>> I\'m reading that withdrawal times (while still being studied) are probably >> in the 15-30 day range. Assuming that to be correct and that the RMTC rules are implemented, would you think that stakes-quality animals might routinely be injected shortly after a race (to aid in recovery) in anticipation of racing again 5 weeks later?
I personally think the levels for the legal steroids will be longer than that, but sure, I can see what you are saying.
I expect most drug abuse to be cheaper horses, not stakes quality horses. Horses that \"have\" to run to make money, or someone doesn\'t eat. Feeding the ego is powerful motivation, feeding the belly more so.
>>Would you think that would be appropriate, or should the animal be treated only if it shows a loss of appetite or other ill effects after the race?
I use the drug only in the second instance. Others do not.
Random thoughts .... Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Arlington to name three - all these tracks are in urban areas (heavy with car exhaust) and next to airports and under plane landing pathways.
The air quality is absolutely disgusting and filthy at these tracks, for both the humans and the horses.
And at most tracks in the US, as most are no longer on the outskirts of an non-industrial city with little traffic, but are within the confines of filthy and ever-more-congested urban areas.
There are no turnout paddocks at most tracks. No grass to graze. No clean air. (why do horses from other areas \"bloom\" at Keeneland in the spring? It\'s rural compared to most areas - quiet, few traffic sounds ...)
Horses are meant to graze fresh soft grass with their heads down, constantly walking and blowing accumulating snot out their nose while their nose is down at the ground in ever freshening areas as they walk and eat.
We cram them in barns of 10 x 12 foot stalls, 20 horses in a physically small area to share respiratory diseases, filled with dried straw (molds, small particulate matter, microscopic mites, etc), ammonia from urine, feces in their hay (even if stalls cleaned constantly), and we feed their dried hay up out of nets, and have to add oats (not natural) to meet energy needs.
No wonder so many horses are on clenbuterol to dilate their airways and make it easier for mucus and crap to drain from the lower airways.
No wonder 90% of horses have stress ulcers from their diet and husbandry practices.
We need more drugs to help our horses, as look how we ask them to live and work.
In Europe and Australia, horses are often kept, not in cities, but run out of trainers yards (farms) - they get time off, paddock/grazing time, etc. Because the trainers there often have their own yards so the horses can get time off, no so in the US. And racing isn\'t year-round in many other locations in the world.
Unless you are one of the trainers that seriously attempt to do that (train at a Fair Hill and ship in to races, etc)
Other countries don\'t allow raceday lasix. Yet horses bleed (EIPH) just as much over there. But when they do bleed, they bleed much worse, with more lung scarring, and less return to function, than our horses over here who are allowed lasix.
There\'s alot more to medications than just meds - it\'s all the less-than-optimal husbandry issues we have with professional racehorses in the US, too.
Owner-breeders-hobbiests who bred, raced, then retired and bred on their own stock cared about soundness when the horse got back to their farm after a career.
And the horse made it\'s money - declared it\'s value as potential breeding stock - on the racetrack. Not in the breeding shed.
Name an owner nowadays that can afford to allow a valuable horse to have 4 months off for vacation once a year during it\'s career. Having a racing stable is expensive as heck. It is something that has to support itself for most owners. That means horses have to run and win big. Or be worth alot in the shed.
