NY Times Hit Piece is out

[miff]

Girly,


Word heard is that Gov Coumo\'s proposed New York Gaming Commission will consist of 7 members, 5 appointed by Gov.Cuomo, one by Shledon Silver, the other by the top gun in the house.Commission is supposed to rule over any form of legal gambling in NY State, making it very powerful.They\'ll be lining up for those 7 spots.Hoping Ben Liebman,friend of racing, has a part in that process.

Would be terrible if the same old politically appointed stooge types get the positions.


Mike

[sighthound]

I hear what you\'re saying, Rich.  Here\'s what you are referring to, I think:

Yes, there is very old research that shows lasix slightly - slightly - slows horses, estimated to be due to the side effects of dehydration.  

About 6-7 years ago, there was a study with 8 Thoroughbreds that showed horses improved their performance slightly, by increasing the duration of time (not speed) they could run.  They could run slightly longer, but not faster.

The study showed in increase in VO2max (oxygenation volume).  The study attributed the increased performance to the 20-30 pound water weight loss from dehydration, rather than improvement in decreasing EIPH.   You can read that abstract here:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17402434

There was another older study in the late 1990\'s that analyzed the actual racetrack performance at 6 furlong races of all TB\'s in the US and Canada for a period of time on dirt tracks.  74% of horses ran on lasix.

The horses on lasix performed better, won more money, finished in the placings more frequently.  

Here\'s a quote from the study that is directly to your concern: \"... horses receiving furosemide had an estimated 6-furlong race time that ranged from 0.56 +/- 0.04 seconds (least-squares mean +/- SE) to 1.09 +/- 0.07 seconds less than that for horses not receiving furosemide, a difference equivalent to 3 to 5.5 lengths.\"  

Again, the study could not conclude \"why\", but the improved results were measurable.

My opinion, and this is based also upon my personal experience and participation with multiple lasix research studies published in the 1990\'s that first established the actual measured cardiac and pulmonary pressure differences in TB\'s on and off lasix at speed:  Is lasix a \"hop\" that artificially increases speed and performance?  No.  Does it enable peak performance?  Yes.  

I know that may seem like parsing a semantic difference, but my view of lasix is that, if we are going to run horses professionally at the fast speeds on dirt, we have to protect their lungs from the associated damage if we can.

Let me know if you\'d like to read the studies mentioned, I can forward to you.

[TGJB]

Sight-- I agree with your bottom line, and this also gets to the definition of \"performance enhancer\". Which last time I looked was not defined in the pending Federal legislation that many in the industry are now getting behind, in a state of near panic.

[sighthound]

Letting the feds in will be a disaster.

[sighthound]

Here\'s a quote from the study that is directly to your concern: \"... horses receiving furosemide had an estimated 6-furlong race time that ranged from 0.56 +/- 0.04 seconds (least-squares mean +/- SE) to 1.09 +/- 0.07 seconds less than that for horses not receiving furosemide, a difference equivalent to 3 to 5.5 lengths.\"  

TGJB:  What time/distance formula do you and Beyer use again?

[girly]

I agree-get some new blood in.... I share a lot of Richiebee\'s feelings right now-I am so over NY racing. Besides the skimmed take outs, catastrophic breakdowns, crooked training,a lot of small operations are leaving their horses to starve when they can\'t make it. I could tell you about some scenes I am aware of, but I don\'t want to put those thoughts in your head. It usually takes a good 24 mo. before substantial changes actually occur, and we don\'t know what they are going to focus on after the completed consolidation, but man, how much worse can it get? I am ever hopeful....

[TGJB]

At 6f, a second is about 6 1/4 lengths.

[sighthound]

Thanks, just eyeballing the distances they calculated.

[miff]

\"At 6f, a second is about 6 1/4 lengths\"

JB,

Interesting,never heard of any calculation of raw time not being .17 hundreds equals one length at all distances.Are you speaking of the value of TG points vs raw? One second at 6f or any distance equals 5.88 lengths.

Mike

[Rich Curtis]

Thank you, Sighthound.