AAEP’S KUMBAYA PAPER
Whenever I think about horse racing’s crazy-quilt regulatory system that has ruling bodies in 38 different states, I recall the time an official at some racetrack asked Hall of Famer Bill Mott to show his trainer’s license before entering a restricted area. Mott reached into his Wrangler’s and pulled out what appeared to be a full deck of laminated playing cards, held together by a rubber band wrapped around the outside.
“It’s in here somewhere,” Mott said, fumbling through individual licenses for Florida, New York, Kentucky, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois, Delaware, Virginia, Louisiana, and maybe even his home state of South Dakota, among others.
Uniform licensing is a concept the industry has been working on for, oh, 50 years or so. They still haven’t got it figured out. In this regard, owners, trainers and other licensees are subjected to some of the most ridiculous regulatory inefficiencies any industry has ever seen. Why?
I thought about this absurdity as I read the racing industry’s latest “white paper,” this one authored by a well-intentioned group of equine veterinarians at the American Association of Equine Practitioners that suggests we all follow their recommendations, pull together, and work in concert for the overall good of the industry.
The average meaningful life of a Thoroughbred industry white paper is about 10 to 14 days – or at least it used to be. That’s about how long it took for the weekly trade magazines to dutifully detail the highlights, and then mail the magazine to their subscribers. The typical reader reaction was a collective yawn. They know how the industry works … or doesn’t. The lifespan of an industry white paper might be shorter today, given the access to the information on various Web sites.
For those who haven’t seen the AAEP treatise, it’s called “Putting the Horse First: Veterinary Recommendations for the Safety and Welfare of the Thoroughbred Racehorse.” Click here to read the entire nine-page report.
For those who want the abbreviated version, here it is: 1) the AAEP believes it is “imperative that the industry urgently demonstrate an ability to affect sweeping change without government intervention”; 2) we need to hold hands and sit around a campfire singing songs until we can reach agreement on issues related to the welfare of the horse 3) horses should not be permitted to race without at least 10 days between starts; 4) some racing secretaries are evil and racetrack management is increasingly clueless about horses; 5) more study is needed in the areas of racing, training and selling 2-year-olds; 6) adopt new whip rules; 7) keep holding hands and singing campfire songs; 8) it’s no longer acceptable for owners to heartlessly discard ex-racehorses, and it’s imperative that all jurisdictions establish and support rehabilitation, retraining and adoption agencies 9) claiming races need reform, with purses no more than 50% higher than the claiming price, drug testing of all claimed horses, and claims for horses that fail to finish a race being voided; 10) develop and adopt uniform rules, penalties, drug testing protocols, violation reporting procedures (stop me if you’ve heard this one before); and 11) keep singing and holding hands, and will someone please throw some more logs on the fire?
This industry is amazing, if for no other reason than for its ability to clear its throat and harrumph when the situation is dire. Since Eight Belles died on the track at Churchill Downs and we celebrated the highs and lows of Big Brown, an anabolic steroid-pumped Kentucky Derby winner (surely not the only one), we have had more task forces, committees, blue-ribbon panels, and alliances than we’ve mustered up before in this short a time. We’ve had the Jockey Club, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, and now the American Association of Equine Practitioners sounding off (and I know I’m forgetting some of the other alphabet soup orgs).
And still, Bill Mott has a pocketful of racing licenses. If we can’t do the simple things, what makes the AAEP or any other group think we are going to convince 38 state racing commissions that a $12,500 purse is too high for $8,000 claimers, or that a horse needs 10 days off before racing again?
Let’s look at the first premise of the AAEP’s white paper, that we need to “urgently demonstrate an ability” to make change without government intervention. Haven’t we had enough chances to demonstrate our ability to do so? (I enter Bill Mott’s expired trainer’s licenses into evidence.)
Why and how has the AAEP, a group of veterinarians, taken it upon themselves to state that we must do this without government assistance? I suppose if they were involved in the cattle or poultry or peanut business, they’d suggest we would be better off producing meat and other foodstuffs without interference from the United States Department of Agriculture.
The point is, we need government to help us overcome the dysfunctional regulatory structure that has led us to this mess we are in. We just need to be able to be part of the process, and not be in the adversarial role many in this industry are setting us up to be in. If we repeat the mantra that “government is enemy, government is enemy,” how do you think government is going to respond?
So with all due respect to the AAEP and its veterinarians, please stick to what you know best. In fact, this white paper completely ignores what vets know best, which is the care of horses. Nowhere in the white paper are there recommendations on such procedures as pin firing of shins of young horses, or permitting horses to race just days after receiving joint injections. To be fair, AAEP executive director David Foley said further recommendations will be forthcoming, but should those recommendations have come first, so that their own house is in order?
Tell us what you think about the chances the AAEP’s white paper recommendations will ever be implemented. Read the full report. Take our poll on the left-hand column of the Paulick Report home page, and leave your comments in the space provided below.
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Tags: aaep, AAEP white paper, american association of equine practitioners, anabolic steroids, Big Brown, bill mott, claiming races, david foley, drug testing, drugs in horse racing, eight belles, Horse Racing, Jockey Club, National Thoroughbred Racing Association, NTRA, Paulick Report, putting the horse first: veterinary recommendations for the safety and welfare of the thoroughbred racehorse, racing regulations, racing secretaries, Ray Paulick, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, TOBA, uniform licensing, uniform rules
February 18th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
my belief is thought needs to be given to taking vets out of the horse welfare process and keep them doing what they do, which is veterinary procedures. we might be spared then of Larry Bramalage, pontificating after the 2008 Derby standing near the woefully trained 8 Belles who without questions had condylar aspects that would have lit up like an Xmas tree pre-race had anybody bothered to check–(see Larry Jones and his 205 lbs doing a mile in :14s on back of the horse a few days after a bullet work–an intensity and quantity for which the horse was never prepared–on the Espn videos and additionally note that of all the horses entered in 2008 derby the one that had the least number of breezing and racing furlongs for 2008 was: 8 Belles): that’s horse racing (Bramalage after the Derby). Nothing Bramalage could see except she must have stumbled. My question would be: can we quit focusing on peripherals for horse racetrack welfare and “finally” put the focus where it belongs–horse training? And, appoint an exercise physiologist to do the research. Leave the vets out of it.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
may I add: an appropriate statement by Bramalage would have been: this is terrible. we need to investigate this.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
This is the same AAEP?
” The AAEP believes that slaughter is not the ideal solution for addressing the large number of unwanted horses in the U.S. However, if a horse owner is unable or unwilling to provide humane care and no one is able to assume the responsibility, humane euthanasia by captive bolt at a U.S.D.A.-regulated facility is an acceptable alternative to a life of suffering, inadequate care or abandonment. ”
http://www.aaep.org/pdfs/AAEP_Position_HR503.pdf
February 18th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
What the AAEP needs to confront is the fact that so few racetrack vets anymore are horsemen, they tend towards businessmen. The common attitude is not what’s going on here with this horse, but I have an opportunity here with a horse doing no good, how can I exploit that with a the person paying the bills 1000 miles away?
If a horse gets an ankle, the trainer that gallops in the slop doesn,t care, just fix it! The dutiful vet shows up with his/hers cortisone injection, and if that doesn’t do the trick, here comes the vaunted extracorporeal shock wave machine, touted to heal everything at $0.25/shock, 800 shocks per treatment, of course for a 3 treatment regimen. Give me a break! Let there be shedrowing, hosing, ice, poultice, plenty of deep straw bedding, excellent timothy hay, good feed, and may the best horse win!
February 18th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
they should have named that paper “putting the vet first.’ who administers these drugs we talking about? and the fact they still won’t even whisper what everyone in the industry knows - that LEGAL drugs vets administer to just about every horse in every race every day mask injuries, cardio vascular deficiencies and illegal drugs (’snake venon anyone?’) until the vets step forward and take a believable oath to put the horse first, then this all so much nonsense.
uniform medication rules and enforcement are absolutely vital and the only way to get there, i think, is to have one administering body (a la nascar, mbl, nfl et al) ruling the sport. put the rci, the ntra, the breeders cup, the jockey club and the hbpa pooh bahs in one room and let them appoint a racing commissioner who will make this an industry we can believe in. the alternative is continuing fragmentation, divisiveness and humbug parading as white papers.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
i agree that horses, which are claimed, but fail to finish, should revert to the original owner. I know of trainers whose “dropping horses” take two steps out of the gate and are pulled up. It’s the usually the same trainer/jock combination. No one is endangered riding a sore horse, and they can exchange high fives when some sucker claims him. If it happens more than once in a year (and it does), the trainer/rider should be fined and suspended..
February 18th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I’m all for government regulation. These “industry leader” self love fests are getting the horse nowhere.
February 18th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Excellent article, Ray, well said. I particularly like all the hand holding… makes me feel all cozy inside. And as for Aunt Bea, and her fantasy land, I might suggest buying stock in a company that makes those shock wave machines, or perhaps become a partner with that goofball driving around Palm Meadows and Wellington in the Big Blue Iron Lung, which you too, can put your horse inside for only $600 for 30 minutes… of course a four treatment series.. Because as long as these uninformed, LIED to owners keep paying these outrageous bills, I assure you, the fraud will continue, unchecked, until there is no more horse racing… but Keep your chin up, because it shouldn’t take long Aunt Bea, not long at all.
February 18th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
no government intervention? Where have I heard this before? *cough*cough*banking industry*cough*cough.
February 18th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Yes. Why don’t they hold themselves and their actions accountable? Without the complicit nature of many track vets, the trainers would be less likely to “medicate” horses that need time and patience instead of another “injection”……But then again, the “time off” would detract from their all important day rate, regardless of whats best for the horse. And God knows any approach that hinges on “conservative” would certainly limit the earning potential for vets as well. Every decision made, eventually comes from an economic standpoint, never the welfare of the animal in the long run (pardon the pun).
February 18th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Hm. Perhaps we should form a committee to make recommendations on their recommendations. The U.S. racing industry seems particularly good at this.
OK, I’ve said this many, many times before: The only solution: A central racing governing body. I don’t care if it’s run by Washington or if the industry manages to do it on its own (it won’t). The time for excuses is over (it was about 30 years ago).
And pull the plug on medication. Geez, why is it so hard to get through to people on this one?
February 18th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I just can’t get over the premise that The Jockey Club Should have taken the lead in developing a uniform system that would create a universal license for hotwalkers, grooms, trainers , Vets and owners. I don’t believe for a second that they couldn’t pull it off.
They could be just as creative today as they were in the mid 90’s when they pulled the impossible and took control of the information, sure they had to pay the tracks to participate, but it was successes all the same.
Talking out of my head:
The application could be downloaded on TJC website or picked up at each track. Each license would have a different charge. Hotwalkers and grooms the smallest fees gradually increasing as you move down the line to vets and owners. These fees pay for the employees and IT. Each applicant would be responsible for sending in a (passport) picture along with the application to TJC. TJC promises a week turnaround and you can’t play till all is in order. The tracks make their money by collecting fines when these licensed people break the laws. Just a quick thought while I wait at the doctor’s office.
PS: I need a job and would be happy to be the first of the 2-4 new employees.
February 18th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Ok, Racefan, upon reflection after all these years in the game, yes I Am An Idiot!
February 18th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
what a hoot! the idea that people who can not agree on teh most simple matters will all of a sudden get behind these radical ideas is nothing short of hillarious. the sad thing is the vets do not seem to understand their recomendations are a condemnation of the sport as we know it todayy. they are hurting racing more than they know
February 18th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Cal Breeder:
I agree. It Is Sad!
February 18th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Government *is* the reason for our “dysfunctional regulatory structure.” State government, that is. State laws and state racing commissions set the rules for racing in each state. Depending on where the regulations are set in each state, they need to be changed in different ways.
That said, there is ongoing work to standardize racing rules and regulations. The Racing Medication and Testing Consortium has issued model rules, which states are adopting. More info is here: http://www.rmtcnet.com/
The National Racing Compact is working to “establish uniform requirements for and issue licenses to participants in pari-mutuel racing to ensure that all participants who are licensed meet a uniform standard of honesty and integrity, and to reduce the regulatory burden on those participants in pari-mutuel racing who are indisputably welcome to race in every state and province by providing them with a single license recognized in all racing states and provinces.” More info here: http://www.racinglicense.com/
The Racing Officials Accreditation Program “accredits and provides continuing education for racing officials, stewards and judges to ensure integrity and promote consistency in the regulation of horse racing.” More info here: http://www.horseracingofficials.com/
Nobody can just wave a magic wand and fix our patchwork of regulations. But our various horsemen’s groups, tracks, and national groups have been working on bringing about consistency and standardization.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
How many of you out there have ever received a vet statement with an examination fee but no pharmaceutical charges? Almost unheard of these days. Take away antibiotics and steroids and most of my colleagues couldn’t practice at all. It gets back to how very few are true horsemen. And another thing, anabolics should be banned from all racetrack properties. A vet should not even have them in the car. Their original use was to treat a debilitated horse, such as after a long illness or surgery.
February 18th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Government intervention to make us set up a natoional body, then retaining some oversight is the only way to get oit done. Routine inspections of the vets trucks on the backsides, and annual vet account audits as a qualification for them practicing on racehorses would help. Why are all the allegedly innocent parties concerned about asking our government for help?
February 18th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
can we take note of what Bryce Peckam is doing at Turfway. Per Jstark, some substance seems to be coming to pass of late!! Does anyone remember that horse racing just barely got its gambling exemption in the last round in Congress? I fail to get this asking for the feds to intervene and jeopardizing our little pot of gold. Horse expert John Conyers seems to be chairing the horse issues.
February 18th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Govt intervention? Are you kidding? Doesnt anyone pay attention to the news? The govt is going to save us?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
February 18th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
jrstark:
One of the best comments on the PR. Thank you.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
When Lincoln got done will all those other pressing issues following Appomattox, he probably should have appointed a National Horse Czar. Little did he know that we’d end up with 38 racing commissions, 38 medication policies and 50 interpretations of what constitutes driving (or racing?) under the influence — the AAEP failed to clarify what they wanted to test claimed horses for? I recall a good stakes horse from the 70’s that had a pint of Guiness on race day. Does that count?
All has been heard before. Until the rather jingoistic behavior of the states (legislators & horsemen) is reined in, racing will keep snipe hunting with itself.’
Want an national issue? Try the Federal Wire Act.
February 18th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
For some time I have been curious as to the number of people who comment that are directly involved in the Thoroughbred-horse business. More than a dozen Commentators on this matter. Will each of you help with a survey ?
If you are NOT directly invested in, or you DO NOT make your living in the Thoroughbred business, this survey request DOES NOT apply to you.
If you are directly invested in, or you make your living in the Thoroughbred business, in as few words as possible, will you please state how you are involved?
e.g. Owner Jockey Farrier Vet in racetrack practice. Etc. Etc.
Thanks for any help you can be and, THANKS RAY for allowing me to do this.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Thoroughbred trainer in France
February 19th, 2009 at 7:12 am
why would someone who is not involved in this industry take the time and effort to post a comment here?
….anyway, i am a breeder, farm owner, racehorse owner, feed provider, a shareholder in a track company and totally frustrated with the lack of and/or the stupidity of leadership in this industry and the divisiveness that seems to grow daily. this aaep paper is symptomatic of a wider problem here that a central governing body would cure. every constituent blames others for the problems and no one is willing to step forward, take the industry by the scruff of the neck and say: “here’s how it is going to be done.’ of course, 38 state commissions, many of them populated by folks unfamiliar with racing and appointed as political favors, does not help. one would think that the racing commissioners would finally get together and at least agree on a uniform testing and penalty regimen. now you find serial drug offenders slithering out from under and vets, who have to share some of the blame for the medication mess (they administer it, for goodness sake), pointing the figure of blame elsewhere. it is always someone else’s fault. this can’t go on. maybe the apparent approaching bankruptcy of the biggest race track owner will focus stakeholder’s minds.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Thoroughbred veterinarian, breeder, owner, trainer’s wife
Many racetrack practitioners have dropped out of the AAEP because the organization has become so far removed from the issues of the industry. I find it equally as entertaining as Ray that this organization suddenly decides to come up with the “fix” for an industry that represents less than 10% of it’s members.
That said, most racetrack practitioners in this country are trying to do their best for the welfare of the horse. The AAEP should spend its efforts to lure back the racetrack practitioners that left in droves because of these kind of position statements without good understanding of the industry. The one point that the AAEP paper pointed out and rightly so is the issue of the public perception of therapeutic medications. G. Rarick continues to comment that medications should be banned in the US. I continue to point out that, at this point, for better or worse, they are. She wants bleeder medication banned, but is willing to use herbal therapies (aka uncharacterized medications). Therapeutic medications (FDA approved, tested, and well characterized to be safe and effective) MUST be permitted, or we are just plain inhumane. If they are present in a post-race sample at a level below which they could have NO effect on the outcome of the race, then they should be permitted. Herbal therapies, like Ephedra (performance enhancing herbal which was banned in the US a few years ago for killing people) should be banned!
Around here, it is common knowledge that Larry Jones rarely has a veterinarian in his barn, and Eight Belles tested negative for EVERYTHING, and yet the focus on medication started because of Eight Belles’ untimely demise. How does public perception on medication become so negative because of an issue that had NOTHING to do with medication?
How do PETA and HSUS, the organizations behind the negative press ( Connie Whitfield, lobbyist for HSUS is the wife of Ed Whitfield who convened the racing hearings on Capital Hill) so strongly influence public perception? These organizations believe that owning a cat or dog is animal exploitation. The question is: how do we fix public perception? In this, the AAEP white paper is correct.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Clara, we’re going to have to agree to disagree. You’ve just called every racing jurisdiction outside of the United States (ok, and Saudi Arabia and some in South America) inhumane because we DON’T allow lasix (which, while it certainly is approved as a safe diuretic by the FDA has NEVER been clinically shown to prevent bleeding in racehorses). Somehow, us barbarians in the rest of the world manage to get by without it. And I don’t see staggering, suffering, nose-bleeding horses at the track, either. Hm. I can’t imagine why.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Hate to say it Clara,but GR is right on this one. Your defense of so called “therapeutic medications ” is totally, unequivocably defenseless. And please don’t say it’s inhumane to ban medication. That’s plain asinine.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I wish that instead of making fun of the AAEP for the politics it had to include in its white paper (for whatever reason) along with the good stuff, Ray had started a campaign to make the government follow up on its initial spate of post-Derby hearings last year. Or explained to me as a reader what to do to make that happen.
Plenty of industry participants, reporters, supporters and detractors have said a uniform governing body is what is needed. (Frankly, I don’t care at this point if that body is the Federal government or not - but it needs to be independent.)
I want those Federal committee members to explain to the public and the industry just what it has done with the testimony and written materials it received last year.
And if it hasn’t done a blasted thing with that stuff (becasue let’s face it, it’s easier to do nothing), then explain to the public and the industry why - what’s the roadblock? - where exactly is the problem? - who needs to be called out?
I have read over and over and over that racing needs a national governing body - and I have read NOWHERE how to make that happen. I just get so damn frustrated.
I’m starting a spreadsheet about what “reforms” have been undertaken - State by State - since all of these recommendations have come out. I’m going to put in additional recommendations as they appear. How long is one supposed to give it - one year? two years? - before people can say to the NTRA (if it doesn’t say this itself - and if the reforms are languishing), self regulation is - again - not working.
And while the AAEP continues to issue recommendations … and the NTRA’s Integrity and Safety Alliance … and the Jockey Club … and TWO summits on the Safety and Welfare of the Racehorse … and the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium - the horses, the vast, vast majority of horses, keep racing under the same old crappy “rules.”
February 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
owner/trainer, 20 years. Nice post mary. the aunt beas and g. raricks will make every post a lasix debate, and we should just ignore them. rarick has yet to tell us what she does with her bleeding horses.
my opinion is that things are improving, stuff is getting done, and we might consider stoppage of the sky is falling rhetoric and get behind those things that are positive. 99% of race horse owners/trainers understand the need for therapeutic medication. let’s end that stupid debate while banning and creating a no-tolerance policy for steroid possession. the question of the benefits of steroids are valid. unfortunately, there is also the question of abuse of innoncent animals. quit the sham of 45 day withdrawal or mere testing. where are you Rick Arthur?
At Turfway they are doing what should have been done with 8 belles and barbaro. They are conducting FBI investigation. Kudos to their managers who finally are providing a model. The next step is immediate probation pending investigation of any trainer that breaks down a horse in a race–that’s end 50% of it right there. It will be interesting to see whether Bryce Peckam also commences pre-race diagnostics for TV races. Knowing Peckam I can see the look on this face when he sees Stardom Bound walking in for the Derby.
To me racing’s basic problems–marketing to bettors, injury prevention, marketing to a new type of owner, increasing the pot instead of splitting it without risking being shut down due to federal intervention might be solved in one day of meetings. The momentum is already building with Twin Spires and with KY State Vet.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
ratherrapid: if your horses are bleeding and you think Lasix and amicar really do help fix the problem, I pity you. You’re thirty years behind the times.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I am sorry to make this a lasix debate, but Clara started it. What do I do with my bleeders? Don’t have any. Most trainers I know don’t have any. (And let’s not even get started about how all horses bleed, yes, they do, but so do humans if you push yourself hard enough. The tiny amount of incidental bleeding that occurs in a well-trained, fit racehorse is a normal part of his physiology and is not cured by Lasix.) But hey, let’s not let ME turn this into a lasix debate.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
rarick, if lasix worked, you would have a point, but it does not. studay after study has confirmed that. however, it does influence performance and that is why it is banned in the athletics and in just about every other racing jurisdiction in the world. does america know better? no, but we are better at sticking our heads in the sand and kidding ourselves that all these race-day medications have nothing to do with the soundness of the breed. in australia and several other countries, habitual bleeders are warned off, but that is quite rare. in fact, probably less than half of one per cent of horses racing in this country even need lasix. put it down as another tax on the horseowner and gravy for the vets. but the most compelling argument against race-day medications is that they mask other drugs and conditions that are a threat to the safety of both the horse and the jockey (funny that posters almost totally concentrate on the health of the horse over the human on its back, but there is a lot of wonky ‘logic’ used in this industry in this country, pin-firing among them. this is not a debate about lasix. that debate is long dead and gone, but lives on as a reminder of the lack of leadership and common sense that is sending this industry hurtling toward oblivion.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
apologies, rarick, i believe it was another poster who jumped in on lasix,
February 19th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
1) There are scientific studies showing Lasix decreases the severity of bleeding
2) There are scientific studies showing Amicar decreases the severity of bleeding
3) G. Rarick admitted to treating her bleeders with an herbal remedy in a prior thread
4) Gina, if you don’t look, you don’t know. You have to actually scope horses after working and racing in order to know if they bleed. The scientists that have actually done that have reported that all horses bleed. Gina, you said yourself that you feel the need to use herbal anti-bleeder therapy.
5) Bea: “Your defense of so called “therapeutic medications †is totally, unequivocably defenseless. And please don’t say it’s inhumane to ban medication. That’s plain asinine.” Where is your evidence? Therapeutic medications are exactly that: Therapeutic. That means they treat something that is amiss. How many weeks can you go without an Advil or Sudafed? What about if you were an elite athlete in intensive training? How many therapeutic medications, including injections, do you think professional athletes (Basketball players, football players) get? Professional athletes get “jugs” (intravenous fluids) during half-time.
Zero-tolerance means that you can’t get this stuff ever. It means that two weeks after you take the Advil, you cannot compete. That also means that if you don’t want to miss a race, you can’t treat a horse with a mild bellyache with an appropriate pain medication four days before the race. No impact on the outcome of the race, just a positive test. THAT is inhumane.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Geez, I promise that whatever Clara says next, I will NOT respond. But as for herbal remedies, I said that trainers who have had bleeding problems here have used them. I have not had a bleeder; I think I used Audevaard’s Ekybleed once on a horse I suspected had bled, but there was nothing in the nose (and no, I didn’t bother to scope, because I wasn’t too worried about it). Ekybleed is made of sweet clover, red vine leaves, bitter orange peel and vitamin C. There is nothing in it that isn’t listed in the ingredients. Nobody uses anything over here without knowing exactly what is in it and what the withdrawal requirements are if it tests. So, one more time: I’m religiously anti-lasix and any other race-day med, and no, I do not grow mystery weed or slaughter chickens and drain their blood to make my horses go faster.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Wow, great responses! Yet another broken spoke in the racing wheel. Each spoke - wagering, customer service, marketing, health issues, retirement, etc. A national ruling body - one with rules & regulations with an actual penal system - is definitely needed. I shudder to think what a government agency would do to foul things up. On the contrary, I don’t see the right industry people making it to the short list to comprise such a governing body, let alone write good regulations (e.g., KBIF regulations).
Unfortunately, no matter what becomes of the various individual organizations, these few captains think they’re smarter than the rest of us and are unwilling to share control or truly listen. So, we continue to drift toward the rocks. Before the ship wrecks, federal government intervention and oversight may be the only resolution (especially in this administration given that most of the captains likely have not been supporters of the President and therefore, couldn’t control events from behind the scenes as would have been done in the last administration).
Even so, if everything was put back to together and the ship was sailing smoothly and everyone was finally rowing in unison, the sad truth is, the gov’t can’t make the fans come back. And, by the time this panacea of cooperation occurs, they’ll be long gone…on a Carnival cruise with rock climbing, kid activities, 24/7 customer service, and, funny enough, no gambling!
Anyone want to meet for a match race in Bourbon County? Bookies welcome.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Clara, don’t go there, please, you can’t even call yourself a racetrack practitioner. My patients over the past couple years have included several champions and International winners (can we say no medication?) Besides, any horseman can tell you that to race a horse after a “bellyache” is a exercise in futility ,regardless of meds on board. Please get off the dumbass Kentucky medication bandwagon!
February 19th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Lasix debate #302340.
If G. Rarick et. al. truly believes French horses generally do not bleed does she additionally believe these same results can be achieved in America on dirt tracks with our style of racing? If you believe this, do you have any evidence? If you have evidence, please provide it, since the facts are that although horses do not bleed in France (allegedly), they do bleed on this side of the Atlantic.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
(KBIF regulations were supposed to be an example of poorly written regulations)
February 19th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
I’m with Clara on therapeutic meds in combination with time off and other (non-medicinal) therapies. There are great benefits from medications. Unfortunately, it seems to become the crutch for those who don’t know other therapies or, worse, who have owners who have no tolerance for time required for injuries.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
hey garrett,
Fan here, hope that is OK with you. If I have your permission I would like to make a comment.
pa guy I am making a comment because as a fan, I still want to see my favorite game improve and thrive.
Thanks Ray for letting the common man have a voice, well a common man who doesn’t work in the industry.
Thats OK we all make
Thanks Ray for letting the common man have a voice, well a common man who doesn’t work in the industry.
February 20th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Is this the same Clara that was all over the EPM bandwagon about 10 years ago?? If so, all she ever did on the racetrack was CSF taps, to check for a disease that struck maybe three thouroughbreds, but sure made a lot of vets happy that all their “undiagnosable” lamenesses could now be labeled EPM, and enrich themselves in the process by selling a bunch of unnecessary meds to unsuspecting owners and trainers. What a disgrace, she should have her license taken away!!
February 20th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
The way this “exchange” is going, if there is not civility, Ray may need to introduce censorship. It is alright to be libelous, if one has the courage to accept the consequences - which might be a lawsuit. It is cowardly to use a pen-name to commit libel. Note to “Racefan”: Why not take off your cover and identify yourself ??
Referring to the ’survey’. I deduce a majority of commentators are not directly in the Thoroughbred business. Nothing at all wrong with that, everyone may have an opinion. What is disappointing, but not a surprise, is that so few in the business will take time to express their thoughts on the many critical subjects Ray has introduced.
It may be a majority do not have any thoughts or ideas, nor anything to say about their prospects. Right there is the fundamental reason why a few incompetents are steering us ** on to the rocks.
(** I confess to being on board as a breeder and owner)
Suggestion, while staying with the analogy: “Shipmates ! Grab a lifevest and JUMP”.
February 20th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
****censorship! The great thing about the net is the FREE exchange of ideas! And if, you, Mr, Redmond, have invested your hard earned dollars as an owner/breeder in the treatment of rare disease (EPM), like 214,485,385 other racehorse owners, you are only making a few vets that you continue to employ, and the shareholders of the manufacturers of Marquis happy!
February 20th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
EPM was/is very real… but is also VERY, very rare… it became an excuse for horses that didn’t move or train well, these vets and trainers just said, “oh, she has EPM”, and threw $1500 of medicine per month at them, and for what ?, Nothing…Hundreds of horses are currently on this very expensive EPM medicine, and they neither need or benefit from said medicine… but the vets certaintly are getting healthy of f the bills, and if as an owner, you don’t think your trainer gets a very thick envelope from that veteranarian come Xmas time, you are living in a very happy place…
February 21st, 2009 at 12:48 pm
If one looks at the comments of the pro-med and “AAEP did a decent white paper”job posters, they appear to have a laundry list of disqualifiers for people that post and don’t share their opinions. The vet snapped back, Redmond snapped back (with the coup d’grace…you can’t post unless I say you are qualified to post) and the bottom line is that racing will not improve; especially for the horses. Rarick didn’t say she didn’t use meds and then somehow we went off into some bizarre herbal and Lasix/Salix debate, with a little PeTA and HSUS trash talk. My understanding from Rarick was she doesn’t use meds for her racing horses. Everyone has to use some type of medication for an ill or lame horse at some time…but NOT near or on raceday. Your horse needs meds, then it shouldn’t be racing. And that seems to be the big debate here and with the rest of the world. Many international jurisdictions don’t use/allow them.
I just want you to know that the mother ship-AVMA, of which the AAEP has affilitation have recent published press releases that say horse slaughter in Mexico is OKee DoeKee and at the begining of their legislative agenda year, said they would support the slaughter bound horse on double decker ban bill, HR 305. But now they are waffling on HR 305 and still support nonhead restraint, captive bolt horse slaughter of US Horses with no production records. Now, if they can’t get their act straight on decent transport and euthanasia for US Horses, just what exactly can they contribute to the improvement of horse racing in the US? Plus there are racing entities trying to discipline racer owners/trainers/breeders that sell to human consumption horse slaughter. What’s with the mixed messages? The AVMA and AAEP seem to have some committment issues. I bet the white paper wouldn’t even make good tp.
Good story Ray…keep up the good work. I love watching the dinosaurs squirm in the tar pits of failing racing.
February 21st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
D. Masters has the best comment of the whole lot!!
February 21st, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!. Beats the devil out of me how some can leap to conclusions without actually reading and comprehending the material.
I cannot see that I have ever suggested comments cannot be made unless I determine who is qualified to make a comment. I believe I stated clearly exactly what I was trying to determine through my unscientific survey.
It also confirms how readily mudslingers can indulge in their favorite game of character assassination, when it can be done under the cloak of anonimity.
The more I think of it, the more compelling my conclusion: If you are ashamed to put your name to it - don’t write it.
This is my last comment on this or any other topic.
February 23rd, 2009 at 4:50 am
The strange course of this discussion thread has only bolstered my original post: the AAEP has one thing right. There is a huge disconnect amongst the public between “medication” and “therapeutic medication.”
Quote from AAEP white paper: “Management of medication violations by racing jurisdictions with three objectives in mind: (1) to discover how the medication entered the system of the horse in order to prevent future positive tests; (2) to manage and report sub-therapeutic levels of therapeutic medication overages in a way that does not further degrade the public image of racing; and (3) to sufficiently penalize the violators and discourage further attempts to violate the rules”
Let’s focus on number (2) for a moment. Fact: Therapeutic medications are used to treat a condition, and the medication in some cases can be detected long after the original condition is gone. i.e. no one is advocating treating horses to “coverup” a condition so that they can run. We are talking about treating a horse with a legal product for a real condition which we can eliminate so that the horse can be healthy to run. But the legal product produces a positive test for a long time. Right now, the public (apparently including some of the people posting on this forum) think that a positive for a subtherapeutic level (meaning it had no impact on the animal on raceday) of a drug is effectively the same as an etorphine positive.
Additionally, there are a lot of great, new effective medications that we cannot use in race horses at all simply because they will produce a positive test at a subtherapeutic level for a long time. Now we are bordering on inhumane. I cannot use the best possible drug for a condition, because it will test long after the horse is recovered and back to normal.
Racefan, it turns out that EPM is an excellent example of why some medications should be permissible. Ten years back, we only had one option to treat this disease, let’s call it PSD for discussion purposes. Horses would often be completely normal by 2 -3 months on this stuff, but if you dicontinued its use, the signs would worsen again. Withholding before competition was 5 days. If you raced Standardbreds, or had a show horse which would compete every week, you were off the medication more often than on it. A horse actually died at the Rolex as a result of being off the medication long enough to compete. So, normal on PSD, crash and burn off PSD. In order to treat the horse long enough to completely eliminate the disease, took from 6 months to indefinite (as long as several years). Now, you are placing an untenable burden on the owner if you expect them to wait years. As long as the drug is not performance enhancing (PSD is an anti-protozoal only), it should be permitted. Not doing so is inhumane.
There are many other examples of this. This is why threshold levels should be established and therapeutic medications permitted in the test samples. And those “positives” should not even be reported, because the average Racefan can’t tell the difference between a “real” positive for something like EPO or etorphine and an isoxsuprine positive. If I can’t educate the die hard people on this forum, the AAEP is not going to be able to educate the general public.
February 23rd, 2009 at 5:46 am
I repeat, if the AVMA/AAEP think that hauling horses in double-deckers (almost exclusively used for slaughter bound horses) and non-head retraint CBG death with no drug/residue testing for human consumption is humane and ethical for horses, then I really don’t care to hear what they have to say about the much more complicated issue of drug use in the race horse. The former issues are “no brainers” and simple, the latter very complicated. So in the meantime, AAEP should clean up it’s act on transport and euthanasia issues first and drugs of any kind should not be allowed on raceday. I would go as far as to say that the mouthpiece organiztions (AVMA/AAEP) have some serious integrity issues, as do their members that don’t speak out for change. The vet may get paid by the owner, but their duty first is to the patient…the horse.
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
[...] those who took exception to what I wrote about the “AAEP’s Kumbaya Paper” was Dr. Rick Arthur, a former AAEP president and currently medical director for the California [...]
April 9th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I did not expect this on a Thursday. Congrats, on all the exciting news!. Added you to my feed reader.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Keep working ,great job!