Matt Iuliano: Jockey Club supports phase out of Lasix, wants clean competition

by | 06.12.2012 | 7:16am
  • click above & share!
    X
  • click above & share!
    X


  • click above & share!
    X
  • click above & share!
    X

Matt F. Iuliano, the executive director and executive vice president of the Jockey Club, addresses the use of race day medication and the impact it is having on the sport of horse racing. At present, both New York and Kentucky are considering changes to their stance on the use of Lasix. New York held an open comment period and Kentucky will likely vote at a meeting on Wednesday on whether or not to begin a phaseout of the drug. Iuliano writes that the Jockey Club has long supported a gradual phase out of the use of Lasix.

Jockey Club hired the consulting firm McKinsey & Company to review the sport of horse racing and make recommendations for improvement. The analysis showed a loss of 4 percent of fans per year with safety and welfare and medication the most common reasons for people to leave the sport. Of current fans, “78 percent said they would stop betting if they knew horses were not treated well; 38 percent said they would bet more if they knew horses were not given drugs, and 36 percent said drugs is one of the top three issues facing racing.”

Iuliano encourages Kentucky to seize the opportunity to become a leader in the movement for clean competition in horse racing.

» Read more at Lexington Herald-Leader
New to the Paulick Report? Click here to sign up for our daily email newsletter to keep up on this and other stories happening in the Thoroughbred industry
  • WILLIAM L. ANTON

    How many of the so called Jockey Club executives are owners or even ever tried to train a racehorse?? What the hell does a consulting firm know about asking the questions correctly, or do they ask the questions only to please the people that are paying the tab?
    What makes Matt Iuliano an expert on this?  I am curious to know. Anyone that has not been on their hands and knees in the morning with these great animals know NOTHING as a matter of fact!!!!

  • Llc

    Rather than banning lasix/salix, the Jockey Club should work on reducing costs so more random testing could be done in the barns on non-race days to find the illegal drugging of race horses.

  • Sportsguy633

    McKinsey & Company also had lots to say about TV, but never talked to Mike Trager, Amy Zimmerman, Tony Allevato or Tom Dawson, four of the most knowledgeable horse racing TV people on the planet, then came to conclusions that have been common knowledge for the past three decades.  So I don’t think much about their findings or  the huge amount of money spent to get them.

    The racing industry has done a poor job in educating the public on Lasix, so it’s been lumped in with all other performance-enhancing drugs.  Too many veterinarians and horse-care givers favor Lasix because they feel that it is best for the health of the horses.

    That ultimately is more important than current public perception, which could be changed if the industry spent as much money on that PR campaign as they did on McKinsey.

     

  • SeanN

    There are actually quite a few people at the JC that own multiple racehorses and that are involved in the breeding industry. Sometimes you can’t always say what you believe as an individual, but have to speak on behalf of the company that makes it possible for these people to own horses.

    With that said, they are making a huge mistake as a compnay by supporting the phase out of lasix.

  • MamaKin

     Thanks! For the newsflash! What a surprise!

  • David

    Another study . . .now there’s some new ground.  Who’d have imagined integrity would be suspect among non-users?  That JC is a real think tank.

  • WILLIAM L. ANTON

    I under stand, they are hipocrits’. I was on the Calif. TT board for three years and always said what I meant, and tried always for the betterment of racing. Made enemies, but told the real truth. No matter whose feathers I ruffeled. The industry must come first, not the stupid a$$es with the politcal agenda. Such as Iuliano and company.

  • Harry

     Ban Lasix and  4-5 horse fields will be the norm at all tracks banning Lasix. Anybody who would think banning Lasix will not affect the time between horses racing is only kidding themselves. Instead of banning Lasix lets suspend the trainers who are using illegal drug practices. Horse racing is a joke when it comes to implementing suspensions. R Dutrow a perfect example. How many times does a trainer have to violate before a suspension will take effect. APPEAL,APPEAL,APPEAL,APPEAL years go by and still Dutrow is allowed to train. Suspensions should take effect immediately and appeals should be heard within weeks not years. Horse racing will never be a clean sport the way it is regulated today and LASIX is not the problem. Gosh “Luck” on HBO was not about clean sport but a SEEDY SPORT. Sad very sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • John McEvoy

    Please inform us when all the Jockey Club owners start running their horses WITHOUT salix.
    With their misguided scare tactics regarding this necessary, legal medication, they have done more to poison public perception of racing than any other group.

  • Ben K McFadden

    Mama

    Can you contribute more than sarcasm? Doesn’t really bother me, except it contributes nothing. What is the appropriate “reply” to your comments here and on other blogs?

  • Ben K McFadden

    Any owner with a horse in training, on another farm, or in a sale barn has to weigh the risk of public comment against possible gain. I don’t use my real name on here to speak from a dark alley. I realize it is to easy to drug or injure a horse, easy to find someone to do it, and almost impossible to stop or apprehend the culprit. Paranoia? Not if you’ve seen it happen and consider the money on the line for disgruntled parties. I think working behind the scenes is effective, as is changing the leadership over time. Lack of confrontation does not mean there are not individuals doing just that, or that they are hypocrites (with an “e”) for not being willing to put their horses “on the line” to make a point.

  • Wildhorse1

    The loss of 4 percent of fans per year is pretty much a fixed number and has been for years. This is the industry attrition rate from death and disability so I would imagine some of them would have a hard time responding to a Jockey Club survey. Tracks in Florida saw their turf club and box holder numbers decline each year by 3 – 4 percent as far back as the late ’90s. But keep blaming it on Lasix Matt, that’s what you get paid for!

  • TTownTony

    Clean racing in the near future…thank goodness! Hopefully racing gets back to the good ole days of horseracing where horses were conditioned in actual races. As a handicapper and bettor for many, many years who has recently walked away from racing for the very reason everyone is debating right now…medications! I look forward to coming back to a sport I once loved….back to “clean racing”.

Twitter

follow us on twitter »