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Please can someone explain to me the use of bute and lasix in American racing.I know that bute is a painkiller and lasix an anti-coagulant,but do all horses use it all the time or some of them some of the time..and is it because they’re running on dirt……
I dont know if they ALL use it in the U.S. However, i do know its banned in britain and france and the drugs stop horses from breaking blood vessels during a race. It does no harm to the horse and if it was legal over here im sure all would use it. Im not an authority on it though!
Some horses are trained on lasix over here. They are injected every work morning, although I am not sure of the withdrawal period.
Racing on bute is just plain wrong.Lasix is a commercial name for the drug "furosemide". It is a diuretic used to treat fluid retention ( edema) in people and animals with congestive heart failure, liver disease or kidney disorders and high blood pressure due to hypertension. It is this last reason that is the "nominal reason" it is fed to horses ie to lower blood pressure and stop them bleeding during racing. This is allowed in the USA but not, as far as I am aware, in any other jurisdiction,
I say the "nominal reason" for giving it to horses because the fact that the average horse will lose 20-30lbs when given Lasix is felt by some people to make them run faster. I think there are studies that suggest this although proof is difficult.
If a trainer uses it in UK he would be banned if picked up on a random blood test and in any event is probably wasting his time since if he withdraws it in sufficent time to have a clean blood sample then the horse will have retained the fluid again and his blood pressure would have started to rise again.
If a trainer uses it in UK he would be banned if picked up on a random blood test and in any event is probably wasting his time since if he withdraws it in sufficent time to have a clean blood sample then the horse will have retained the fluid again and his blood pressure would have started to rise again.
Of no benefit at all? Even if the said horse collapses and nearly drowns at the end of every piece of work without it?
I know several that would have died on the gallops, before they got fit, without it.All the American trained horses running in the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday ran on Lasix. In fact only Passage of Time, Timarwa and Jeremy raced without it.
Roughily half of them also ran using Amicar which is Aminocaproic Acid and allowed for racing in New Jersey. It is an adjunct to Lasix and can only be used at the same time and in addition to Lasix.
In New Jersey, like most states, you can’t theoretically run on bute. Instead horses are given an intra venous injection 24 hours before the race which is the cut-off time and probably has a small impact.
Use of Lasix is a contentious issue and is hardly ever used by German trainers because you can’t stand a stallion in Germany if they have used it and is generally unpopular with the French. Most British/Irish trainers use it when possible although it is notable that Sir Michael Stoute didn’t with Jeremy.
It is usually thought that the horse should actually need to use it otherwise its benefits are outweighed by the dehydrating effect of it. This is particular true in places like Chicago with high humidity.
I agree with Galejade that whilst many British trainers use if before hard exercise at home the withdrawal period for British racing means that they don’t benefit from it’s use in the actual race.
Roughily half of them also ran using Amicar which is Aminocaproic Acid and allowed for racing in New Jersey. It is an adjunct to Lasix and can only be used at the same time and in addition to Lasix.
I was wondering what the A in LA on the cards was, cheers.
So am I right in thinking then that if Hen Knight gave it to Best Mate the morning he pulled up at home with nasal bleeding missing the CGC he would not have bled?
If a trainer uses it in UK he would be banned if picked up on a random blood test and in any event is probably wasting his time since if he withdraws it in sufficent time to have a clean blood sample then the horse will have retained the fluid again and his blood pressure would have started to rise again.
The pharmacology of Lasix would appear to corroborate this: apparently it’s metabolised quickly, having a half-life of only 30-120 minutes but remains detectable in urine for upto 72 hours. Which suggests its diuretic/anti-bleeding effect occurs rapidly but is short-lived, and a minimum of three ‘clean’ days are needed before racing is permissible.
It is against HRA rules under any circumstance to use drugs to train horses harder than they can cope with naturally. To clear, Lasix has to be administered 48 hours and Bute 168 hours before UK racing, and under a veterinary certificate. About 55% of racehorses bleed sufficiently to part fill their lungs. It gets worse with older horses, 4+, where some 80% suffer. Lasix is not a cure-all and fortunately some horses naturally heal their lungs and only bleed occasionally.
"HRA Medication Code of Practice (Instruction C9)
In addition to prohibiting the administration of any substance on the day of a race, this Instruction also says that all treatments must be given in the best health and welfare interests of the horse. This means that drugs should only be used when the horse has a problem and that the veterinary surgeon prescribing the treatment should advise on the appropriate level of exercise for the horse to take during treatment. If a horse is not trainable as a result of disease or injury, it should be treated before training is resumed. Drugs should not be used, under any circumstances, to allow an apparently normal horse to be trained harder"I’m interested in Drone’s stats on the effective time for Lasix. In the states a vet has to adminster it 4 hours before the race. A guard is then posted outside the horses stable to make sure nothing else is administered. According to Drone it’s effects would therefore not be at their peak come post time.
I know that instruction C9 is broken on a regular basis as many horses are given lasix before a workout to minimalise the chance of bleeding. To answer an earlier posting yes I’d imagine that giving BM a shot would have been a good idea in hind-sight.
I would be interested to know from trainers/those involved in training how long before a workout the shot of lasix is given. I know that it is at least a hour before to get the full benefit.
Talking to the American vets I was interested to hear that, despite popular misconceptions, their trainers don’t train horses on a regular course of bute. This is good to know because it would mean that the trainers would have more problem identifying potentially dangerous unsoundness and it would give the horse even more problems with ulcers etc than they already have. Instead they rely on the 24 injection before a race as a matter of course.
I’m interested in Drone’s stats on the effective time for Lasix. In the states a vet has to adminster it 4 hours before the race. A guard is then posted outside the horses stable to make sure nothing else is administered. According to Drone it’s effects would therefore not be at their peak come post time.
Adrian
I’m not really qualified to be dogmatic about this having no more than a rudimentary understanding of biochemistry, but as I understand it the interactions (pharmacodynamics/pharmacokinetics) of drugs and their ‘peak’ effect don’t necessarily correlate in a linear sense with metabolic elimination rates. So Lasix may have a half-life of circa one hour but this does not necessarily mean that the diuretic effect ‘halves’ in the same time. Half-lives are also in many instances dose dependent i.e the greater the intial dose the greater the half life.
So it’s entirely possible that administering Lasix four hours prior to a race is the ideal time-lapse for maximal effect despite the fact that only circa 1/16 of initial dose remains unmetabolised after this time, assuming constant ‘zero order’ elimination rate.
What doesn’t get mentioned much in the press is the amount of Lasix you can give. At Monmouth trainers could choose to give between 500 milligrams and 150 milligrams. Not all trainers give the maximum.
Yes I read Brough Scott’s piece about steroids. Interesting that they may be bringing in new rules to curtail their usage. Laughable though that leading horsemen say they don’t know that you can use steroids in the states. It is the reason why so many American horses can’t subsequently race in Japan or Hong Kong. The Brass Hat incident – where he was disqualified from 2nd place in Dubai World Cup – also highlighted the wide spread use of steroids in America. Trainers going to race in Hong Kong have to list what medication they have given in the last 30 days and what steroids they have given in the last 60 days. Of course this rule didn’t help Joe Janiak who took the risk.
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