I’m a little late with this, but a week ago the New York State Gaming Commission met in Saratoga to discuss rules on the raceday medication, furosemide, often referred to by its trade name Lasix. Teresa Genaro’s article in the Blood Horse had this disturbing paragraph.

The Gaming Commmission is staffed by members who requested the forum be held, admitting they have no background in horseracing and little to no knowledge about the anti-bleeder medication furosemide — also known as Salix or Lasix. 

I know. Stunning, isn’t it.

Commissioner Peter J. Moschetti, Jr. was quoted as saying, “You consistently hear from casual fans that racing has a drug problem. There’s a concern, and when there’s a concern it should be addressed.”

Of course, apparently all the panels were comprised of veterinarians, trainers, owners and racing executives. Not a horseplayer who could confirm or deny the betting public’s collective belief that racing has a drug problem. Typical.

Two big names in racing, Arthur Hancock III and Mark Casse had differing opinions on how racing fans view Lasix. Hancock was certain Lasix was the cause of racing losing 4% of its fan base each year. Casse countered that the big money players aren’t concerned about Lasix in the least, stating they are concerned about the unknown drugs, the substances apparently not being detected by million dollar mass spectrometers.

I’ve asked this question before and I’ll ask it again. Give me an idea of what kind of substance would be undetectable given current technology.

I’m going to agree with Casse, who I think represents the position of most of the horsemen. Racing is spending far too much money on testing that primarily results in insignificant violations of allowable therapeutics and not nearly enough money on finding the real performance enhancing drugs. They spend not nearly enough money on getting to the bottom of serious violations.

The racing executive panel included most of the usual suspects. Ed Martin from the Association of Racing Commissioners International, Bill Nader, executive director of racing for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Alan Foreman, CEO of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and Alex Waldrop, CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

Waldrop suggested New York should fully adopt the National Uniform Medication Program. Martin suggested the Lasix rules were fine as currently written. Nader, unsurprisingly, said most racing jurisdictions in the world conduct successful racing meets without Lasix. Of course, he probably didn’t tell you why it is possible to do that in Hong Kong, but implausible in North America. Finally, Foreman pushed for finding an acceptable alternative for Lasix, using money that is currently being used to fight the medication to do the research. I expect he didn’t mention that kind of research doesn’t come cheap.

In other words, the same old, same old, with a promise that people who apparently knew nothing about Lasix, aka the Gaming Commission, will figure out what to do next. Moschetti said he was confused by the variety of information, adding, “I was hearing things that I had no idea even existed.”

And you wonder why the problem never gets solved. First, we can’t even definitively define the problem. Second, we’ve entrusted figuring it all out to people who are confused and ignorant about Lasix. How do you know you are on the right track when you aren’t even sure where the train is you are supposed to get on?

Somehow I’ve managed to become known as the defender of drugs, a title I surely dispute. I’ve been called a shill for the HBPA, mostly because I’ve defended trainers I believed were treated unfairly by racing commissions.This may come as a shock to some, but not everyone who has been convicted of a crime is equally guilty, as the Innocence Project has proven in multiple cases.

I’ve said on many occasions, I believe real performance enhancing drugs must be eradicated from racing and the trainers who use them severely punished. I also believe that picogram overages of therapeutics and environmental contaminations do not deserve some of the harsh punishments meted out by the same racing commissions that are lacking in substantive drug knowledge. The two positions are not in opposition, and they are not equivalent. When Mr. Moschetti suggests fans believe racing has a drug problem, from my perspective it is the same sorts of PED’s other professional sports worry about, not Lasix or Banamine.

In my next blog I’m going to go into detail about Dr. Steven Barker’s view on drugs in racing. I’m sure you’ll find it as illuminating as I did.