'Souloy welcomes the change in location for his mare and feels that competing in North America will allow her to develop as she can now race on lasix.'
I have no preconceptions about lasix. I know what I think about it as a bettor, and I have had many on (and taken off) the drug as an owner. It is one of the more interesting debates in racing. For takeout, and other business decisions, I have read, studied, talked to people and wrote papers about it, and I know how I feel. With the lasix debate I have done close-to-similar, and I am still stumped.
The Maple Leaf goes Saturday, and if Arch Madness is not at his best, this is one whale of a tilt. If you are a trotting fan, it's a must-see.
One thing I do know as an owner, is that I am not made for the claiming game, because "inject and race" is not in my vocab. There is a thoroughbred partnership that thinks similarly, and this article put a smile on my face. Can you imagine how many starts per year we'd have long-term if all trainers worked like this?
“Whenever I get a horse from the racetrack, if it needs three months off, I give four; if he needs four months, I give him five. Richard is OK with that. We give the horses the right time off, and if the horse is not 100% sound, I never send it back to the track.”
That can't help but put a smile on your face if you care about our equine participants.
Kudos to Brett and everyone at Charlottetown. Not only do they hold one of the most compelling event of any breed in North America, their business is growing. The most-excellent Gold Cup and Saucer goes next month at the historic oval.
6 comments:
I'm against the banning of lasix. I've had a few horses that would have been worthless without it.
I can only guess what some people would do to a horse with big talent that bleeds and is no good to try and make that horse not bleed.
The alternative that will be used to stop the bleeding is probably a million times worse than lasix.
ITP-
You may have had a few horses that would have been non-performers without lasix, but how many on lasix ended up with bone problems? While lasix is good for bleeding lungs, it does no favors for developing bone.
http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/foes-of-lasix-are-cruel-to-horses-ridiculous-nonsense/
Being dehydrated and then running at 45mph for 108 cannot be good for horses.
RR
Bill,
I guess when a owner/trainer has a horse that can win the invite on lasix, but can't win a 4K clm without it, they will just stop with the horse and find it a home.
Too bad that isn't what will happen. Someone, somewhere, through extreme experimentation and trial runs will figure out something that stops the bleeding and make all the bleeders regain their form.
That will make those horses unclaimable and jamming will occur all the time. You'll have numerous super-trainers all from figuring out ways around lasix.
Oh yeah...what stops the bleeding won't be pretty....it will be some witch doctor stuff like...bleach in the pipe...WD-40 in the throat, etc.
I obviously would never do anything like that so I would just quit and leave the sport to the witch doctors who don't care about anything but winning.
I'm not for lasix because I like it...I'm for it because I hate what the alternative will be.
I have heard very few in the industry (during this debate) speak of the angle ITP is speaking of. It's my number one concern.
PTP
Hey PTP,
I find it odd that we're already looking for a Lasix substitute instead of reformatting our conditioning/training programs to include endurance and circulatory exercises to promote a healthy cardiovascular system. I blogged about this on Wednesday:
www.standardbredgal.blogspot.com
You have to start conditioning them when they're young. We need to stop looking for "quick fixes" from the chemists and start putting some "elbow grease" into our daily training programs.
Standardbredgal
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