Go-Fast Drug

While getting to work early this morning i came across this interesting article.
I wonder if this drug is in South Africa and secondly what our stewards will be doing about this as the form of some horses lately are questionable !?

Attached files

Seemingly this drug was undetectable at one point ?

Does it work on people? I have some staff that could use some.

I'd be interested to see the outcome if we had our G1 winners tested from this and last season. When a new drug is detected does the club ever re-test old samples ?

they should examine some first timers from a special stable...

well, in germany we say, they were "auf Zack", hey!

Not a new drug but marketed as a feed suppliment, has been used in USA legally for several years, can be bought online for $500-$800/kg and it does not work in a single dose or one syringe to be effective. One would have to feed it on a daily basis to have an effect building up in a work programme.

I'm sure there are not many trainers that can afford a R4000-R15000/month bump in training fee's for something that can now be detected and not that effective.This won't turn an average horse into a Gr1 winner but may give your G1 runner an edge over other G1 runners.

My trainer was using it, just wish he would give it to the horse!

There is no drug on the market that can make a horse run "faster". 90 % of racehorses will run as fast as their athletic ability or current fitness will allow . There are drugs that will help a horse "eat better" or " bulk up" a bit .There are anti inflammatories and other drugs that help a horse recover better or quicker from a hard race or workout. At the end of the day horses are athletes and 90% of these medications are perfectly legal as long as they are not in their system at the time of racing.....

Toothman, of course most of the drugs are legal.

But you are confusing humans (prescient beings) with animals (who have no choice, and worse, no voice). Humans can see a doctor, explain symptoms, be recommended a medication, read the label (and side effects) and then make an informed choice whether or not to go ahead and take it (or even keep taking it, if it makes them feel lousy).

An animal does not have this luxury. It only knows whether it is comfortable or not. It does not have the psychological wherewithal to know that someone has administered an anti-inflammatory and while it may feel better, it actually is not.

Imagine, if you will, a horse that comes back from a race 'a bit scratchy'. It is administered some anti-inflams as routine. Which is fine. Assuming that the horse has merely overexerted itself and is just a bit sore here and there.

Now imagine, if you will, a horse that sustained some sort of micro-fracture in that race (or perhaps strained a tendon or ligament, or tore a muscle to some degree). The vet says he'll give it something to make it more comfortable (it's humane after all - we're doing it for the good of the horse). Presto, the horse feels better and the horse is back in work. Except it shouldn't be because it actually has an injury. Which has now been masked.

Fast forward a bit. The horse is coping as best it can, so it loses a bit of form, but is still running there or thereabouts. But obviously it's a bit scratchy after it's races (and perhaps after prep gallops), so it gets it's (perfectly legal) anti-inflammatory medication (therapeutically administered) to 'help it along'.

So eventually the body will begin to adapt. If one bit is not working, the body makes an executive decision to 'delegate' some of the load to another bit of the body. So the muscle/tendon/ligament which is damaged / weaker and not functioning properly, needs to be compensated for by something else. The body is now not moving symmetrically. And as one side gets stronger (it has to as it's carrying the bigger load - that's basic engineering logic), the other side gets weaker. As an example, muscles work in equally opposing pairs, so it stands to reason that when the agonist isn't working properly, the antagonist isn't either (ie one side of the body works harder, or less symmetrically than the other. Which means that it is unevenly stressed.

Given the limits to which we push our horses and the stupid g-forces that are put on bone and connective tissue, that's not really something you want. Because you mess with the symmetry (much like messing with your car's wheel alignment) means that the other wheels suddenly have to take up the slack.

So then it's over to you. But I'd rather my horse was sore and could tell me, than we just plastered over it and hoped for the best.

The NHA actually issues guidelines with regard to the therapeutic drugs so that they won't show up in a race day test. Interpret that any way you like.

The problem with administering drugs (legal or illegal) is that the efficacy depends entirely on the administrator. Of COURSE a lot of drugs have therapeutic applications. The question is, are they applied therapeutically? Or as short-cuts? Or for other reasons?

Like Sylvester, I'm not a great believer in human beings. I think it is much easier to make a blanket 'no drugs' ruling and come down hard on anyone who transgresses.

Which is a great pity. I am sure that horses can be treated therapeutically and then managed and run entirely ethically. I'm just not sure it happens all that often. Some of that is a moral issue, some of that is an educational one.

I'd personally rather err on the side of caution.

I'm with Zsuz on this one. Where the recipients of any drug or treatment are unable to say "No!", then government or some governing body has to speak on their behalf and say "No!" for them.

Animals, children, the very old and the mentally handicapped need protection, even from those who mean well but know not what they do. I was totally gut-sickened recently by something I read on a forum I sometimes write on, about a new treatment for autistic children which involves frequent enemas with industrial bleach (sodium chlorite). The mother just happened to mention, like it didn't matter, “He is nonverbal and fairly low-functioning, so I don’t get any feedback from him as to how he is feeling.”

Of course, he started throwing up and got diarrhea, but she was told by those who recommended the treatment that this was Nature's way of getting rid of poisons in his body. But because he couldn't actually speak, verbally, the torture continued.

This sort of damnable deliberate ignorance makes me want to cotch. Somehow the responsible authorities MUST step in and put a stop to this sort of thing, and the same goes for an animal, that also can't tell you "how he is feeling".

Wow zsuzsanna04... "The Trainer says"??? Really? Are you sure you want to go down that particular path of generalisation?

Phenylbutazone has been moved up to a schedule 6 drug in South Africa, in the last 2 months. It is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, with very little painmasking effect. It reduces pain slightly, which is a side effect of it's anti-inflammatory effect. This could never cover up or mask the pain of a fracture (however minute), an acute muscle tear, or a stay-apparatus (tendons and ligaments) strain, especially enough to work a horse again. Being a schedule 6 means in is *only* available on prescription after a vet has inspected the horse. IV bute can only be administered by a vet, and oral bute can still be dispensed, but is in very low concentration. Definitely not enough to mask a painful injury.

The steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (people this has nothing to do with anabolic steroids), are mostly cortisone based, and cannot mask pain enough for an injured horse to work again.

There is a very strict procedure regarding the administration of these high schedule drugs, with the cortisone based anti-inflammatory drugs being a schedule 4. The drugs must be administered by a veterinary surgeon, and recorded in a NHRA register. These high schedule drugs are not simply available over the counter. You can't just go and buy a bottle of pain masking drugs anywhere. And vets will not just inject without checking the horse first.

Top human athletes have their "soundness maintained" by specialist sport medicine doctors. They are treated in exactly the same way as performance horses. Time and rest will heal nearly every injury, but some anti-inflammatory medication will speed up the healing. With the advent of specific Cox 2 drugs now, the side effects are greatly reduced, and the positive effects are specifically targeted towards the problem areas. Ask any owner if they would prefer to pay keep for a horse resting for 6 months, while waiting for a non-career threatening injusry to heal, or if they would prefer a shorter rest period, where theraputic drugs have been used to assist with the healing of the injury.

I think you have painted a very grim (and quite untrue) picture with your generalisation, which is based on anecdotal evidence of a few hearsay cases. In general, however, I will put my neck out an say you are incorrect in saying that "Trainers" are just dishing out drugs to injured horses and making them work/ race. I think you need to rephrase that.

Rubyclipper - my apologies - I wrote in a bit of a hurry.

It should be rephrased to read 'The vet says'.

I have amended my original post.