TOBA Reaffirms Commitment to Race-Day Drug Ban

Efforts to eliminate race-day medication and a federal bill that aims to create a national standard for medication use in Thoroughbred racehorses were the key topics discussed at a recent Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association board meeting.
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Efforts to eliminate race-day medication in Thoroughbreds and a federal bill that aims to create a national standard for medication use in Thoroughbred racehorses were the key topics discussed by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) board of trustees during an April 10 meeting in Lexington.

The well-attended 2 1/2-hour meeting resulted in one vote and a reinvigorated commitment to do more to address the controversial issue of allowing the race-day administration of the anti-bleeder drug furosemide (Salix). The board unanimously reaffirmed its support for TOBA's American Graded Stakes Committee (AGSC) pushing forward to eliminate race-day Salix use in all U.S. juvenile graded stakes.

Last August the TOBA board endorsed, though not unanimously, an AGSC pilot program that banned race-day Salix use in all 2-year-old graded stakes in 2012. If the ban was ignored, the offending race risked losing its graded status. In the past, the AGSC has tied the adoption of various policies, such as total carbon dioxide testing, to the retention of a race's graded status. Total carbon dioxide testing is done to determine whether a horse has been given a "milkshake" prior to a race, a sodium bicarbonate solution that reduces fatigue-causing lactic acid in muscles.

The AGSC has since announced the pilot program will not be implemented in 2012

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Written by:

Eric Mitchell is a Editorial Director and Editor-in-Chief The Blood-Horse magazine.

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