Another battle over the medication Salix is brewing. We say "another" because Thoroughbred racing has been wrestling with this drug on and off since the 1970s when there was a mixed bag of prohibition and acceptance among the racing states. New York was the last state to fall, lifting its ban in 1995. Today, debate is heating up again over the effectiveness of the anti-bleeder medication (common name furosemide and formerly known under the brand name Lasix) and more importantly whether it should be allowed on race day since research has shown it is a performance-enhancing drug.

We know this about Salix: It is effective in preventing exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhaging (EIPH), which is known more commonly as bleeding. Horses with EIPH have their pulmonary systems stressed to the point where capillaries and blood vessels burst and they bleed through the nostrils. We know from research that racehorses with EIPH do not perform as well as horses without this condition. We also know that using Salix improves performance, which is the reason a maiden claiming race for 2-year-olds June 1 at Delaware Park, shows eight of the nine horses entered are listed as running on Salix and/or an adjunct medication. Actually, for the entire race card, only five of 89 horses entered will not be racing on Salix.

We’re not picking on Delaware Park. These statistics are the same at all North American racetracks.

A study conducted in South Africa–the results of which were published in 2009–was significant because it reaffirmed the drug works to reduce EIPH and that horses on the drug perform better than those without it