Jockey Club committee calls for ban on steroids

A committee set up by the Jockey Club to recommend safety measures in thoroughbred racing called for the elimination of steroids in training and racing.

Two days before a Congressional hearing on the sport, the Thoroughbred Safety Committee, established shortly after the Eight Belles fatality at the Kentucky Derby, also announced Tuesday it was recommending a ban on horseshoes with toe grabs and a number of whip-related restrictions.

The steroid ban, which the panel urged states to enact by the end of the year, will be the most difficult of the recommendations to establish and police.

“Our goal is to have no exogenously administered steroids on race day,” Larry Bramlage, a veterinarian and committee member, said on a conference call with reporters.

Steroid use for therapeutic reasons would be allowed.

Alex Waldrop, president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., and Bill Farish, chairman of Breeders’ Cup Ltd., released statements endorsing the safety panel’s recommendations, as did several other horse racing bodies.

Unlike most team sports, which have a national commissioner to make decisions, thoroughbred racing makes its regulations through individual states. Of the 38 states that have thoroughbred racing, moves to eliminate steroids are in place in 11, including California and Texas.

The California Horse Racing Board, Chairman Richard Shapiro said, plans to begin testing for steroids through blood samples by July 1, when it hopes to have a ban in place.

Big Brown was administered a water-based steroid, Winstrol, on the 15th of every month, according to trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. But the Triple Crown contender was taken off the steroid and finished last in the Belmont Stakes after having won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Big Brown had been scheduled for a dose of the steroid May 15, but didn’t receive it and two days later, on the day of the Preakness Stakes, a $50-million stud deal was announced with Three Chimneys, a Kentucky horse farm.

Bramlage added that the recommended steroid ban is not primarily a safety issue, as are the other recommendations, but rather a way to create an even playing field for all involved in the sport.

Safety committee chairman Stuart Janney III said steroids “have no use in a horse on race day.”

The ban of toe-grabs in shoes on the front feet, it is believed, would decrease injuries.

The whip-related recommendations would require the use of padded whips and would prevent a jockey from striking a horse with an over-the-shoulder motion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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larry.stewart@latimes.com