First-Time Usage of Lasix to Be Key Factor in Derby

That handicapping imponderable--bleeding horses running on Lasix for the first time--will be more of a factor than ever Saturday when the Santa Anita Derby is run for the 51st time.

Three of the nine horses entered in the $500,000, 1 1/8-mile race, which is Southern California’s last major prep for the Kentucky Derby on May 7, bled in their previous starts, all three running poorly after winning stakes in their races before that.

Ruhlmann, after winning the El Camino Real Derby in a spectacular time at Bay Meadows, ran eighth as the 9-5 favorite in the Florida Derby, and a postrace endoscopic examination showed that he had hemorrhaged in the lungs.

Lively One, after winning the Santa Catalina at Santa Anita, was the 4-5 favorite in the San Felipe Handicap but finished a far-back fourth, and a scoping showed that he bled. What a Diplomat, winner of the San Rafael, was in contention going into the stretch of the San Felipe, and that’s when his trainer, Dick Mulhall, thinks he bled. What a Diplomat finished fifth.

When California horses bleed, either in a workout or during a race, they qualify to run on Lasix, a diuretic that is supposed to be a bleeding deterrent.

Lasix is a controversial medication. It is illegal in New York, the only major racing state that prohibits horses from running on any medication. Many students of form insist that horses can “wake up,” and improve dramatically in performance, when they run on Lasix for the first time. Racing authorities are also concerned that Lasix may be a masking agent that can prevent chemists from detecting more powerful, illegal drugs in postrace tests.

Bill Shoemaker, Lively One’s jockey and a winner of the Santa Anita Derby a record eight times, was discounting the colt’s dismal performance in the San Felipe even before he learned that the horse had bled. Lively One and Shoemaker were knocked sideways on the clubhouse turn, and the son of Halo never regained his true stride after that.

To the surprise of Laz Barrera, who trains Mi Preferido, Lively One has been made Saturday’s 2-1 favorite by Jeff Tufts, the Santa Anita linemaker. Winning Colors, trying to become the first filly to win the race since Silver Spoon in 1959, is next on the line at 5-2, and Mi Preferido, who won the San Felipe for his fourth victory in five starts, is the third choice at 7-2.

Here is the field: Purdue King, with Fernando Toro riding, 12-1; Ruhlmann, Pat Day, 6-1; Flying Victor, Russell Baze, 20-1; What a Diplomat, Eddie Delahoussaye, 30-1; Winning Colors, Gary Stevens, 5-2; All Thee Power, Aaron Gryder, 30-1; Mi Preferido, Chris McCarron, 7-2; Tejano, Laffit Pincay, 10-1, and Lively One, Bill Shoemaker, 2-1. All starters will carry 122 pounds, except Winning Colors, who because of her sex allowance gets 117.

Does Lasix bolster a horse’s performance the first time he runs on it? Larry Weinbaum, a professional handicapper, has been charting first-time Lasix users at Santa Anita. Through the first 62 days of the meeting, there were 273 starters in this category, and 35 won. That’s a low ratio of about 13%--you could just bet the favorite every race and have more than twice as many winners--but a flat $2 win bet on all first-time Lasix users would have shown a profit of $176.

At Laurel, in Maryland, earlier this year, horses that were either first- or second-time Lasix users won seven straight races.

“I don’t have that many bleeders, so maybe I’m the wrong guy to ask,” said trainer Wayne Lukas, who is trying to win his fourth Santa Anita Derby with either Winning Colors or Tejano. “But I only look at Lasix as a stop-gap measure. No horse races the same with Lasix in the system.

“I don’t adhere to what the handicappers say about Lasix automatically moving a horse up the first time it’s used, but it has a purpose and it does have to help, although I’m not sure to what degree.”

Barrera, who won the Santa Anita Derby--and later the Triple Crown--with Affirmed in 1978, says that Lasix is not necessarily a panacea.

“It’s a two-edged sword,” Barrera said. “Sometimes it might help, but it can also drain a lot of water out of a horse’s system, and knock him out.”

Spend a Buck won the Kentucky Derby in 1985 while on Lasix, then didn’t run in the Preakness and the Belmont, the other Triple Crown races. Maryland, which has the Preakness, permits Lasix, but through a technicality Spend a Buck wouldn’t have been able to use the medication there, and of course none of the horses could run with medication in New York’s Belmont. Alysheba won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness while treated with Lasix last year, then with no medication finished a poor fourth in the Belmont. Irrespective of medication, an admittedly lax ride by Chris McCarron was a factor in the Belmont.

There has been discussion about running all of the Triple Crown races, as well as the Breeders’ Cup series, without medication. But state racing rules would have to be changed for this to happen, and it’s unlikely that horsemen will ever consent.

New York trainers seem to survive without Lasix. King’s Swan, who has earned $1.2 million and become one of New York’s best handicap performers, is a bleeder, yet his trainer, Dick Dutrow, has tried to control the problem through a strict diet and less strenuous training.

“Lasix has never been intended to control bleeding in horses, and there’s no evidence that it has such properties,” says Dr. George Maylin of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell does the post-race testing for the New York tracks.

New York apparently doesn’t have as many bleeders as California, where well over half the horses are on the bleeder list.

“The (winds from the) Santa Anas, and the humidity getting as low as 10%, that has a tendency to dry these horses out,” says Charlie Whittingham, who trains Lively One. “I’ve had more bleeders at this time of year than I’ve ever had.

“You find more bleeders now than you used to, because if a horse runs a bad race, you automatically have him scoped. In the old days, a horse would have to practically bleed to death before you knew it.”

Whittingham, who will be 75 next Wednesday, started 17 horses in the Santa Anita Derby before he won the stake for the first time last year, with Temperate Sil. On Thursday, he drew the pills that determined the post positions for Saturday, and the first number out was Lively One’s, on the far outside.

“At least we can’t get shut off coming out of the gate,” Whittingham said.

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Bobby Frankel was asked if Ruhlmann’s bomb in the Florida Derby was because he bled. “What else could it have been?” Frankel said. “If it’s something else, then I’m in trouble.” Frankel says that there’s the possibility that Ruhlmann might also run in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 28. That’s the last major prep before the Kentucky Derby. . . . The Santa Anita Derby, which is being televised nationally by ABC, will be the fifth race on the card, with a 2:43 post time. Post time for the first race Saturday is 12:10. . . . In other racing involving 3-year-olds this weekend, Forty Niner is the 4-5 favorite today against eight opponents in the Lafayette at Keeneland, and on Saturday undefeated Seeking the Gold is the 7-5 favorite in a field of eight in the Gotham at Aqueduct. It was raining in New York Thursday and with rain also predicted today and Saturday, that will make Perfect Spy more of a factor in the Gotham. . . . Woody Stephens, who trains Forty Niner, has two other Kentucky Derby candidates and plans to run Digress in the Blue Grass at Keeneland and Cefis in the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs the Saturday before the Derby.

SANTA ANITA DERBY FIELD

Post Horse Jockey Wgt Odds 1 Purdue King Fernando Toro 122 12-1 2 Ruhlmann Pat Day 122 6-1 3 Flying Victor Russell Baze 122 20-1 4 What a Diplomat Eddie Delahoussaye 122 30-1 5 Winning Colors Gary Stevens 117 5-2 6 All Thee Power Aaron Gryder 122 30-1 7 Mi Preferido Chris McCarron 122 7-2 8 Tejano Laffit Pincay 122 10-1 9 Lively One Bill Shoemaker 122 2-1

Post time: The Santa Anita Derby will be run as the fifth race in Saturday’s program and start at approximately 2:45 p.m. PDT.

Television: It will shown on a delayed basis in the West as part of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which starts at 4:30 p.m. PDT on Channel 7.

Purse: $500,000, with $275,000 going to the winner.

Distance: 1 1/8 miles.