Is New York’s Ban on Lasix a Sham? : Horse racing: Bleeder medication won’t be allowed for Breeders’ Cup races, but horses might be getting ‘bleeder therapy.’

Four years ago, a California trainer brought a horse to Belmont Park to run in a stake race.

The horse was a bleeder, a thoroughbred who sometimes suffers from pulmonary hemorrhaging because of the stress of running. The trainer, who asked that his name not be used in this story, knew that the horse wouldn’t be able to run on Lasix because of New York racing rules. Lasix is a diuretic that is commonly given to bleeders in all other major American racing jurisdictions, but is banned here as well as in Canada and Europe.

The morning of the stake, the veteran New York veterinarian hired by the trainer visited the California horse’s barn.

“The state vet been here yet?” the veterinarian asked.

“No, not yet,” an assistant trainer told him.

“Well, I’ll be back later,” the veterinarian said.

New York, which prohibits horses from racing with medication, is one of the few states that takes blood tests of horses on their race days, and a horse is scratched and the trainer usually fined if the test turns up positive.

Later that morning, after the state veterinarian had taken his blood sample and left, the private veterinarian returned to the barn and treated the California horse. The horse finished fourth, and eight days later, back in California, the trainer received his veterinarian’s bill. He was surprised to see this race-day item:

“Bleeder therapy injection . . . $15.”

The trainer told the story to suggest, as others have, that while New York preaches about running its horses on only hay, water and oats and advises that the rest of the country to do the same, the reality of racing here is that horses are somehow pharmaceutically treated for bleeding and still pass their post-race tests.

Racing’s medication controversy simmers most of the year, while industry leaders mull inconclusive surveys and equine bleeder research goes under-funded, but during the Triple Crown series and at Breeders’ Cup time in New York, the issue moves to the front burner. This Saturday, at Belmont, the Breeders’ Cup--seven races worth $10 million--will be run in New York for the second time, and the leading topics for conversation will be the general weakness of the injury-riddled fields and how horses who bleed will run without medication that they have been given elsewhere.

Of the quality horses that remain from a season with a staggering attrition rate, many are bleeders. They include Dispersal, who could wind up being favored in the $3-million Classic; Bayakoa, who is trying to win the $1-million Distaff for the second year in a row; Steinlen, the defending champion in the $1-million Mile; Best Pal, California’s best hope to win the $1-million Juvenile; and Safely Kept, the filly in the $1-million Sprint who is trying to improve on her second-place finish a year ago.

Summer Squall, a horse who could have added some much-needed interest to the Classic, will not run solely because of a serious bleeding problem. Second in the Kentucky Derby and winner of the Preakness, Summer Squall skipped the Belmont Stakes and the chance to win a $1-million Triple Crown bonus, because he wouldn’t be able to run on Lasix here. His owners were leaning toward running the colt in the Breeders’ Cup until Summer Squall bled profusely despite being treated with Lasix in the Meadowlands Cup in New Jersey Oct. 12.

In July, the Daily Racing Form began publishing Lasix information in past-performance records, and of the 110 horses who were pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup a week ago, at least 35 have run while being treated with the diuretic in the second half of the year.

Of these bleeders, many--including Dispersal, Bayakoa, Steinlen and Safely Kept--have won races in New York without apparent problems. Unbridled, the bleeder who with Lasix won the Kentucky Derby and finished second in the Preakness, still ran in the Belmont, partly because Summer Squall’s absence virtually assured his owner of the $1-million Triple Crown bonus. Unbridled underwent dehydration as a bleeding preventive for the Belmont, and while he didn’t bleed, he ran a poor fourth while still earning the bonus. Winless in a stake race since the Derby, Unbridled will run Saturday in the Classic.

When the Breeders’ Cup was held at nearby Aqueduct in 1985, bleeder information was not published. At least eight starters in the seven races were bleeders, and while Smile was second in the Sprint and Gate Dancer ran second in the Classic, none of the other bleeders won while running without Lasix.

Some horsemen from outside New York say many New York horses run on medication, but that the legal drug levels here are high enough to prevent most post-race tests from being positive. Dinny Phipps, chairman of the New York Jockey Club, has said that testing in most states, including New York, needs to be improved.

The Jockey Club, after a much-criticized survey that it commissioned from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988-89, believes that Lasix makes some horses run faster and should be banned on those grounds alone. There is also a theory that extended use of Lasix can be harmful to a horse’s system, and John Giovanni, national manager of the Jockeys’ Guild, is among those who questions whether Lasix has masking properties that interfere with post-race testing for stronger illegal drugs.

The California Horse Racing Board has scheduled a two-day Lasix seminar for Los Angeles next month. Polls of various segments of the industry have brought resounding results in favor of Lasix, but many of the reasons behind the responses are self-serving: Veterinarians like Lasix, but of course the more of the drug they use, the higher their bills to trainers will be; trainers favor Lasix because they feel it alleviates bleeding and extends horses’ careers.

A high percentage of New York trainers favor Lasix, too, but they are no match for the Jockey Club on this issue. Nick Zito, a Belmont trainer who will run Thirty Six Red in the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf Saturday, is especially vocal.

“Not using Lasix will mean the end of New York racing some day,” Zito said. “Using Lasix is the humane thing to do when a horse is a bleeder. You see horses bleeding (from the nostrils) in front of the stands here, and it’s terrible.

“They have trouble (getting full fields for races) here all the time, and Lasix is the big reason. If they let trainers use Lasix, we’d be getting a lot more horses from New England than we do. So what do we do? We send our bleeders to New Jersey to run. But I don’t think it’s going to change. Trying to talk to the establishment about this is as tough as trying to talk to Gorbachev. I’ll probably be working at Finger Lakes (a small track near Rochester, N.Y.) after I’ve said this.”

Ron McAnally is a California trainer who handles Bayakoa, whose only New York appearance was one of the best races of her career, a victory in the Ruffian Handicap at Belmont a year ago.

Asked the alternative to giving Lasix to Bayakoa for Saturday’s Distaff, McAnally said: “I have a vet, Dr. William Reed, who’s well-regarded in New York and I’ve used him on my horses here for years. I don’t know what he’s going to do, and I don’t even ask him. All I know is that he told me not to worry.”