Gulfstream Park owner Frank Stronach has asked Florida regulators to
help him implement a program that would phase out all raceday
medication, including Lasix, for 3-year-olds at the track, beginning
with the 2011-12 meeting.
Stronach, chairman of Stronach Entertainment Corp., sent a letter
last week outlining his plan and asking for assistance to Milton
Champion, director of the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, a part of
the Flordia Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Stronach
said he has sent similar correspondences to the racing commissions in
other jurisdictions in which he owns racetracks. Stronach said he hopes
to implement his plan at all his tracks: Santa Anita and Golden Gate
Fields in California; Pimlico and Laurel in Maryland; and Portland
Meadows in Oregon.
Stronach’s request comes on the heels of last week’s announcement by
the Breeders’ Cup that it will ban the use of Lasix in all 2-year-old
races in its season-ending championships beginning in 2012.
Horsemen use Lasix – or the diuretic furosemide – to treat
exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, or bleeding in the lungs. A
number of studies have cited the drug’s ability to reduce bleeding, but
other studies have demonstrated that horses treated with the drug run
faster than horses that are untreated.
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