Quote:
Originally Posted by Spalding No!
This case amounts to possessing a substance that is:
(a) banned at all times
(b) undetectable in post-race testing
(c) suspected to be detrimental to the health of horses
Should horseplayers or any other racing stakeholder group be concerned with any or all of the above?
Can substances undetectable in post-racing potentially impact the results of a race?
If so, does this affect the horseplayer?
If not, is there still concern if the substance endangers a horse's health?
Common human medications can be toxic in other species.
Clenbuterol is also a banned substance with limited permissible use under the rules of racing.
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Absolutely, you're talking to someone who is against all drugs in racing. Period. However, as for this drug and testing, there are blood tests done which will show a historical increase in T4 levels in the blood which is how a doctor actually prescribes and monitors the required dosage. I'm well aware because my son is on it. So if you want to make a court case out of it then I personally would expect to see a graph with some sort of upward tick in it and probably see such a graph on multiple horses as a smoking gun. I have my doubts as to what degree of a move-up this is anyway. I'm confident it's virtually nothing compared to clenbuterol with regard to performance enhancement. As a horseplayer I need to be concerned with drugs that have a significant impact on performance.
The U.S. Anti-Doping agency has Clenbuterol banned at all times both in and out of competition. Horse racing stands alone in having this permitted as long as it's three weeks out from a race. Do you think this still impacts performance when it's being used three weeks out? Do I know as a horseplayer who has been given this and when? Does it stress the heart? There are people, fit people not people at deaths door who have dropped dead from the the effects of this crap. I'm absolutely convinced that many of the heart attacks we've seen in racehorses over the past 20 years are from the use of clenbuterol. There should be statistical evidence of it. Cause of death due to heart attacks in the 80s vs late very 90's + 2000s when this first came on the scene.
