Banning Lasix would greatly reduce the horse supply. Not only does it help bleeders but it is also very useful in horses that have pericarditis
All due respect-banning Lasix will not harm Horse racing. HISA is doing a 3 year study on all horses to address this. Before Lasix-Some horses dropped out-BUT real horsemen worked on horses health more -now its just a "inject to collect" game. When Lasix was introduced--in T Breds- the number of starts per horse DECREASED but the horse drop out rate did reduce.. End result however-- the number of horses available to race did not decline at all because starts/horse without Lasix was 30% Higher than horses that are now on Lasix. Due to Lasix side effects.
No Lasix- hasnt affected international horse racing in Both harness and Tbreds. They are fine without it. In fact since Lasix has been banned in some Tbreds races-the International horse numbers competing in these events has INCREASED as they are now not racing at a disadvantage.
There is little doubt that Lasix is a performance enhancer .The Jury is out however if it is all due to lower bleeding rates--or simply because it raises Bicarb levels in the blood and lowers body weight-both enhance performance.
So a bad bleeder you will be in the game BUT most are fine without it--as seen in Europe, down Under, Japan, Middle East etc. All not on Lasix.
Vets here want Lasix to stay--huge money earner.
IMHO-from a purely public perception--since public believes all horses are on drugs-as noted when they pick up a program and see every horse drugged up on Lasix--the Sport is better off without it.
I personally would be happier to breed to horses that didnt need Lasix than ones who were on it--because as proven in Germany---only breeding to horses that were Group 1 type-without Lasix-has proven to reduce the incidence of producing bad bleeders. French trotters-now seem superior to our trotters and stallions who all race on Lasix--while theirs do not.
