MEDICATION
“Medication in racing evokes thoughts of performance enhancing, cheating, exploitation, animal cruelty, and death, which, while sensationalist, thought-provoking, and emotive, are ultimately inaccurate and unfair on the vast majority of proponents of the sport”
of the horse first should these two obligations come into conflict. Medication in racing evokes thoughts of performance enhancing, cheating, exploitation, animal cruelty, and death, which, while sensationalist, thought-provoking, and emotive, are ultimately inaccurate and unfair on the vast majority of proponents of the sport. Human sports medicine while not without fault or controversy legally permits the use of certain medication in many sports. Athletes performing the triple jump regularly have their ankles medicated with local anesthetic prior to competition and in April of 2011, Andy Murray, the British tennis player, had local anesthetic and cortisone (corticosteroid)
injected into his elbow 30 minutes prior to playing Rafael Nadal. The primary rational argument against the liberal use of medication in horseracing is the horse has no choice in participation whereas human athletes can choose to risk further injury by masking pain. In the racehorse we are dealing with the same class of athlete as our elite human sportspeople. Horses are without question working at or very near the physical limitation of their bone and joints, and medication needs to be used with great care. The question is how we sort the “safe” from the “unsafe” and appropriately select which horses require
medical help. This requires dedicated and trained veterinary expertise, an excellent transparent relationship between trainer and veterinarian, and a mutual understanding of the current state of the horse’s physiological and musculoskeletal limits. The appropriate use of medication is the crux of the issue. Clearly not all medications are the same and not all syndromes and conditions of the racehorse call for the same treatment. Lack of uniformity in medication rules remains a problem and if horseracing is to remain a credible global sport, a horse running in Kentucky and a horse running in Australia must be running under the same regulations. It would not be possible for Usain Bolt to run under different governing rules in the U.S.A. than in the U.K. so why should our equine athletes be any different? While the uniformity of medication regulation is a pressing issue for the sport’s public perception, in regards to the welfare of our animals, the use of medication and the role of the veterinarian in the armory of the trainer are the fundamental issues. As mentioned previously there have been huge advances made in the field of equine veterinary medicine in the past thirty years. The plethora of diagnostic imaging tools available – including digital radiography, ultrasound, nuclear scintigraphy, and MRI – to the modern veterinarian have revolutionized our understanding of orthopedic conditions of the horse. Numerous epidemiological studies dating from the mid-80s to the current day have examined the incidence of injuries in the racehorse, the most common sites of injury occurrence, the best prognostic indictors for these conditions, and the most successful treatment options available. Advances in endoscopy have clarified many previously misunderstood conceptions particularly regarding laryngeal function, and with the advent of dynamic endoscopy it is now commonplace to accurately assess how a racehorse’s throat is functioning at maximal exertion. The advancement in equine veterinary science is clear and this has positive implications for our racehorses, both in terms of welfare and improved athletic potential. However, it is important that all members of the racing industry, in particular veterinarians and trainers, apply the new knowledge and modern therapies available to them. The age old mantra of “That’s what we always do,” or, “It works so why change,” must end if Thoroughbred racing is to progress and remain relevant, and anecdotal practices must be replaced by evidence-based alternatives. Most medication at the disposal of veterinarians
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