COBALT
diet contains the small amount of cobalt necessary for this process. The theory is that megadoses of cobalt increase production of EPO, which, in turn, increases production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.
Cobalt in Indiana
The most egregious cobalt saga concerns Russell. In a sworn affidavit, Rees told the Indiana Horse Racing Commission that she administered cobalt to clients’ horses at Russell’s direction. She claimed Russell told her cobalt “makes them run like a beast, but you only get one or two races out of them, and then they’re done.”
In the affidavit, Rees described the reaction of a horse Russell instructed her to administer a “Vitamin Plus Jug,” Russell’s code for intravenous cobalt. Rees said the horse’s heart rate increased significantly, she struggled for breath evidenced by her flaring nostrils and increased respiration rate to 35 breaths per minute (normal respiration is eight to 12 breaths per minute), and the horse’s entire body sweated profusely. Rees said the reaction lasted five minutes, during which time she feared the horse would die. “Every horse that I have observed receiving a jug containing a cobalt product
has had a similar reaction, but sometimes to a lesser degree,” Rees said in her affidavit. “I discontinued giving Vitamin Plus Jugs after observing [redacted]’s adverse reaction to the substance.” (Indiana law prohibits the release of the horse’s name.) Russell maintains that no scientific evidence proves that high doses of cobalt will cause a horse to “run like a beast,” and he denies ever saying that to Rees. “Regulators think that it’s a performance enhancer, but I don’t think it’s a performance enhancer,” Russell said. “If you can show me the study that says that, I’d like to see it ... That’s their hypothesis from doing human and maybe rat research, but as far as I know, I don’t know of any done on a horse to show performance.” The problem is, Russell is correct—at least as far as published studies go. “I would defy you to show me one article in humans,” said Dr. George Maylin, the principal researcher investigating cobalt abuse for the New York Drug Testing and Research Program. “There’s none. It’s hypothesis. They do show it in rats, and because it happened in rats, they then hypothesized that it could be going on in humans. But that work all comes out by authors out of Italy, a guy by the name of Lippi is the big one, but they have no data, at least not that’s published. “Even with red blood cell production, which seems to be the target analysis, if you will, there are very, very few papers that show an increased red blood cell production in normal people. It certainly happens in people with liver disease, kidney disease, etc., but those are confounded studies. I’m aware of two papers that in normal people cobalt increased their blood cell production, but there’s not a lot of data out there and that data was from the 1950s.” Maylin also disputed a study of beerdrinkers that is often cited as proof that excess cobalt causes heart disease. In that research, two months after a brewery added cobalt salts to its beer to preserve the foam head, alcoholics drinking large quantities of the ISSUE 35 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM
37