| VETERINARY |
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t’s the phone call guaranteed to chill any trainer’s blood in the days after a win: ‘A prohibited substance has been detected; your horse has been disqualified’. It’s a devastating blow. The reward for all the blood, sweat and tears leading up to a race win is snatched away to be replaced by questions, namely ‘how’ and ‘when’? This nightmare scenario happened to trainer Martin Keighley back in 2016 at the Cheltenham Festival with Any Currency in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase. After a brilliant win and much celebration, a test revealed traces of triamcinolone acetonide (TCA), a synthetic cortisone. It’s one that can legally be used in training for appropriate conditions, which it had been, but must not be present on race day. The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) refuses to give advice regarding detection times for intra-articular injections as there isn’t enough data to determine an exact time; and there are lots of variants that could lengthen the duration it can be detected in the body. Any Currency had been given the injection 42 days before competing. This is a substantial amount of time, and no one would have thought it would still be present in the horse’s system. Keighley was cleared of any wrongdoing, but the win—his first Festival victory—wasn’t reinstated. This experience made Keighley even more cautious about using medication; he swore that this situation would not happen again. He already had animal physiotherapists working on his yard, providing regular performance maintenance and rehabilitation for the horses. As much as possible, medication was being avoided. It was in September 2019 when one of his veterinary animal physiotherapists, Hannah Ashton, had arranged a lecture on electrophysical agents in tissue repair with the world-renowned Professor Tim Watson. During this lecture, research was presented on radiofrequency (RF). Far from it being just another electrotherapy fad, Prof Watson presented published lab work and clinical data using radiofrequency 448kHz as a direct current on the human body.
WHAT IS Helen Walsh, BSc, MCSP, HCPC
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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 70
Bryn Musselwhite