Pros And Cons Of Horse Racing

WASHINGTON — When American Pharoah, the colt with a thunderous gallop, became the first Triple Crown winner in nearly four decades, he couldn’t have had better timing.

His victory last month ignited a surge in popularity for the sport, which for years has been on the decline. It also put the horse racing industry in the spotlight just as it is trying, yet again, to change its antidoping and medication rules, which are different in each of the 38 racing jurisdictions in the United States and in some ways give cheaters yawning loopholes to step through.

And when loopholes turn into nooses — let’s say, for injured horses that run on so much pain medication that they break down on the track — it doesn’t exactly enhance the sport’s appeal.

So to try

to save horse racing and its magnificent athletes, the co-chairmen of the Congressional Horse Caucus, Representative Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, and Representative Paul Tonko, a Democrat from New York, introduced a bill on Thursday called the Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act, which would create a national antidoping agency for horse racing in the United States. If passed, the bill would put the United States Anti-Doping Agency in charge of the antidoping effort in the sport. The thoroughbred industry would pay for it.

The antidoping agency would make the rules and enforce the rules, and then punish the offenders. Which all makes perfect sense because the sport hasn’t been able to do it right.

Bills calling for a change to racing’s drug rules date back more than 30 years, so now it’s time for this to happen — not only to make the sport cleaner and to assure bettors that they are wagering on a fair contest, but also to safeguard the horses, which have no say in the matter.

Tonko said the bill focused on the safety of horses, which he called “magical, strong athletes.” How many of those athletes have to die on the racetrack for lawmakers to finally realize that the sport, involved in so much interstate commerce, needs independent oversight mandated by federal law?

Based on my colleagues’ reporting in 2012, an average of 24 horses die each week at racetracks across the United States.

Let’s see if lawmakers pay attention and lend their support. It helps that so many industry groups are on board this time.

After decades of failing to herd racing jurisdictions into using uniform drug rules, the Jockey Club, the most powerful horse racing organization in the United States, has decided to back this new push at cleaning up the sport. The Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and the Breeders’ Cup are also behind this effort.

“We have a lot more momentum now because we have been more deliberate and thoughtful in building a coalition,” Barr said when asked why the bill might have a better chance to pass than previous ones.

One group that has been vocal in the effort that led to this new bill has been the Water Hay Oats Alliance, which has the growing support of many top owners, breeders and

trainers.

Arthur B. Hancock III, an owner who has won the Kentucky Derby and whose grandfather started Claiborne Farm, is one of the founders of the grass-roots organization, which goes by WHOA.

Among WHOA’s 1,200 members are some of racing’s biggest names, like the Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes in 1987 with Alysheba; the Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron; the racetrack owner Frank Stronach; and the horse owners Gretchen and Roy Jackson, who also helped found WHOA and won the 2006 Kentucky Derby with Barbaro.

The endgame for WHOA is for drugs to be banned on race day in the United States to align the sport with most jurisdictions around the world. Although the proposed bill doesn’t call for such a ban, it would seem implausible that Usada won’t press for it.

The main medication used on race day is furosemide, a drug that goes by the name Lasix or Salix and treats exercise-induced bleeding from the lungs. It’s also a powerful diuretic that allows a horse to shed multiple pounds — sometimes 10, 20 or even 30 pounds or more, some trainers say — close to post time. It’s a drug banned in human competitions because it would mask illegal drug use, and there is no reason it couldn’t mask banned drug use in horses, too.

Decades ago, furosemide started out as a remedy for horses that were considered bleeders, but now it’s given to virtually all horses on the day of a race, even if those horses might not need the drug.

“I remember the days when not a single horse ran with Lasix,” Hancock said, adding that those horses managed just fine. “Now, if my father or grandfather saw what was going on, they’d roll over in their graves.”

Barry Irwin, the breeder and owner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, stood in the sun Thursday and watched the congressmen announce the new bill. He smiled when asked about it, saying he had waited for this day for a long, long time.

He said when Animal Kingdom won the Dubai World Cup in 2013, without drugs because they are banned there, it was an even better feeling than when the horse won the Derby. The victory made him proud, he said, because it was the result of good breeding and training, not pharmaceuticals.

Now, Irwin said, racing has reached the low point that cycling and track and field have reached, and something needs to be done about it.

Even if Usada has failed to completely rid doping from Olympic sports — which is an impossible task anyway — it has caught a fair number of drug users and also has served as a deterrent. There’s no question it can do the same for horse racing, which can only be a good thing.

“We need uniform drug rules, administered by someone who will speak for the horses,” Irwin said. “It’s inhumane to treat them like some people in the sport do now.”

Congress has heard this argument before, but maybe now, buoyed by American Pharoah’s popularity, it will feel compelled to act.