HOT SPRINGS, Ark. —
Bisphosphonates — a class of drugs that prevent the bone-density loss —might
have some therapeutic value for older racehorses but speakers at the Conference
on Equine Welfare and Racing Integrity warned of the potential harm caused by
such treatments for young horses such yearlings and 2-year-olds.
That
was among the takeaways from Wednesday’s Animal Welfare Forum of the
Association of Racing Commissioners International’s 84th annual conference,
being held through Friday at the Hotel Hot Springs. The related discussion
included how pari-mutuel racing’s regulators might address abuse of
bisphosphonates and at what stage should horses come under the jurisdiction of
a racing regulatory authority.
ARCI
members are the only independent entities recognized by law to license, make
and enforce rules and adjudicate matters pertaining to racing.
Dr.
Jeff Blea, a Southern California veterinarian who is the past chair of the
American Association of Equine Practitioners and heads its racing committee,
called bisphosphonates “a nuclear button right now, not only in the racing
industry but in the breeding industry.”
Dr.
Lynn Hovda, the Minnesota Racing Commission’s equine medical director, said
bisphosphonates don’t just impact what could be a sore bone or joint, but they
go throughout the skeletal system.
Dr. Sue
Stover, a professor at the University of California Davis School of Veterinary
Medicine, said the rational for giving young horses bisphosphonates is to ward
off stress fractures, joint problems and some abnormalities. “Ultimately it was
just the silver bullet of preventing all these problems,” she said.
However,
Stover said that bisphosphonates in young horses actually interfere with the
development and growth of bone, reduce bone’s ability to heal and makes bone
more susceptible to cracks. One study of Israel military recruits showed bisphosphonates
did not prevent stress fractures when given before training, she said.
One of
her major concerns is that bisphosphonates, as analgesics, have the potential
to mask pain.
Conference
attendee Carrie Brogden — a breeder and consigner whose Machmer Hall Farm in
Paris, Ky., bred champion Tepin — said she and husband Craig do not treat
horses with bisphosphonates but that the panel opened her eyes about what could
be an industry problem.
“You’re
talking about horses who may have been treated as yearlings coming down the
race pipeline,” she said. “I guess it’s a small sample right now. But this is
being kind of pushed in Lexington as like the safe cure, not as something to be
avoided.”
Blea
said taking a page from the British Horseracing Authority’s ban on
bisphosphonates in race horses under 3 1/2 years old and requiring a 30-day
“stand down” from racing “would be a good place to start.” He said the AAEP
recently assembled a committee to discuss bisphosphonates and mentioned a talk
on the subject that he gave two years ago to several hundred veterinarians.
“I
asked, ‘How many people are using bisphosphonates in their practice?’” Blea
said. “There might have been five or six people raise their hands. After the
talk, 25 people came up to me asked me, ‘Is there a test for it?’
“The
reality is that we don’t know enough about it. I’ve spoken to practitioners who
have told me it is rampant in the thoroughbred yearling industry, rampant in
the 2-year-old training sales. I know it’s being used on the racetrack, though
I don’t believe it’s being used as much on the racetrack as people think. I
think it’s one of those things that have come and gone.”
But John Campbell,
the legendary harness-racing driver who last year retired to become president
and CEO of the Hambletonian Society, said the standardbred industry has had
“great luck” using bisphosphonates to treat young horses with distal
cannon-bone disease with “no adverse affects that I can see.” He noted that
thoroughbreds are much more at risk of catastrophic injuries than the gaited
standardbreds.
ARCI
president Ed Martin urged racing regulators to start working on a model rule as
to when jurisdiction over a horse begins, which could allow them to
address the concern over bisphosphonates. One of ARCI’s missions is to
create model rules that provide the member regulatory groups a blueprint for
their own laws or legislation dealing with all aspects of horse racing.
“I
think it would behoove all of us to work on a model regulatory policy so we
have uniformity in terms of when the horse should come under the jurisdiction
of the racing commission,” Martin said. “When we talk about out-of-competition
testing or questioning the use of certain medications, the first thing somebody
is going to say is, ‘You don’t have jurisdiction over this horse, and you don’t
regulate the practice of veterinary medicine.’”
Matt
Iuliano, The Jockey Club’s executive vice president, said that about 75 percent
of thoroughbreds will make a start by age 4, leaving a 25-percent “leakage
rate.” He suggested a more cost-effective and logical place to put horses under
regulatory control is once they have a timed workout, indicating an intent to
race. “You’ve probably taken that 75 percent to 90 percent,” he said.
Eric Hamelback, CEO
of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, agreed with
starting regularity control with a horse’s first published work. He expressed
hope for a common-sense rule that would be fair to everyone, while cautioning
of bisphosphonates, “There is a lack of facts and research being done. We don’t
want to go after writing rules just to write rules. Finding out exactly, if
there is a concern — and what that concern is — to me is the most important
first stage. And then where we’re going to attack and fix the problem.”
Identifying
risk — and protective — factors in horses
Dr.
Scott Palmer, the equine medical director for the New York Gaming Association,
discussed identifying risk factors in racing, including those at “boutique”
meets such as Saratoga, Del Mar and Keeneland, with the inherent demands to get
owners’ horses to those races because of their exceptional purse money and
prestige.
Palmer
cited some risk factors as being on the “vets” list for an infirmity, not
racing at 2, trainer change, switching to a different track’s surface and
dropping in class. He said protective factors also must be identified.
Palmer
said changes that have established themselves as diminishing risks would not
all be popular and could require a change in mindset, such as writing fewer
cheap claiming races, limiting the claiming purse to twice the value of the
horse, consolidating race meets, biosecurity and limiting the number of stalls
given the large outfits. He said racetrack safety accreditation by the National
Thoroughbred Racing Association is important. Also mentioned: continuing
education for veterinarians, trainers and assistant trainers, along with
increased scrutiny of horses seeking removal from the vets list after a long
layoff.
“We’re
not going to get rid of fixed risk factors, but we can mitigate them,” Palmer
said.
Dr.
Rick Arthur advises the California Horse Racing Board on equine medication and
drug testing, veterinary medicine and the health and safety of horses under
CHRB’s jurisdiction. After a rash of fatalities in 2016, Del Mar’s actions
included allowing only horses having timed workouts to be on the track for the
first 10 minutes following a renovation break and giving up a week of racing to
allow additional time to get the track in shape for the meet after the property
was used for the San Diego County Fair
Arthur
cited a study that determined horses scratched by a regulatory veterinarian did
not race back for 110 days on average, while the average horse ran back in
about 40 days.
“The
bottom line is we’re actually identifying the right horse,” he said of vet
scratches. “The real issue is: are we identifying all the horses we should?”
Sports
betting: “Amazing potential”
Horse
racing, professional sports leagues and casinos are awaiting a U.S. Supreme
Court decision this spring on New Jersey’s challenge to the constitutionality
of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which for the
last quarter-century effectively has made sports betting illegal except in
Nevada and a few other states. The consensus of a conference panel was that
sports betting could be on us extremely quickly and that racetracks and states,
as well as racing regulators who in some states might oversee betting on
sports, must be prepared.
Jessica
Feil, a gaming law associate with Ifrah Law in Washington, D.C., said she
thinks racing and sports betting will fit well together and could open up new
kinds of wagers on horses, including parlays that span sporting events and
races.
“I
envision amazing potential,” she said.
Alex
Waldrop, CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, said one
advantage for horse racing is that the Interstate Horse Racing Act of 1978
allows bets to be made across state lines, which paved the way for simulcasting
into commingled pools.
“We have some
leverage,” he said. "If sports waging goes forward, you won’t be able to
bet across state lines” without passage of enabling federal legislation.
Attached photos: Dr. Sue Stover, a professor at the University of California
Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, discusses bisphosphonates on a panel that
included moderator Dr. Corrine Sweeney (far left) of the Pennsylvania Racing
Commission and Dr. Lynn Hovda, equine director for the Minnesota Racing
Commission, with the ARCI's Kerry Holloway on the computer launching a visual
presentation.
A panel Wednesday
discussing at what point horses should come under the jurisdiction of a racing
regulatory authority (left to right): National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback; Tom
DiPasquale, executive director of the Minnesota Racing Commission, and Matt
Iuliano, executive vice president of The Jockey Club.
