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Skid Solo runs tomorrow at Chantilly, again his usual 1,200-meter straight sprint. It’s a great entry, a maiden race with only eight starters, and it makes me regret running the handicap 10 days ago. He seems fit and ready, but this is the third race in relatively short order for him and I’m always a little worried about going to the well too often, especially in the heat. The weather has turned a degree or two cooler, and apparently it has rained in Chantilly, so those are positives. Nadege will take over pilot duties this time, and I’m hoping the change of hands does us good. We can’t seem to get lucky in the draw, though; last time we were outside in No. 17 and this time we’ve got the No. 1 hole. I’d have loved to be in four or so, right in the middle, because it will be very hard to find cover in this race and I was really hoping to do that this time. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.

OK, anybody who knows me knows I can’t possibly let the lasix study go by without giving my opinion on it. For those of you who haven’t seen it, a bunch of American veterinarians decided to actually do a real study on whether or not Lasix actually reduces bleeding in racehorses. Americans have been pumping their horses full of the stuff for the past 30 years or so based on purely anecdotal evidence that it has any effect on the problem. So now, finally, there is a study. Here’s the bad news: Guess what, it seems to actually reduce the incidence of bleeding, giving ammunition to those who justify its use and think racing can’t possibly live without it.

But before you all  jump on the “I told you so” bandwagen and call the rest of the world barbarians for not using it, let me point out there are some very important factors in this study that need to be considered. First, and most importantly, the study did not investigate any detrimental side effects that might be associated with repeated use of lasix. Secondly, researchers admitted they still had no idea HOW the administration of lasix actually reduced bleeding; the drug also acts as a bronchodialator, which means it might be possible that it simply reduces the flow of blood to the area seen when scoping a horse after the race.

All thoroughbreds bleed a bit in the lungs during a race or strenuous workout. (Humans do, too; that’s why you end up having a coughing fit if you run too fast when out of shape.) Most of this bleeding is benign, and can be managed by having a horse fit and ready to do the job at hand. Exterior factors like pollutants and temperature can play a roll, but managing stress and maximum fitness are the most important factors for limiting damaging bleeding. The study, conducted in South Africa by Colorado State University, classified the severity of bleeding between zero and 4, with 4 considered a severe bleeding episode. It found that 80 percent of the horses given a saline solution showed evidence of bleeding, while 55 percent of the horses given Lasix showed bleeding. So yes, while the incidence was reduced, HALF THE HORSES GIVEN LASIX STILL BLED. The study also showed that Lasix was most effective in limiting severe bleeding; none of the horses in the study given the drug had a Level 4 bleeding episode, but 10 percent of the saline control group did.

The study said it considered the conditions of horses trained in South Africa to be pretty much the same has horses trained anywhere else in the world. “Although racing and training conditions in other parts of the world do differ from those in South Africa in minor respects, we do not have any evidence that any of these differences
have been demonstrated to have an impact on the frequency or severity of EIPH,” or exercised-induced pulmonary hemorrhaging, the study said. I’ve never been to South Africa, but I have observed horses in training in England, Ireland, the United States, Dubai, Hong Kong, France and Germany, and I can tell you that there are HUGE differences in the way horses in these countries are trained. Considering how susceptible the modern thoroughbred is to the smallest differences in environment, I cannot imagine how the difference in conditions would not make a difference on bleeding during a race.

The study notes that 92 percent of horses in North America are treated with Lasix, making it a $100 million a year market. It concludes that the drug is really most effective only with severe bleeders. Surely, 92 percent of North American horses can’t possibly fall into this category. If so, there are problems with thoroughbreds far greater than Lasix can help. Oh, and by the way, horses treated with Lasix lose THREE TIMES MORE WEIGHT during a race than a horse not treated with Lasix. So is this really the most humane way to race? Let’s hope racing officials around the world don’t buy into Lasix – or at the very least, let’s see some more study as to how it really works, and what the detrimental effects might be. Race day for horses around the world should not start with a syringe.

Hard Way finished out of the frame at Compiegne yesterday, but he ran well and handled the whole procedure better than he has in the past, which gives us quite a bit to look forward to. It’s an hour and a half trip by horse transport from Maisons-Laffitte to Compiegne, and I had to ride in the back of the truck with him to avoid a repeat of his St. Cloud transport fiasco. Riding with him made a huge difference, though, and he settled and rode pretty well. He stayed pretty calm for showering and walking at the track, but still didn’t handle being in a box very well. Next time out, I’ll ask for a box bedded in shavings so we don’t have to use the “panier” to keep him from eating the straw. The panier seems to stress him out more than anything else, so we had to keep him out of the box and walking most of the time. The earplugs and iced cap went on with the bridle, and they seemed to really help. He was calm, cool and collected in the presentation ring, and he was pretty good behind the gate, too. I asked that he be loaded second-last, which worked well except that he missed the break a bit, so he was further off the pace than I had expected him to be. He also got a little startled on the turn by a horse coming up on his off side and jumped into the rail, losing some distance. But he came back well in the stretch to close and was running on past the wire, which is good to see. I think 2,000 meters is a little short for him, after all, and I’ll probably go back to 2,400 next time out. I don’t think 2,000 is out of the question, but I’d prefer 2,400. He recovered well, we had no major incidents on the trip home (although he did take issue when I fell asleep for a few minutes and wasn’t paying attention to him; he woke me up by threatening to rear or fall over, in that order). He ate up everything last night and took a walk around the park today with a calm, more mature look in his eye. I think he did a bit of growing up yesterday, and hopefully we can run back sooner than last time. The Compiegne race was only the fifth in his life, so he’s got plenty of races in front of him if he can learn to handle it all a little easier.

I’ve neglected my blog since Tommy’s race because I’ve been too swamped, but it’s past time for an update. First off, Tommy ran relatively badly; he was laying third or fourth for most of the race, then had no finish and tailed off. He was really difficult to handle and nervous before the race, which isn’t at all like him, so I knew there had to be a problem. I was most worried, of course, about his leg, but that seems fine. But he was coughing in the days after the race and ran a slight fever, so we can put it down to that. There’s been a small bug that’s been making the rounds in Maisons-Laffitte, and nearly all of the horses in the yard have been coughing at some point this spring, so it seems this is his turn.

Meanwhile, we’ve got plenty of entries at the end of the week, and I’ve been busy introducing new fans to racing. I had a group of 20 from the American Women’s Group at Longchamp last week, and I’ve had two receptions during the week to talk up racing with various expats. Then this weekend there’s Grand Steeplechase mania. My friend, Jean-Paul Gallorini, has one of the favorites in the big race, and his wife always plans a huge party around the event. I’ve been drafted since Thursday to help decorate and plan, and the first of the parties was tonight. Tomorrow is the big event – 5,800 meters over 23 obstacles. There are also three other Group races on the card, so it will be a very big day of racing. Jean-Paul’s wife, Alex, always gets a little carried away when they have a real chance of winning. The entire yard is decked out in yellow and green, the colors the horse, Remember Rose, will carry, and various friends (including me) have been asked to dress in those colors tomorrow. I’ve also been assigned a hat to wear. So if you’re watching the race, you’ll probably spot me. I’ll be the one that looks like a cake topping.

Little Tommy is in the last at Maisons-Laffitte tomorrow (Saturday), and there are lots of reasons this is a good thing: It’s been a month since his comeback race, he really needs the run, he’s well-placed in a handicap that should not be all that difficult for him and he has a great jockey. But there’s one big drawback: It’s been pissing down rain all week, and Tommy doesn’t go in the mud. Soft is fine, even very soft, but once the barrier is crossed into heavy or stick going, he might as well stay in his box. That seems to be the rule in racing: When you have a horse that needs fast ground, it will rain nonstop before the race, and when you have a horse that wants the mud, you get a week of tropical sunshine. We will make a final decision around noon tomorrow (post time is 6 p.m.), and I’m really hoping he can go, becase he’s driving us all nuts with his excess energy!

Turfani ran a decent race at St. Cloud on Tuesday, but she finished only 8th of 20 starters. She pulled a bit along the rail over the first 500 meters or so, then settled before closing nicely in the stretch. Not too much bad to say, except that she didn’t finish in the money. The jockey said she wasn’t too happy with the heavy ground, and that we could probably run longer. As excuses go, those aren’t too bad; I’ve been thinking of stretching her out to 2,400 meters and the ground was pretty hashed up. I do think she will win a race in the not-to-distant future, but it is frustrating, and it shows we have a bit more work to do before we find the payoff. She’s come back well, so she’ll get her usual break before we try again, near the end of the month or early in June. She clearly isn’t going to set the world on fire, but she’s a lovely big mare, easy to ride, a pleasure to have around the yard and she tries her best to do everything you ask of her. She’s also a very calm and patient leader for some of the fizzier horses in the yard, so she certainly has her qualities. I may start training her over hurdles, since she looks very suited to that physically, and that might help build up her topline a bit more, which she seems to need.

I’ve just got home from Longchamp, where I spent the day introducing a group of 40 people to the sport. We picked a great day for it, with the Group 1 French 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas races. Most in the group were Americans living in France, with a few British and French people thrown in for spice. It’s always fun to bring new people to the sport, and they seemed to really enjoy themselves. I’m hoping, of course, that some will want to take that next step and see their own colors out there on the track. But in any case, I can always talk endlessly about horses to anyone who will listen, and we seemed to have a very receptive audience on Sunday. So thanks to Mark for helping organize it all, and let’s hope we see some of these people at the track regularly from now on!

Turfani will run at St. Cloud on Tuesday, in the same category of her last two races – claiming for 9,000 euros – and nearly the same distance at 2,100 meters. She was 6th at that distance and category the last two times out, so hopefully she can improve this time and bring home a check. She’ll be ridden by a male jockey for the first time, so it will be interesting to see if that changes things. She seems to be fit and well, and her new, less-rich diet seems to suit her better. It’s started raining a bit tonight, so we should have a slight softening in the ground, which is good, and we’ll have – again – a full field of 20 runners. I’m not going to get too optimistic because Tyke was so disappointing at Chantilly last Friday, so we’ll just do as the French do: Say “merde” and hope for the best!

Tyke ran pretty miserably today at Chantilly. First he decided he didn’t want to load in the gate, then he immediately got his tongue over the bit, pulled like a train for about 1,300 meters and then, of course, had no puff to actually finnish the race, which was a mile, or 1,600 meters. The jockey said he has plenty of speed and absolutely no discipline. The gate behaviour didn’t surprise me all that much, since he was acting the same way about going into his box in the stabling area. You had to ask him two or three times, then, when he thought it was his idea, he went in fine. Same with the gate; it was clear it wasn’t fear, and there’s nothing wrong with him, but he just decided HE wanted to be the one to decide when to go in. The poor gentleman jockey had a pretty unpleasant ride, and almost came off when Tyke decided he was going around a horse in front of him, no matter what the jockey thought.

I know at home, Tyke has transformed from a cowardly baby to a big horse with ideas of his own. I was happy enough to accept some character flaws in exchange for training well and an overall more brave attitude, but I’m a little disappointed with his behaviour at the gate. I’ll have to take him through a few times at home to see if we can’t straighten this out. Trying to find the positives, a few things that happened today are relatively easy to fix: we’ll add a tongue-tie and do some gate training, plus scale back the distance for the next race and just let him gallop out. I suspected a mile might be too long, and it was confirmed. He has plenty of speed, so he’ll come back to 1,400 meters for the next race (I’d rather have 1,200, but there’s nothing coming up). He’s training too well at home and showed he has enough speed, so I’m not ready to give up on him yet. He’ll get a couple of more chances before we decide whether to continue with him.

Tyke gets another crack at a race tomorrow in Chantilly; he’s drawn outside, in post 13 of the 13-horse field, which kinda sucks. That means he’ll either have to jump out quick and end up in front, which I don’t really want, or try to tuck in behind without being dead last. Since I’d like to see him relax and show better respiration than last time, I’d prefer he run 8th or 9th, then try to close. It hasn’t rained at all in the past week, so the going will be a bit fast. As usual, I’d prefer more cut in the ground. But Tyke seems in good very fit and happy, so now we’ll just have to see what happens.