Bad blood over Halling drug use

Richard Edmondson reports from New York on the move to bolster Britain's main hope in the quest for the Breeders' Cup Classic

Britain's horses will clear quarantine here this morning with their Breeders' Cup elixirs established: Halling will run on Lasix, Lake Coniston on carrots.

The former's reliance on the drug for the first time in his racing career at Belmont Park on Saturday will upset the traditionalist back in Blighty. But the harsh realists of New York believe the colt needs medication and a substantial head start if he is to make a race of the Classic with Cigar.

The thought that Cigar's uninterrupted sequence of 11 victories is about to be terminated is not even a speck in the collective mind of the locals. If pushed to look beyond a winner they suggest Peaks And Valleys will beat Halling for the runner's-up vacancy.

Given its venal reputation, it is something of a surprise that New York took until last month to open itself up pharmaceutically in line with the rest of racing America. As Cigar has had more pins in him that a porcupine (he runs on both Lasix and Bute), the men behind Halling insist their horse must do the same if he is to compete with any great significance.

Simon Crisford, the racing manager of Godolphin, Halling's owners, admitted yesterday that the chestnut needed Lasix for more than a morale injection for his supporters. He has burst blood vessels in previous races. The maxim Godolphin are using is that when in Rome do as the Romans do.

But back in Britain, where the drug is banned, the mood seems to be that two wrongs do not make a right. David Pipe, the Jockey Club spokesman, said yesterday: "If trainers feel they must use medication in the United States there is little we can do about it. If they think it helps them achieve a level playing field that is their decision, but the United States stands alone in their use of these drugs."

If ethics can be tipped into a skip, however, (and the Breeders' Cup prize fund tends to provide a stirrup in this matter) the statistics show Lasix works. Last year the first six in the Classic had each been rubbed with a swab before competition and the pattern in New York since medication was brought in has been of improved performance. Horses seem to achieve a new level on the drug, particularly after the early administration.

Halling will need this hoist, especially as his team now seem uncertain that he will adapt to the dirt surface. It was thought that Dubai's all- weather champion would cross over with simplicity to the Belmont track, but that opinion has changed slightly on inspection of a course that was so badly flooded on Saturday that racing had to be abandoned. Halling is generally a 5-2 chance, with Cigar on 4-6.

Much of the early information at the Breeders' Cup is disseminated in great Letter To Brezhnev style through the latticed fence of the quarantined compound. Geoff Lewis entered the quarters yesterday with the information that his Lake Coniston would be the beneficiary of another drug, the anti- inflammatory substance Bute, in the Sprint. "He's had a long, 15-hour journey and he might be a bit stiff so you have to take all the advantages," the trainer said.

Lewis, though, seemed to place more emphasis on the contents of the carrier bag he had filled at a Garden City supermarket that morning. Inside was Lake Coniston's favourite feed, a bunch of carrots.

Saturday provides the colt's swan song and Lewis has not yet dared think about the gap he will leave at his Epsom yard. Certainly, Lewis seems to invest more emotion in his horses than some British trainers, who appeared to describe them as a mechanic might his monkey wrench in a documentary last week.

Lewis has not forgotten that horses bought his passage out of an early career as a bell boy. "Without them I would probably be head doorman at a hotel now," he said.