Racing: Drug use linked to rise in injury rate: Mark Popham reports from Santa Anita on fears for racehorse safety
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
CONTROVERSY over the high breakdown rate for horses in American racing has erupted again in the build-up to Saturday's Breeders' Cup.
An article this week in America's leading sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, claimed a direct connection between the use of drugs and injuries to racehorses.
Dr Gregory Ferraro, a vet, was quoted as saying: 'I think that drug abuse in stables is more rampant than it ever was. From 1989 to the present it has got worse. The horse owner is pressing the trainer to win at any cost.'
He claims that over 50 per cent of the breakdowns he has witnessed over 20 years were related to the masking of pain by drugs.
Other vets maintain that Ferraro's claims are not supported by facts, although part of the trouble is that there are no reliable statistics on the scale of the problem which has been highlighted in the last few years by accidents and breakdowns during nationally televised racing.
The fatal fall of Mr Brooks, the British raider in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park last year, which resulted in injuries to Lester Piggott, has been followed by accidents which have led to the deaths of Prairie Bayou in the Belmont Stakes and Union City in the Preakness Stakes this year.
Nationally televised racing is rare in the US and one of the reasons why the Breeders' Cup was started 10 years ago was to increase awareness of the sport. It has achieved that, but there has also been a parallel rise in animal-welfare concerns.
This year there will be stricter pre-race veterinary checks on the Cup horses to try and spot any weaknesses before they turn into fatal accidents. Both Lasix, an anti- bleeder, and Bute, a pain killer, are permitted medications while other drugs are often used in the run-up to races.
Part of the problem is the insatiable quest for speed in American racing which encourages tracks to pack their dirt course especially tight for big days so that new records times can be set.
Andy Beyer, the American speed-figure expert, commented: 'Californian tracks have long been noted for being the fastest and Santa Anita is the fastest of the fast.
'Horses on the dirt who don't have a certain amount of tactical speed are usually left in the dust. I would be very surprised to see a European horse win on the Santa Anita dirt.'
This means the European raiders for the Breeders' Cup dirt races, Sayyedati and Surprise Offer in the Sprint, Coup De Genie in the Juvenile Fillies, and Ezzoud and Arcangues in the Classic have an especially tough task.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments