Kentucky: Lasix, New Medication Rules Take Effect As Legislative Committee Declines Action

The Kentucky Legislature's Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations heard debate about the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's new medication rules on Tuesday, the most controversial of which is the regulation prohibiting race-day Lasix in 2-year-olds this year.

According to bloodhorse.com, the committee declined to take action to stop the regulations, allowing the new rules to take effect immediately.

Tracks in Kentucky have implemented no-Lasix for 2-year-olds this year via house rule, but now the regulation is a part of the KHRC regulatory standard. Dr. Bruce Howard, KHRC equine medical director, told the committee that of 60 juvenile races with a total of 532 starters, only one horse had been observed or reported to have bled from the nostrils.

“Eighty-nine percent of the 2-year-olds showed no evidence of blood in their airways and only two out of the 47 scoped showed anything more than a trace of blood,” Dr. Howard said, referring to a week-long study at Keeneland during the summer meet.

The Lasix ban will extend to all graded stakes races in 2021.

Earlier this year, the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association filed suit against the tracks that first implemented the new regulations. The suit is ongoing.

Additional rules included in the new KHRC regulations include: a pushback of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) from 24 hours to 48 hours before post time, a rule against stacking NSAIDs, a pushback of intra-articular corticosteroids to 14 days prior to race day, a rule requiring trainers or owners to submit 14 days' worth of a horse's medical records to the commission prior to race day, elimination of bisphosphonates in racing and in horses younger than 4 years old, and a rule requiring a horse be examined by an attending veterinarian in addition to a commission veterinarian pre-race.