Oaklawn Park will now have the ability to card Lasix-free stakes races after a state legislative review committee in Arkansas signed off on a series of racing rule changes Friday. According to the Daily Racing Form, Oaklawn can now fall into line with the new requirements by Churchill Downs that all qualifying points races for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks must be run with 24-hour furosemide administration only.
The move comes as 1/ST Racing announced that Gulfstream Park stakes races in 2021 will be run under the same condition. Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Del Mar, The Stronach Group, NYRA and others in the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition have called for gradual partial phaseout of the anti-bleeding medication pre-race over recent years. Several tracks carded races in 2020 with the new 24-hour Lasix administration time for 2-year-old races, and the second part of the phaseout calls for the same rule to apply to stakes races in 2021.
Ultimately, coalition organizers have said, they hope the new rules will give trainers a chance to see whether young racehorses really need the drug and to reduce the number of severe bleeders entering the gene pool. A multi-jurisdictional study is underway to study the prevalence of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage in 2-year-olds under the new rules.
Read more at the Daily Racing Form
The post Arkansas Derby Preps Can Be Lasix-Free After State Signs Off On Revised Rule appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
