Earlier this week, Paulick Report editor-in-chief Natalie Voss reported on veterinary records that accompanied a necropsy report on the 3-year-old colt Havnameltdown, who suffered a fatal injury during a race on Preakness Day at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., on May 20. A copy of the report had been obtained by a member of our staff.
The records showed multiple injections, all of which were legal and recorded properly, and there was no suggestion in the article that the treatments were linked with or caused the fatal injury the colt sustained.
Why, then, was this news?
Joining publisher Ray Paulick on this week's Friday Show, Voss explains that one of the treatments was a corticosteroid, betamethasone, that had been the subject of two positive tests in Baffert horses – Gamine in the 2020 Kentucky Oaks and Medina Spirit in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. During various lawsuits and administrative hearings, Baffert stated on multiple occasions under sworn testimony that following Gamine's failed drug test he had instructed his staff and veterinarians to no longer use betamethasone. It was a pillar of his defense that the source of the drug was an ointment containing betamethasone, and not an injection. That veterinary records showed at least one of his horses recently was treated with betamethasone was, in our opinion, news.
Voss and Paulick also review the work being done to prevent catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries, including reviews of the Equine Injury Database, and whether there seem to be any discernible patterns or common threads in these fatal events.
The post The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: What’s News And Why appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
