Grayson Foundation funds two groups to study Lasix effects

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A Jockey Club-affiliated charitable fundraising group has selected two projects studying bleeding in racehorses and the effects of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide for funding, the organization announced on Tuesday.

The Grayson Jockey Club Research Foundation will award grants to Dr. Warwick Bayly at Washington State University and Dr. Heather Knych at the University of California-Davis for proposals to study exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, the formal term for bleeding in the lungs, and whether furosemide is effective in mitigating bleeding when administered more than four hours prior to a race, the current standard in racing regulations in nearly every U.S. racing jurisdiction.

The issue of raceday furosemide use in U.S. racing has become a topic of intense interest for several organizations, most prominently, The Jockey Club, which has been pushing for rules rolling back raceday use of the drug over the past five years. The Grayson Foundation is affiliated with The Jockey Club.

Recently, the American Association of Equine Practitioners, which represents racetrack veterinarians, said that it would pursue studies attempting to find alternatives to furosemide that did not have to be used on raceday, as long as the alternative was as effective as the drug. The AAEP has agreed to provide funding for the two studies targeted by the Grayson Foundation, the foundation said.

Grayson also said that Churchill Downs, Del Mar, Keeneland, Kentucky Downs, NYRA, Oak Tree, Oaklawn Park, and the racetrack company The Stronach Group have also agreed to provide funding.

Dell Hancock, the Grayson chairwoman, said on Tuesday that the funding for the two studies is substantially complete, and that the foundation will continue to seek contributions as it pursues additional research into bleeding and furosemide use. “These are two very good studies, and these will hopefully be able get us the data that we need,” Hancock said. “But we recognize that there’s more work that is going to need to be done.”

Although the research has not been published because the dataset was so limited, Bayly has recently distributed data to racing industry organizations indicating that furosemide might be as effective in controlling bleeding when administered as much as 24 hours prior to a race, rather than four hours. Under the Grayson funding, Bayly will expand the study to a larger number of horses that will perform under racing conditions and on treadmills.

Dr. Knych is an equine pharmacologist who has studied a large range of substances administered to horses.

Dr. Larry Bramlage, a renowned equine orthopedist who is a member of committees at both the Grayson Foundation and the AAEP, said that the studies are intended to gather a large amount of data on bleeding and furosemide use, and that they will not be designed to answer a single question.

“These projects present an exceptional opportunity to understand more about EIPH than we have ever known,” Dr. Bramlage said, in a statement.

So far, the most scientifically rigid study examining bleeding and furosemide use was conducted on hundreds of South African horses running in actual races in 2009. The study, which was partially funded by the Grayson Jockey Club, showed that furosemide was effective in mitigating the frequency and severity of bleeding.

Since then, supporters of raceday furosemide use have pointed to the study’s results in arguing that use of the drug on raceday is humane and effective in treating a condition that can sometimes have adverse effects on performance and horse health. Nevertheless, the U.S. and Canada are among the only major racing jurisdictions in the world that allow for raceday use of the drug.