Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority forms committee to study Lasix use

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has convened a legally mandated advisory committee that will oversee studies of the use of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide over the next three years, HISA announced on Wednesday.

The committee, which has 11 members, will oversee the requirements and parameters for independent studies on the effects of furosemide use in Thoroughbreds, specifically when administered within 48 hours of a race. The committee will also review grant applications from research institutions and allocate funding for the studies.

Furosemide use in the U.S. has been a major source of friction between major constituencies in racing for decades. The drug, which is a diuretic, has been shown to reduce the incidence and severity of bleeding in the lungs in racehorses, but controversy remains over whether the race day use of the drug has side effects on horses’ health and creates public perception problems for racing in the modern era. Race day furosemide use is banned in most major racing jurisdictions outside the U.S.

The legislation that established HISA, which was passed late in 2020, mandated that the authority conduct studies on the race day use of furosemide and allowed jurisdictions under HISA’s authority to “opt out” of a total ban on the race day use of the drug while the studies were being conducted. All major racing jurisdictions sought and received the waiver.

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Although race day use of Lasix is allowed in overnight races for horses 3 years old or older in nearly every U.S. racing jurisdiction, most major racetracks have banned its race day use in graded stakes races and 2-year-old races.

At the completion of the study, the advisory committee will review the research and make recommendations to HISA’s board of directors.

The members of the advisory committee include Dr. Emma Adam, an equine veterinarian with 24 years of experience in the U.S., United Kingdom, France, and Australia; Alan Foremen, the chairman of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association; Dr. Scott Hay, an equine veterinarian at Teigland, Franklin, and Brokken; Dr. Ted Hill, the racing steward for The Jockey Club and a former chief veterinarian for the New York Racing Association; Dr. Rob Holland, a respiratory and infectious disease specialist at Holland Management Services; Dr. Heather Knych, a professor of clinical veterinary pharmacology at the University of California-Davis; Ryan Murphy, the executive director for the Partnership for Clean Competition; Dr. Foster Northrup, an equine practitioner in Kentucky and a former member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission; Dr. Scott Palmer, the equine medical director for the New York State Gaming Commission; Dr. N. Edward Robinson, a veterinarian whose career focus has been researching lung disease in horses; and Dr. Corinne Sweeney, a veterinarian who is a member of the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission.

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