Lasix ban for 2-year-olds goes into effect in Kentucky

A regulation banning the raceday administration of furosemide in 2-year-old races went into effect in Kentucky on Tuesday after a state legislative committee declined to take action that would have delayed the rule’s implementation.

The raceday ban on furosemide, a diuretic that is commonly known as Lasix and used to mitigate bleeding in the lungs, was one of a number of medication-related rules that were placed in front of the Kentucky Legislature’s Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations on Tuesday. The committee is required to review regulations that are passed by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission before the rules can go into effect.

With the legislative review complete, all horses racing in Kentucky, including those running in the juvenile races of the Breeders’ Cup in November at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, will not be allowed to be administered Lasix within 24 hours of a race. Ellis Park is currently running live in Kentucky, and the rule will go into effect as of its next live race day, Friday.

Over the objections of some horsemen and veterinarians, the KHRC passed the raceday Lasix ban earlier this year. As the rules were awaiting review, two tracks, Churchill Downs and Keeneland, put in place house rules mimicking the ban, a decision that drew a lawsuit from the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association that challenged the authority of the tracks to implement the rules.

A ruling on that suit is still pending, but the suit may be moot now that the rules have been formally adopted.

“[The racing commission] can phase it out,” the attorney for the KHBPA told the court in a telephonic hearing earlier this year. “They can. But they can’t tell the tracks that they can phase it out.”

Supporters of the Kentucky raceday Lasix ban have pushed for similar restrictions in other states, and so far this year, tracks in California, Florida, New York, and Maryland have held Lasix-free races for 2-year-olds, either through house rule, an agreement between the tracks and horsemen, or racing regulation.

Under the Kentucky regulation, the ban on raceday Lasix will be extended to all graded stakes races in 2021. That expansion is also being sought in other states by a broad coalition of racing constituencies.

Other rules that will go into effect as a result of the committee review include several that were modeled on regulations put in place last year at California tracks in order to provide more oversight of veterinary issues. Under those rules, all horses will be required to have 14 days of medical records on file at the racing office at the time of entry, and a veterinarian will be required to sign off on a horse’s soundness to race on the day prior to entry or the day of entry.

In addition, all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which includes painkillers such as phenylbutazone and flunixin, will be banned within 48 hours of race. Corticosteroids, which are used to reduce inflammation, will be banned within 14 days of a race.