Lasix V

Amid the milieu and inconvenient details to the anti-lasix argument particularly regards the Q what % of non-lasix dirt horses bleed is our wide eyed year 2011 auction buyer bidding her horse up to a cool $30,000 with the old fashion notion if some particular malady would overcome that horse on its way to earning a small fortune-- such as e.g. EIPH --we'll as in days of old have to take it back in the woods to be shot.

This absurd, ridiculous notion is called the "go on to the next one" theory that has prevailed at our race tracks from the year 1900 and certainly is still the practice in every single one of our noted stables. The malady involved can be anything, but how ridiculous is it when the problem is EIPH that can be treated?

There's more to the argument. Let's continue. Secretariat and company proved that a horse could have a long career without lasix. How can this be so?

Unknown to me exactly, and I feel sure also this is an unanswered Q. However, experienced horse people probably have quite a few clues. How does EIPH happen in the first place? Is it physical or is it genetic as Bob Baffert would have us believe?

How does mild EIPH get started in a horse's lungs? I'd guess there are three major causes.

1. The young horse is asked to do more than it has been trained for in a particular speed workout.

2. The speed workout or race happens by chance to occur on a day of high humidity/low air pressure combo.

3. By chance or accident where one lung capillary bursts, no one knows, and the horse is taken out too soon afterward for more work that aggravates the problem.

So, the argument, Secretariat avoided all of these???

One more thing to note in this regard. I strongly suspect, but unknown, that sprinters--horses doing 6F sprints are geometrically more prone to develop EIPH than route horses. Why? Two reasons:
1. Sprinters are trained less, they breeze less. Their cardiovascular systems are in worse condition than route horses due to the manner of training, and

2. 2f in :21 and change as opposed to 2f in :24 is also going put geometrically greater pressure on the lung capillaries.

Thus the route horses, the Secretariats of old, with a little help from their trainers in terms of drawing, concoctions and blind luck make it through, and never mind for the anti-lasix crowd how many casualties on the way to that accomplishment.

For persons knowledgeable in running TBs, most answers are provided above. Would these points hold through research? Should we find out before mindlessly banning the drug?

But, there's much more. Genetics, next post.

Training: Two days off. Nasty cut on poll between ears. Ok in Preston Burch training. Recommence tonight.