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[Jeff P]

No. Not just Santa Anita. (It's an industry-wide problem.)

Here's an article by Ray Paulick that I posted back on page 2 of this thread:

by Ray Paulick | 03.21.2019 | 2:57pm
View From The Eighth Pole: Take Action Now On Bisphosphonate Use:
https://www.paulickreport.com/news/r...osphonate-use/

The Paulick Report recently received a message from a Florida veterinarian, who asked to remain anonymous, concerning the troubling increase in fatal injuries sustained by horses at Santa Anita, “In my opinion, Santa Anita's recent breakdowns may have less to do with the track and more to do with the rampant use of bisphosphonates,” the veterinarian wrote.

“I am an equine only veterinarian and work primarily on Thoroughbreds in training. In our practice, we have seen an almost ten-fold increase in catastrophic breakdowns and large long bone stress fractures (humeral/femoral/physeal) in our 2-year-old in training horses (both sales and race-prepping clients).

“These drugs are widely used prior to the yearling sales in Kentucky to supposedly decrease certain radiographic findings, despite these drugs only being FDA approved for the use in horses 5 years of age and older. The scariest part about bisphosphonates is that no one knows the half-life of the drugs in horses. In humans, the half-life can be up to 10 years.

--and:

The British are way ahead of us with their rules. According to a British Horseracing Authority rule adopted in 2017, bisphosphonates may not be used in horses until they are 42 months old. Horses who have been treated inappropriately with the drug will receive a lifetime ban from racing, presumably because of the inherent dangers of a drug that can be released over an extended period of time.

From an ethical standpoint, there doesn't need to be any discussion until research proves it is safe to give young horses with growing bones (which seems doubtful, given the drug package warning and comments by such respected veterinarians as Dr. Larry Bramlage).

Quite simply, when it comes to young racehorses, STOP USING BISPHOSPHONATES. Stop using it to defraud auction buyers and stop putting horses' lives at risk on the racetrack or at training centers.

Now that we have that problem solved, there is one other small issue to consider: what to do with the hundreds or possibly thousands of Thoroughbreds that may have been treated with this drug in an “off-label” manner in recent years? Do we just allow potential carnage to continue at a time when racing – as a result of the spike in fatalities due to broken bones at Santa Anita – is under a national media microscope and public sentiment is almost certainly turning against the sport as a result? Or does the industry actually do something other than form committees and issue statements?

Santa Anita, incidentally, is not the only place to have experienced an increase in fatal injuries. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission expressed concerns about an increase in 2018 fatalities, and the Paulick Report has received multiple calls from horsemen based at Oaklawn Park this year saying there has been an increase in catastrophic injuries during racing and training at the Arkansas racetrack. (Oaklawn Park does not provide statistics to the Equine Injury Database, so there will be no way to confirm those suspicions). One trainer who called the Paulick Report said he has witnessed horses suffer a kind of injury this year unlike anything he has seen in a half century on the track, and he does not attribute it to the racing surface.

In the world of air travel, when Boeing manufactures a new jet that sustains not one, but two, unexplained crashes, the Federal Aviation Administration grounds that jet – until it can confirm there is no safety issue.

Horseracing has no Federation Aviation Administration.

Racing does have a collection of state regulatory agencies, some with more enforcement powers than others. Those agencies would be derelict in their duty if they did not set forth emergency rules on the “off-label” use of bisphosphonates and demand veterinary records of all licensed veterinarians practicing on racehorses in their state. Young horses treated with bisphosphonates must be identified and placed in an “at risk” category.

-jp

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