About to go through some autologuos blood cell harvesting and replacement myself. Don't think I will comtinue to race, though.
Kev, it costs $80NZ a day to have a horse trained at All Stars. For that money, I would expect the stable to have the competitive edge it has with all bases covered. The availability of this treatment is just one of them. Trainers being in partnership with veterinarians or veterinary product manufacturers is not new, Percy Sykes and TJ Smith founded Ranvet around half a century ago. It might come as a surprise to some that (heaven forbid) a harness racing stable has a majority shareholding in what appears to be a company that serves all forms of horse sports.
Of course, the same product is available to all trainers. The difference here is those forking out $80 a day for each horse are likely to need less convincing or persuasion to go down that path. A syndicate of 10 blokes paying $40 a day elsewhere might not be so easy to persuade. Given the size of the investment most owners have in All Stars horses - high priced yearlings and training investment - it is a risk mitigation strategy more than anything.
Just hope it works for me!