If it is as Ringman indicates and if 15 mg/l is legal, what pain relief would 25 mg/l do. From documents read it appears over 600 mg/l up to 000's mg/l are the norm when given in treatments
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When you read this site ,we'll all be on the stuff.http://www.dmso.org/articles/information/muir.htm
It's not what the level is at the time of the swab that tell you what benefit the horse gets, If you have a horse with cronic joint pain or arthritis drenching with High levels of DMSO can help relief both of these ailments. It is NOT illegal to do this as long as by the time you present your horse to race it is inside the legal threshold .... the same as bi-carb it is also not illegal to use but you have a level you have to be under to race , So treating a horse with DMSO leading into a race can be just as tricky as bi-carb, as the trainer you have to make sure your calculations are spot on or you run the risk of a positive swab
Brendan I think your clutching at straws on this one mate , if a horse is racked with pain and you treat it with a pain reliever which allows it to perform at a greater level than it would have without the pain relief then surely this is enhancing it's performance.
It has been debated not just in racing but in the world outside of racing.
Only on the race-day/night. It doesn't actually make the horse better. It merely just allows it to race to its potential.
It's a fine line but surely painkillers aren't in the same league as growth hormones etc?
I'm not condoning the use or presentation of a horse to race with the drug in its system, all I'm saying is it doesn't make the horse better.
Brendan why do you think they are banned? if they do not enhance performance. and nobody is saying that it improves a horse or makes them run faster than they normally can , but allowing them to take away everyday pain that is part and parcel with performance horses is ENHANCING its performance.
I always wondered what would happen if a horse that has been given pain relief? Fall's during a race, injuring other horses and people.
When I have a sore back I do not play football, my thinking is that I will just hurt my back more, am I wrong in thinking this way?
Many would though. Depends how tough you are. Professional athletes use painkillers regularly. Ask any Aussie quick or NRL player. I have used them myself and will again. I can see both sides of the argument and this is exactly where our laws have differed from USA previously. Does seem strange for it to be ok for human use but not animal.
On this similar topic I have heard of a procedure where a horse can have nerves severed in the fetlock to eliminate pain in the area and continue to race. I realize this is very taboo but has anyone heard of a similar thing?
The procedure you refer to is called a Nervectomy. I have heard of it being done in the bottom of the pastern to allow horses with navicular disease or pedal bone injuries to be free of pain but IMO to deaden the leg up as high as the fetlock would be extreme as the horse would have no feeling below the point of severance. The down side to this procedure is the danger of the horse doing further damage and also the nerve rejoins after about 2yrs so its not a long term fix.
It didn't increase the horses ultimate potential. It did not enhance performance - it only allowed potential to be realised.
If that is a performance enhancer than so is water and food. Without water and food you may only race at say 25% but with it you can race at 100%. So are water and food performance enhancers too?
Something that makes the horse go to 101% is a performance enhancer.
A horse could be given something on the Tuesday, that then allows it to race on Saturday. By the Saturday it is out of its system but do we do midweek testing at stables for drugs that allowed horses to reach potential?
No, there are two different classes of drugs - ones you can have at the stables and ones you can't because they are on different levels of the spectrum.
Enhance
1. To make greater, as in value, beauty, or effectiveness; augment.
2. To provide with improved, advanced, or sophisticated features
Painkillers do not make a horse greater or improve a horse. They merely allow the horses features to be met, not advanced.
Edit: I'm actually knocked up on painkillers right now with Swimmers ear and the flu. I don't think Ian Thorpe is going to be worried about me on my painkillers!
[VVV] Like a host of other such basically inocuous substances Dan, it is actually banned because it is an easier path to simply ban everything than it is for Administrative & Regulatory persons throughout Australia to get their individual and collective heads out of the respective arses & educate themselves as to the respective pro's and con's and take a practical view thereof. It's in the Too Hard basket.
The most unfortunate aspect of this of course is the very thing that our Draconian medication rules work to prevent...is the very thing that Harness Racing and for that matter all 3 Codes of racing desire...a wagering product that is capable of producing and maintaining consistent, handicappable form.
For example, currently a Trainer can score himself/herself a Bute positive 5-6-7+ days post administration despite the fact that pharmacologically as in pain relief wise it basically ceases working within 12 hours and it is completely shot to hell within 24hrs? Riddle me than, Batman.
I would reply......... but i dont know what will be permitted after a couple of my posts with nothing untoward in them has been deleted.
(1) I really don't think the hard working, dedicated albiet often frustrated people administering our sport would, in the slightest, appreciate your desciption of them.
(2) If it's in the "too hard Basket", would this not mean the afformentioned administarors have looked at changing the rules on some therapeutic drugs but, as yet, cannot come up with a plan that works in a practicle way that the industry/sports participants can cope with?
(3) until it can be guaranteed that every time each horse races it is carrying the exact same doses of regulated drugs, then consistent form cannot be assured. Many of these drugs need to be administered 4 to 5 hours in advance of competition. In order for that to happen then each horse using regulated drugs needs to go to the track 4 to 5 hours before it's race. this may work at The Meadowlands where the majority of the runners are stabled on site but in the land of OZ where we are spread out over vast distances, the majority of horses are trained at private establishments and our game would not survive without hobby trainers, (who have a job to tend to) no wonder it's in the too hard basket.
Sorry to hear you are ailing Brendan ,but I don't think Ian Thorp would be looking over his shoulder for you, even if you was 100%. If you took the time to read my thread I made the point that pain killers can not improve a horses ability so to use your silly little analogy does not make sense (I think I have read others say the same). In your own research you have proven what I have been trying to explain to you , EFFECTIVENESS 1 power to produce results, 2 the state of being operative , 3 to produce as an effect, Brendan you can see from your own words that pain killers ENHANCE ones ability to perform.
Gentleman,
This is an interesting debate.
Jamie is not quite right it was in the too hard basket there is no doubt of that.
However there is a very genuine push to improve things internationally currently within the Thoroughbred code.
They are working towards detection screening limits to be set worldwide it is as you can imagine a massive task but there efforts appear to be a genuine.
The stumbling block in the past has been America where race day treatments of some therapeutic substances has been permitted on race days in some states, my information is that the Americans are more than open to move on this now.
Also there have been massive improvement in the ability to detect the parent drug in blood, some analysts say this this is the way of the future because in most cases if its in the blood it is still having an effect on the horse.
Some caution tho it will not happen tomorrow.
Correct me if im wrong, but didn't trainers in the past put in treatment sheets before they raced ( for bute etc ) . And if so why was this stopped. Any one know ? . Maybe this way it would be more of a level playing field. Or maybe it was dangerous for horses to race & not feel pain.
Treatment notification was mandatory in NSW years ago, not too sure what the situation is now. I think, if my memory serves me, they were put in place to assist in the
a) transparency of treatments and
B) instances where treatment ceased at prescibed ( eg 4 days for bute) time but a positive swab is encountered.
not going to swear by any of that, just relying on my not so perfect memory.
Bill is your first name Ron ??????
Aspects of this thread remind me of this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4smgV...eature=related
Nothing quite like a Cello Player in a Marching Band.
Wasn't this thread about Lance walking away from the sport if SU lost the inter final ? It looks like it could be a while before he walks anywhere ! I'm surprized that the word "karma" hasn't come up yet !
But on a serious note I wish him a speedy recovery.
As a trainer you are supposed to keep a diary of all treatment's etc for your horse and may be asked to produce it at the request of the steward's although i have never heard of this being asked for to check.
[VVV] Seeking to follow in the footsteps of my comedic idol Danno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKblP3_EkM0 :rolleyes:
I 100% agree. :)
I have raced in a jurisdiction where DMSO is not prohibited at all. I drenched it, injected it, used it topically AT THE RACES (which was within the rules) and I will tell you now, it did not make a stitch of difference to my horse's performance and I tried it on several. I now almost soley only use it when sweating legs...
Without getting into a debate, because I don't, but an example of a non-essential aspect of racing that is allowed and would no doubt help performance is items such as shoeing. You will improve a horse (well probably 90%) by racing it with shoes. Only to their potential, not over. A horse racing on hay only for the most part would not race as good as a horse racing on grain and vitamins, minerals and electrolytes. Heck, jogging and fast working a horse mid week will mean it will peform better than one that spent 24 hours a day grazing in a paddock. IMHO a line needs to be drawn and it has - it is just too strict.
Wait till they start going 1:52 in every race at Menangle... perhaps the strict stance on theraputic substances will be eased a little then. The horses won't be lasting long otherwise.... :)
I reckon you might have "missed the point" somewhat Jamie,or are you saying it should gloves off/open slather? The vast majority of people in this game want a level playing field and they'd like to think to the rules and the administration are working to assure this.
As i said in my earlier post if all horses arriving on course 4/5 hours before competition was a workable solution and regulated drugs administered then I'm sure everyone would be fine with that....everyone that could still participate that is.
I'll repeat myself for your benefit. The vast distances we are spread out over in Australia, combined with a large percentage of horses trained by hobbyists make on course arrival 4/5 hours before competition prohibitive. The recently repealed two hour limit caused many people to have their racing options restricted and hence reduced fields. What sort of affect do you reckon 4 to 5 hours is going to have?
It's one thing to quote whats fine in "other racing jurisdictions" but quite another to come up with workable solutions.
One thing that really annoys me is people who frequently whinge but seldom provide solutions, whingeing is cheap and easy.... solutions are are a tad harder to do.
Do us all a favour and conduct a little survey of your own, ask a reasonable cross section of trainers how they would cope with on course arrival times of 4 to 5 hours pre-competition.
If you do you might get an understanding of how the people who provide the racing product are getting on and how they reckon they might handle your "solution" in todays world!