DRF: KY Equine Drug Council votes to support partial Lasix ban

Update: The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Dec. 9 voted unanimously to pursue a partial ban on the administration of race-day Lasix beginning in 2020.

Posted: Nov. 26, 2019

The Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council, just a few weeks after rejecting a partial ban on the administration of race-day Lasix, reversed its decision Nov. 25 in what is being called a “compromise.”

A full report on the KEDRC meeting is available via Daily Racing Form. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission is expected to address the KEDRC recommendation in December.

Coinciding with the vote was a release from the Grayson-Jockey Research Foundation on research that indicates findings from “simulated races show that for horses that are known bleeders, the low-dose furosemide (Lasix) administered at 24 hours prior to post with maintenance water has great promise as a replacement to the current four-hour administration of furosemide.”

Earlier this year, the second of two projects funded by Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation that examined furosemide administration at 24 hours prior to a race was published in the Journal of Veterinarian Internal Medicine.

The study is available here.