Recent Lydia Hislop Article

If the trainers have nothing to hide which I am sure they don't why can't they have their horses medical records in a central database though?

Lydia's point is some of this is already happening and it needs to go further. Fair point I reckon.
 
You’re being very unfair to the poor girl. She’s not putting herself up as an expert, nor suggesting anything that is not already in play by the BHA and/or other horseracing authorities around the world. What she is suggesting is that horseracing is under threat from the animal rights brigade et al and it is worth going the extra mile to avoid giving them bullets to fire in the shape of horses breaking down or getting fatally injured whilst racing. In addition to that, it is only right that we should be concerned about the welfare of the horses and for most owners coming back safe and sound is at the forefront of their minds.
 
A really excellent article and as you’d expect from her, she doesn’t hold back.

In my opinion as a former trainer I think this should be welcomed but I fear it will not be. I ran my few horses “clean” and very, very rarely resorted to medicating them. But there are many out there who are happy to administer plenty of drugs both legal and not. There are suppliers (many in Ireland) who provide a wide variety of medications which are not available anymore in the UK and rightly so. Certainly back when I was training, many of the larger stables were using drugs to get horses fit enough to race but managing to be within the withdrawal period. For me this is wrong in many ways. If your horse has an issue, instead of masking it with painkillers, you should be trying to find out what the cause is.

I hadn’t heard of biphosphonates but they sound potentially very worrying. There will always by nature of the will to win at all costs, be more and more drugs invented to give a participant the edge. Look at the feted American trainer who turns up every year with his two year olds looking like mature five year olds. Please don’t think he just trains and feeds them better than his contemporaries!

I think the Horse Welfare Board is a good step in the right direction. Headed by James Given, himself both a vet and a former trainer, he does have the horses welfare engrained in him. I had reason to talk to him a couple of years ago when I was concerned that a 17 year old horse was allowed to run at a point to point I was covering. It hadn’t run for two years either. I tried everything to get it stopped from running but there was no ruling. It ran for one circuit, pulled up and then dropped dead of a massive heart attack. Fortunately it was during racing behind closed doors but had it been now, in front of a once a year Bank Holiday crowd who then post it on social media, then what? I had a really good conversation with James and off the back of that all horses that are 15 years and over HAVE to have a full health certificate from a vet stating they are 100% fit to run having had a proper examination. I (and James) would like to see this age reduced to 13 and also brought out to include Rules racing not just Pointing. But it’s a start.

I think we have to be very careful to make sure there are no more Gordon Elliot moments.
 
jinnyj said:
……………There will always by nature of the will to win at all costs, be more and more drugs invented to give a participant the edge. Look at the feted American trainer who turns up every year with his two year olds looking like mature five year olds. Please don’t think he just trains and feeds them better than his contemporaries! ……….
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Good post, jj. So far as the bit I’ve picked out, surely everyone knows it so why is he not pilloried for it? I suppose whatever he does is quasi-legal (maybe!), but it’s not right and the powers that be and the press should be saying so.
 
Legislation is in train shortly in Ireland for vets to register all animal treatments /prescriptions centrally online.
The main purpose is to reduce bacterial and parasitic resistance to medicines but will also reduce unnecessary medicine usage.
As horses are classified within EU as a farm animal they shall be included.
Use of the information supplied is then up to the regulators.
 
barjon said:
Good post, jj. So far as the bit I’ve picked out, surely everyone knows it so why is he not pilloried for it? I suppose whatever he does is quasi-legal (maybe!), but it’s not right and the powers that be and the press should be saying so.
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Because nothing shows up in a dope test so he gets away with it. And as with other sports, things like steroids r muscle enhancing drugs are getting more and more sophisticated so detection is harder. But you only have to look at the abnormal muscle mass to realise that it isnt due to a normal natural development.

Over here, trainers are subjected to spot checks at home although I’m not sure horses are actually tested as they would be on a racecourse. It is just a case of checking their medical records which should be up to date and also their medical cabinet to see what there is in there.

Interestingly we have the BHA arriving at Points randomly to do dope testing of both horse and riders. If jockeys suddenly disappear then they have to answer why. There is a Welsh trainer who (according to the BHA vet I spoke to) had EIGHT positive dope tests. For me he should be warned off. He has one horse that’s won 18 times I think and many wins were untested as the dope unit isn’t always there. He regularly turned the lorry round if he saw the BHA vet there. Now they hide until he arrives and test his horses both before and after the race. He was fuming last time but if he didn’t cheat, then it wouldn’t be an inconvenience!
 
jinnyj said:
Because nothing shows up in a dope test so he gets away with it. And as with other sports, things like steroids r muscle enhancing drugs are getting more and more sophisticated so detection is harder. But you only have to look at the abnormal muscle mass to realise that it isnt due to a normal natural development.

Over here, trainers are subjected to spot checks at home although I’m not sure horses are actually tested as they would be on a racecourse. It is just a case of checking their medical records which should be up to date and also their medical cabinet to see what there is in there.

Interestingly we have the BHA arriving at Points randomly to do dope testing of both horse and riders. If jockeys suddenly disappear then they have to answer why. There is a Welsh trainer who (according to the BHA vet I spoke to) had EIGHT positive dope tests. For me he should be warned off. He has one horse that’s won 18 times I think and many wins were untested as the dope unit isn’t always there. He regularly turned the lorry round if he saw the BHA vet there. Now they hide until he arrives and test his horses both before and after the race. He was fuming last time but if he didn’t cheat, then it wouldn’t be an inconvenience!
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Your insight is much appreciated Jinny. Your knowledge about training and horse care is brilliant. Just keep posting your knowledge, no one here will know your experiences re training and running horses. Respect to you. Anything else we have disagreed about is small and just horse race chat. Thanks for your insight, no one else offers this much info. I learn stuff all the time. I wish more from inside racing would come forward and inform us what goes on inside this game.
 
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jinnyj said:
Because nothing shows up in a dope test so he gets away with it. And as with other sports, things like steroids r muscle enhancing drugs are getting more and more sophisticated so detection is harder. But you only have to look at the abnormal muscle mass to realise that it isnt due to a normal natural development.

Over here, trainers are subjected to spot checks at home although I’m not sure horses are actually tested as they would be on a racecourse. It is just a case of checking their medical records which should be up to date and also their medical cabinet to see what there is in there.

Interestingly we have the BHA arriving at Points randomly to do dope testing of both horse and riders. If jockeys suddenly disappear then they have to answer why. There is a Welsh trainer who (according to the BHA vet I spoke to) had EIGHT positive dope tests. For me he should be warned off. He has one horse that’s won 18 times I think and many wins were untested as the dope unit isn’t always there. He regularly turned the lorry round if he saw the BHA vet there. Now they hide until he arrives and test his horses both before and after the race. He was fuming last time but if he didn’t cheat, then it wouldn’t be an inconvenience!
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Well, I think it’s weak - if it’s ok to turn ladies away because their skirts are too short then ………….
 
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