Salix ban will extend to 2YO Listed Stakes

ERIC MITCHELL writing for The Blood-Horse reports:

Salix. Photo: Anne M Eberhardt — A bright, shiny bottle of Salix, a drug given to virtually every horse who starts a race in the US, including most overseas horses when they compete in the US such as the Breeders’ Cup. Salix / Lasix is the anti-bleeder medication furosemide. Photo: Anne M Eberhardt

Beginning this year, the American Graded Stakes Committee will evaluate and rate the quality of listed stakes. The new rating system would also extend to listed stakes for 2-year-olds the ban on race-day Salix use that will be applied to graded stakes for 2-year-olds when the program is implemented.

“The listed races would be treated the same as graded stakes and have to follow the same policies,” said Andy Schweigardt, secretary of the AGSC and director of industry relations and development for the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

The committee announced in 2011 a pilot program that tied the status of juvenile graded stakes to a ban on all race-day medication, primarily the anti-bleeder medication Salix (also known as Lasix). The AGSC in the past has tied adoption of various policies to retaining grades for stakes.