The tidal wave of change to North American racing started over night in Kentucky.
The racing industry in the US in particular has known for a few years now that they are behind the rest of the world in many, many areas and now things are about to change which will have manifest impact across the globe.
Issues such as drug administration times, whip use, Category 1 rules of racing, inbreeding et al, have gathered such momentum, a change was needed.
And Kentucky, home of the famed Derby, is leading the way, surprisingly, as many thought Woodbine would be the first to completely change things up in North America.
To be fair to the Canadians, later this week Woodbine will have a full industry inclusion look and think tank on the sustainability of racing and they did at least implement whip change rules about 6 weeks ago.
But Kentucky has started its campaign of change by addressing the administration of drugs, and in particular the one pariah that has kept them on the front verandah, out of the house belonging to the rest of the world of racing.
Lasix.
Kentucky’s Thoroughbred racetracks – Keeneland, Churchill Downs, Turfway Park, Ellis Park and Kentucky Downs – united in their support of the medication reforms adopted this week by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
Their passage demonstrates an unprecedented unity among racing associations and a commitment to start moving forward on initiatives that further strengthen safety, appearance and integrity protocols.
With this week’s action by the KHRC, Kentucky becomes the first state in the US to initiate a phaseout of the race-day use of Lasix. Beginning in 2020 and moving forward, the use of Lasix will be banned in Kentucky on race day for 2-year-olds; beginning in 2021 and subsequent years, the use of Lasix will be eliminated in all graded stakes races including the Gr 1 Kentucky Derby held at Kentucky race tracks.
All other US and Canadian tracks allow Lasix, but this landmark decision and implementation of it by Kentucky will accelerate the changes.
It will be one of Woodbine’s leading topics at their crisis meeting this week.
The next item of change will be whip use down the home straight – a more divisive and controversial topic.
Stay tuned.
