It was rumored that California Chrome had a blister in his throat, causing him to cough. The blister was being treated with glycerin and water, and apparently wasn’t a problem because Chrome totally outran and outclassed the rest of the field.
Horses are beautiful animals aren’t they? I worked as a part-time groom at Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows in California back in the ‘70s and really enjoyed the horses! I remember nervously leading one $40,000 three-year old to the saddling paddock for his race. We had nicknamed him Frog because he tended to jump around some. Frog was fast enough his owners and the trainer thought we might win some money with him. He burst out of the gate to an early lead but then he put on the brakes and looked around for the other horses - as they sailed past him.
We did win a pretty good sized purse on a filly named Eyes Six once. Her owner took the trainer, exercise rider, stable hands and all our significant others out for dinner and drinks after the race. The owner complained later that celebration cost him too much of his winnings.
Horses can be kind of ornery now and then. I’ve had them bite me, try to kick me, try to brush me off on the side of a barn and dump me in a creek. One stallion lashed out at me with his hind feet as I attached him to a hot walker. Luckily, I dropped to the ground before he nailed me. Everybody around the barn thought I’d been killed. Another time a stallion got out of his stall and was putting some moves on a little filly. When he saw me he pawed the ground and snorted. He didn’t look like he wanted me to “assist” him back to his stall so I let his grooms do that.
Getting back to California Chrome, I’m glad he wasn’t treated with any questionable drugs. A controversy currently surrounds the use of certain drugs in the horse racing industry, especially Lasix, which restricts excessive bleeding in a horse’s airways. When pushed to gallop at racing speeds more than half of all thoroughbreds used for racing will have traces of blood in their airways following a race. But the use of Lasix and certain other drugs in horses is being questioned and a bill currently before Congress would ban the use of all performance-enhancing drugs in the racing industry. http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/horse-racing-2/horse-racing-industry-cruelty/drugs/#ixzz320FP5gE7
In the two years I worked part time as a race horse groom I only remember the trainer I worked for using Lasix twice - and only when a horse seemed otherwise fit to run but a veterinarian recommended Lasix because he was concerned about bleeding. My trainer always seemed genuinely concerned for his horses’ welfare; he’d scratch one from a race for the slightest indication of a problem.
The U.S. is about the only country that still allows such routine and extensive use of drugs in horse racing. There’s a long list of trainers who have been charged with multiple violations of using drugs in horses. Can you believe some of those yahoos have even used cocaine and snake venom to enhance their horse’s performances?
NBC News carried a story this past week about Kate Papp, a veterinarian who specialized in treating racehorses until she took a hard look at what she was doing.
“Every day, I almost quit,” Papp told NBC’s Anna Schecter. “Everything that’s given to the horse is with the main goal in mind, which is having them run well, win races, pay well to the owners and to the trainers,” she said. “And anything that they can give the horses – whether it be legal, illegal, even non-necessary substances – they will do … in an attempt to have a winner or improve their horse.”
The only real abuse of drugs I ever saw at the race track involved stable hands and exercise riders popping phenylbutazone, generally referred to as "bute" (sort of a horse aspirin) to cure their hangovers after a long night of debauchery. I saw guys take two or three doses of bute and wash them down with beer. You can imagine if those pills were meant for a 1500-pound horse what three of them with a cold Bud could do to a 100-pound rider. Fortunately, I never was tempted to try that cure.
I wish I had space enough here to tell you about more of my equine adventures, but it’s time to go. As they say at the track, “Riders up!”
Horses are beautiful animals aren’t they? I worked as a part-time groom at Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows in California back in the ‘70s and really enjoyed the horses! I remember nervously leading one $40,000 three-year old to the saddling paddock for his race. We had nicknamed him Frog because he tended to jump around some. Frog was fast enough his owners and the trainer thought we might win some money with him. He burst out of the gate to an early lead but then he put on the brakes and looked around for the other horses - as they sailed past him.
We did win a pretty good sized purse on a filly named Eyes Six once. Her owner took the trainer, exercise rider, stable hands and all our significant others out for dinner and drinks after the race. The owner complained later that celebration cost him too much of his winnings.
Horses can be kind of ornery now and then. I’ve had them bite me, try to kick me, try to brush me off on the side of a barn and dump me in a creek. One stallion lashed out at me with his hind feet as I attached him to a hot walker. Luckily, I dropped to the ground before he nailed me. Everybody around the barn thought I’d been killed. Another time a stallion got out of his stall and was putting some moves on a little filly. When he saw me he pawed the ground and snorted. He didn’t look like he wanted me to “assist” him back to his stall so I let his grooms do that.
Getting back to California Chrome, I’m glad he wasn’t treated with any questionable drugs. A controversy currently surrounds the use of certain drugs in the horse racing industry, especially Lasix, which restricts excessive bleeding in a horse’s airways. When pushed to gallop at racing speeds more than half of all thoroughbreds used for racing will have traces of blood in their airways following a race. But the use of Lasix and certain other drugs in horses is being questioned and a bill currently before Congress would ban the use of all performance-enhancing drugs in the racing industry. http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/horse-racing-2/horse-racing-industry-cruelty/drugs/#ixzz320FP5gE7
In the two years I worked part time as a race horse groom I only remember the trainer I worked for using Lasix twice - and only when a horse seemed otherwise fit to run but a veterinarian recommended Lasix because he was concerned about bleeding. My trainer always seemed genuinely concerned for his horses’ welfare; he’d scratch one from a race for the slightest indication of a problem.
The U.S. is about the only country that still allows such routine and extensive use of drugs in horse racing. There’s a long list of trainers who have been charged with multiple violations of using drugs in horses. Can you believe some of those yahoos have even used cocaine and snake venom to enhance their horse’s performances?
NBC News carried a story this past week about Kate Papp, a veterinarian who specialized in treating racehorses until she took a hard look at what she was doing.
“Every day, I almost quit,” Papp told NBC’s Anna Schecter. “Everything that’s given to the horse is with the main goal in mind, which is having them run well, win races, pay well to the owners and to the trainers,” she said. “And anything that they can give the horses – whether it be legal, illegal, even non-necessary substances – they will do … in an attempt to have a winner or improve their horse.”
The only real abuse of drugs I ever saw at the race track involved stable hands and exercise riders popping phenylbutazone, generally referred to as "bute" (sort of a horse aspirin) to cure their hangovers after a long night of debauchery. I saw guys take two or three doses of bute and wash them down with beer. You can imagine if those pills were meant for a 1500-pound horse what three of them with a cold Bud could do to a 100-pound rider. Fortunately, I never was tempted to try that cure.
I wish I had space enough here to tell you about more of my equine adventures, but it’s time to go. As they say at the track, “Riders up!”
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