Stronach wants to eliminate raceday meds

Gulfstream Park owner Frank Stronach has asked Florida regulators to help him implement a program that would phase out all raceday medication, including Lasix, for 3-year-olds at the track, beginning with the 2011-12 meeting.

Stronach, chairman of Stronach Entertainment Corp., sent a letter last week outlining his plan and asking for assistance to Milton Champion, director of the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, a part of the Flordia Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Stronach said he has sent similar correspondences to the racing commissions in other jurisdictions in which he owns racetracks. Stronach said he hopes to implement his plan at all his tracks: Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields in California; Pimlico and Laurel in Maryland; and Portland Meadows in Oregon.

Stronach’s request comes on the heels of last week’s announcement by the Breeders’ Cup that it will ban the use of Lasix in all 2-year-old races in its season-ending championships beginning in 2012.

Horsemen use Lasix – or the diuretic furosemide – to treat exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, or bleeding in the lungs. A number of studies have cited the drug’s ability to reduce bleeding, but other studies have demonstrated that horses treated with the drug run faster than horses that are untreated.