Beginning on opening day at Keeneland Race Course, only Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) veterinarians will be permitted to administer race-day furosemide , Salix, commonly called Lasix according to the KHRC in an advisory issued on Friday, August 31.
New furosemide (Salix) regulations
Regulations are tied to the KHRC's plan to eliminate race-day Salix in graded and listed stakes races in Kentucky, which the commission previously approved.
This was one day after Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear issued an executive order to override a legislative panel's vote striking down a set of medication reforms in the state.
Effective Thursday, September 4, impacting the Turfway Park and Kentucky Downs fall meets, Salix will be the only drug permissible on race day, with adjunct bleeder medications prohibited. The amount of bute allowable in a horse's system has also been reduced.
However, private veterinarians may continue to administer Salix injections on race day until Friday, October 5, the opening day of Keeneland's fall meet.
The regulations were approved in a closed vote by the KHRC, but were struck down by the Kentucky Legislature's Interim Joint Committee on Licensing and Occupations by a 19-1 margin in a vote on Monday. Beshear announced on Thursday evening that he would override the decision.
"All of the regulations were approved unanimously by the relevant KHRC committees, and by the KHRC itself," Beashear said in a statement issued by his office. "The regulations were heard by the Administrative Regulation and Review Subcommittee without objection from any member of the committee. The interest of the industry demands that these well developed and fully vetted regulations go into effect as promulgated."
The regulations are tied to the KHRC's plan to eliminate race-day Salix in graded and listed stakes races in Kentucky, which the commission approved in a vote in June.
Under the plan, race-day Salix would be banned in graded and listed stakes for two-year-olds in 2014, and expanded to two- and three-year-olds races in 2015, making that year's Kentucky Derby (G1) the first affected. It would be outlawed in all Kentucky graded and listed stakes in 2016 and beyond.
Beshear supports the Salix ban, but the regulation has yet to make its way through the legislature for a vote.