Race Horse

The Lasix Wars of 1990 are starting to get ugly. Like gangs battling over philosophical turf, equine veterinarians and racing policy makers from British Columbia to Boca Raton have been lining up either for or against a University of Pennsylvania paper published last May that drew several damaging conclusions regarding the use of furosemide--a diuretic given to bleeders and known best by the trade name Lasix--in thoroughbred race horses.

With Approval, Canada's 1989 Horse of the Year, posted a world record Sunday when he won the Bowling Green Handicap at Belmont Park, track officials announced today. His clocking of 2:10 1/5, under jockey Craig Perret, was the best ever for 1 3/4 miles on the turf. The previous record was 2:11, posted by Cougar in Hollywood Park's Century Handicap on April 29, 1972. The course record broken by With Approval was set by another Canadian horse, Overskate, in the same race in 1979.

Even the horses love Laz Barrera. They must. They run right out of their breeding for him. There is a saying around the race track: If you've got a cheap horse, there's a dozen guys you can give him to. If you've got a good horse, there's only one--give him to Laz Barrera. A good trainer cannot make a bad horse win. But a bad trainer can make a good horse lose. In 1976, the Puerto Rican owners of Bold Forbes thought they had a pretty good horse.

Billy Hamill comes from a horse racing family. His father, Gordon, is a former jockey who is now the flagman starter for races at Santa Anita. His grandfather, Keith Stucki, is a veteran trainer who saddled Ancient Title when he set a track record at Santa Anita in 1978. The family expected Billy to become a jockey. Except for one thing. "I'm scared to death of horses," Hamill says. Instead, he races motorcycles for a living.

Despite a handicap division that is one of the weakest in years, and a crop of 3-year-olds that has been neither deep nor consistent, the Breeders' Cup is expected to have an exciting race Saturday when the $3-million Classic is run at Gulfstream Park. The renewal of the Triple Crown rivalry between Easy Goer and Sunday Silence has created the most anticipation for a Breeders' Cup stake since the annual seven-race extravaganza began in 1984.

Racing's annual horse-of-the-year award, which has been announced through a variety of formats, will be announced early next year on ABC-TV's "Wide World of Sports." The groups that sponsor the award believe that the announcement of the 1989 champion has a chance of reaching the largest audience ever. The announcement of the 1988 winner, Alysheba, was carried on national television for the first time.

Private Terms, Maryland's racing hero of 1988, has been sold to new owners who say they will keep the colt in the state for racing this year. Richard Golden and Allaire du Pont have purchased the colt for an undisclosed sum, with the understanding that he will spend next year at their Northview Stallion Station, part of the old Windfields Farm in Chesapeake City. In 1990, Private Terms will stay in Maryland for stud duty.

The 250 or so voters who will decide the horse-of-the-year title for 1988 must be thankful that there are some Breeders' Cup races in early November that will help them fill out their ballots. And if the fifth annual Breeders' Cup, scheduled for Nov. 5 at Churchill Downs, is anything like the last 2 years, its results will do little more than confuse.

Bleeding in race horses--a common syndrome at most tracks--has been identified as a possible major cause of sudden death in a controversial new study that concludes the phenomenon may explain many race-horse deaths previously thought to be heart attacks. The finding surprised experts at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center veterinary complex, which headed the research project. The study was published earlier this month in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Assn.

Making sure that race horses aren't winning, or losing, because of drugs is no easy job--especially for the guys in there working with the horses. Pete Robinson and Mike Shrader are on the front lines of the drug screening program at Charles Town Races. And that means some peculiar occupational hazards. First, they have to watch for quick kicks from horses brought to the stables after each race on the card. Then they have to be quick with a cup when the horse feels like giving a urine sample.