Alicia Wincze Hughes on horse racing

For the second time during the Keeneland Fall Meet, a mix up happened with regards to a horse on the card being administered the anti-bleeder medication Lasix by state veterinarians.

On Wednesday, the Paul McGee-trained Infrattini won the day’s fourth race despite not being given the pre-race shot of Lasix as requested by his connections. According to Dr. Mary Scollay, equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, the mistake happened when information regarding Infrattini’s location was not updated in the record-keeping system that says which horses are to receive the race-day medication.

“It was our mistake,” Scollay said. “The horse was originally scheduled to be in the receiving barn and the trainer elected to bring him to his Barn 23. He notified the stall man, the stall man notified us. We made incomplete changes in our records.

“We have two different record keeping systems. One is for the pre-race exam that is computerized and that information was updated. So the veterinarian for the pre-race exam saw the horse. The problem was we have a separate record keeping system for the Lasix and the location was not changed on the Lasix records. The location change was not recorded on the Lasix paperwork and by the time we realized the horse hasd not been treated, we were past the deadline and we reported it to the stewards.”

McGee said the state veterinarians were apologetic and that he was given the option to scratch Infrattini, who was sent off as the 7-to-5 favorite.

“They did mention they are trying to iron things out and get it right,” McGee said. “Obviously it’s not what I wanted to happen but it did.”
“Obviously we don’t want to make mistakes,” Scollay added. “We’re pleased the horse was able to compete and we’re pleased the horse was successful and that his owner and trainer didn’t suffer any consequences.”

The start of the Keeneland meet marked the beginning of a new commission rule that states private veterinarians are no longer allowed to administer race-day Lasix and that such practice is only allowed to be carried out by state vets.  On the opening day of the meet, the Rusty Arnold-trained Exothermic was mistakenly given a Lasix shot when he was not supposed to receive one.

Lasix has to be administered no closer than four hours out from a horse’s race. In order to prevent a mistake like the one that occurred Wednesday from  happening again, Scollay said they would now do a roll call by radio five minutes to each race’s Lasix deadline to ensure that each horse scheduled to be treated has.

“In September, Turfway recored seven horses  that were not treated (by the deadline) and those were by private vets,” Scollay said. “Human mistakes are going to get made and all you can to do is try to not to repeat mistakes that were made in the past. The horseman have been very cooperative and we are confident this (new rule) will be successful.”