I think that if you have been involved in any aspect of the competitive horse world, you should get it. The unrated American Saddlebred shows sown in Kentucky which offer classes to qualify for the World Championships at the KY State Fair are known to have a bunch of syringes and needles in the trashcans around the barns. Its one of the reasons the trainers favor those shows for getting their amateurs, in particular, qualified. No one is testing for anything.
Carry on!
I’ve never cared for Kumin; he comes off as a stereotypical “bro” whose only interest in horses is bragging rights when they win.
And Baffert’s personality, plus the fact that he wins, certainly appeals to the bro faction in racing.
Buried at the bottom of this article… and this after the Hollendorfer fiasco. Talk about playing favorites 
Santa Anita, owned by The Stronach Group, issued a statement late June 2 indicating that Baffert could continue to race at the California track.
“Santa Anita Park is committed to integrity, accountability, and fairness in our sport. As it stands, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC)—which is the governing body for racing in Kentucky—has not released all of the information, nor has it offered a ruling on this matter,” read the statement. “We will continue to await action by the KHRC and will make a decision once their regulatory process is complete.”
The call to await a regulator decision differs from TSG’s action that barred Jerry Hollendorfer from running horses at its properties beginning in June 2019 after four of the Hall of Fame trainer’s horses perished from injuries during that Santa Anita’s winter/spring meeting. Two others died at Golden Gate Fields.
TSG management has changed since the Hollendorfer decision. Craig Fravel joined TSG as CEO of Racing Operations in the fall of 2019.
Also from the BH article and this make me go 
“We bought over 30 2-year-olds that we plan to send to Bob,” Kumin said. “We have sent about 25 already. We plan to continue to support him.”
That’s more horses than I suspect MRH buys in a year. Smacks of dispensable items
Thanks for the response. I read a recent Paulick Report article in the meantime that seemed to indicate the owner’s attorney wants the sample tested to confirm Otomax was used… not sure how they would do that, or what it would prove at this point. I’m amongst the folks who don’t believe this was a sloppy management oversight though…
As for your reference to Jason Servis situation, and the false positives for dex… that’s a really interesting point, and exactly the sort of thing I’m wondering about.
I do understand the usefulness of joint injections in a horse that has some soundness issues… but given Gamine also testing for betamethasone… something seems incomplete even about the potential explanation that both cases in Baffert’s horses were a result of injecting joints too close to race day…
I have seen them used prophylactically in the show horse world, which I don’t always get, but here’s my question: when we did joint injections, we were always told to take it light with that horse for the week or so afterwards. How can you inject a horse that close to a race, and keep them working in the way that is necessary to maintain fitness, and still maintain best management practices?
I suspect Hollendorfer doesn’t have the deep pockets Baffert has access to, hence why he didn’t pursue in court any further than he did. He lost a round or two and boom, that was it for Jerry.
I understand the use of hylaronic acid joint injection as a prophylactic… and I can understand the theory behind minimizing inflammation in a joint, via corticosteroids, as over time, excessive inflammation will lead to longer term damage. But I am with you in terms of not understanding the timing of this whole thing. Like you said… my experience with a teenaged mare with arthritic hocks and steroid injections (yeah… a different horse and situation entirely… but general veterinary principles are what they are)… well… we limited activity for a few days after injections, then gradually brought her back to work over the course of two weeks. Maximum benefit was seen AFTER bringing her back into full work at about the 14 plus day mark… then for about two to three months after that, before the effects began to wane, and it was clear she’d need repeat injections.
So I guess I can understand if a horse had an odd way of metabolizing, and tested positive, even though it was injected over 14 days before the race. But it seems like it would be more beneficial to inject around 30 days out…
I admittedly didn’t follow the lead up to the Derby closely this year though, and can’t recollect offhand when Medina Spirit ran this spring… I could understand if there were scheduling challenges in terms of Derby prep that made the timing of injections tricky…
I’m also curious about published reports in terms of the horse’s workouts in the week prior to Derby… did anything seem odd about his workout schedule?
Maybe I’m utterly clueless though, and corticosteroid injections in younger racehorses are managed completely differently than middle aged performance horses…
So last year and this year, some of BB’s most promising Derby contenders ended up missing the Derby due to injuries. Thankfully, no catastrophic breakdowns. But it does make you wonder if something was causing them to be pushed beyond their limits. I know, I know - injuries are not unheard of, they are training at a very strenuous level, etc., etc. However, I cannot get it out of my mind how lame Justify was the day after the Derby and how he was quickly retired after the Triple Crown. He only ran 6 races in his lifetime.
C’mon now. Justify was lame in the midst of his Triple Crown because of rain rot or some other similar excuse… right? eyeroll
Maybe horses are different than humans, but my recollection is that repeated steroid injections in joints can cause cartilage and bone deterioration. Perhaps why they are only done when clinically indicated, not prophylactically. (again, in humans).
Yeah - scratches from the sloppy Derby track. That’s an aggressive case to develop so quickly! All these skin conditions - BB needs better grooms. 
I think it is also true for horses. Also, there is also the risk of infection. My trainer had to put down her horse because of an infection that developed after hock injections.
Right?!? I can’t even keep all the various skin and groom problems straight anymore… between the sudden onset of scratches in high performance horses that are stalled all the time… hmmm… which then allegedly caused asymmetric hind limb lameness noticeable when hand walking… grooms applying prescription ointmentscontaining steroids without the trainer’s knowledge to a Derby prospect, and wasn’t there an allegation of staff peeing in stalls, and thus somehow possibly accidentally exposing the horse to drugs? Or maybe that story was related to a different horse popping positive. Oh… and didn’t an assistant trainer ‘accidentally’ transfer lidocaine to two horses because of a lidocaine patch he was using…
A real pattern of blame with Baffert’s staff for all these drug issues…
There is an identified ointment: Otomax. It’s other ingredients include gentamicin and clotrimazole. I do not know if there are commercially available tests for these. They are (to the best of my knowledge) legal. However, it is possible that one or the other can cross test for an illegal product which would put them on the “do not use prior to race day” list.
But again, it doesn’t matter if there is a test and they find the other ingredients in Otomax are present. A positive test for betamethasone is a positive test, because you can’t prove it wasn’t a cover and expecting the testers to run around disproving an ever increasing list of excuses is a waste of time. That’s why they don’t do it.
BB did make a show of demanding the other active ingredients be tested for, and he may in fact request that testing himself to “clear his name.” I’ve seen a few rumblings about this being done, but I suspect he’s more likely to go back on Fox and whine about cancel culture
There are theories that trainers use “untestable” drugs that would only show up as something more “mundane” like betamethasone. Seems pointless to test positive for something else, but people like conspiracies.
There is plenty of advantage to joint injections two weeks or more prior to a match. You get inflammation in a joint, you don’t want to properly rest a horse because you’ve got the Derby in 3 weeks and a week off is going to leave your horse unprepared? You inject the joint or any other spot. (You can use these products other places - for example, a topical on inflamed skin.) Problem goes away. If you do it with plenty of time until the next test, you’re good to go.
It is absolutely possible that the horse had a joint injection but they either cut it to close, or even with the approved withdrawal time, the horse hadn’t quite broken it down outside of the testing range. Withdrawal times are a guide, but everything exists within a bell curve. 95% of horses might clear a betamethasone joint injection down to 0 picograms in 10 days, 99% by 14 days and then your 1% horse takes 21 days and you get caught with a positive. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. In my experience, any trainer at the peak of their sport (racing, jumpers, hunters, even human athletes) have the most to lose but also the most to gain, so they’re willing to take the greatest risks. It takes a certain amount of luck to get to those levels, and it’s amazing the **** people can pull off when they’re used to getting away with it. And if you mess up a time or two? Well, you’re too big to fail until you aren’t. Bob hasn’t hit his wall yet. He’s still got clients. Considering his clients care more about winning than horsemanship, he’ll keep messing up and keep sliding by for a while longer.
For the record, I have known plenty of closely managed show horses that got rain rot and scratches just because they were getting daily baths (in one case, just because the millionaire owner liked them to be shiny) and their stressed out immune systems were barely teetering along. Moisture + poor immune system is all it takes to get these skin infections. The organisms are environmental and you’re not going to be able to scrub them out of the stalls no matter how hard you try. So, yes, I don’t doubt well-managed but stressed high performance racehorses can and do get dermatitises on the track. Doesn’t matter. Still your job to know the risks of the drugs your using. You got the Derby coming up? Time to triple check every drug that breathes in your stable.
I hear what you are saying. The thing that puzzles me in a practical way, is that in my limited experience, you do rest a horse for a few days after they get joint injections, then return to light work for a few days, then full work. Maximum benefit of the injection is not immediate… it takes some time depending on the particular corticosteroid used. Given the fitness requirements for racehorses at this level, injections done close to the 14 day mark prior to racing… well… are they really going to help the horse that much, if the horse also takes several days off because of them in the lead up to a big race? If the horse doesn’t get much if any rest post injection, and they continue on with standard workouts in terms of intensity and timing… it seems like there is a risk that underlying soreness or joint inflammation could actually be exacerbated in the short term by this sort of management…
I TOTALLY understand a corticosteroid joint injection done 30 days prior to race day being advantageous in a horse that has a chronic issue with a sore knee or other joint, and they want to push it, and try and get to the starting gate for a specific big race, and not take time to rest for several weeks or a month or two, and adequately address underlying issues… and that is it’s own problem and ethical/welfare concern because we are discussing 3yr old Thoroughbreds… joint injections like this in a young horse like that make me wince to think about. But I am struggling with the benefits vs. risks of injections 14 days or less before race day timeline. I guess they could inject and return to training the very next day… but that’s an extra level of cringe to me…
I hope I’m making sense. I’ll admit - my experience with joint injections has exclusively been with hocks. Maybe knees are managed slightly differently, and don’t require much if any rest post injection? I’ve seen speculation that if the horse was injected, it was likely involved a knee…
As for the rain rot/scratches… you make a fair point about a stressed horse with an immune system that is not functioning optimally blowing up with a big reaction to a micro organism in the environment… I’m used to my very relaxed horses that live on lots of turnout, and probably am not considering the stress factor that can wreak havoc…
But you know what else commonly suppresses the immune system, causing all sorts of little bugs to flare up into big problems? Steroids. In people and animals. Just a thought…
Exactly. The proper protocol for injecting a joint with a steroid-based anti-inflammatory is to inject…and then rest the horse until that joint has had a chance to heal. It was never supposed to be a quick fix, but humans gonna human in pursuit of the glory.
We have no evidence that Bob injected the joint. He might not have. He might have injected it at 14 days and thought he was clear, or 21 or 30, or whatever, and had a horse with an odd metabolism that took longer than expected to clear it.
One thing I will point out is that it probably totally inaccurate to assume that just because you are “supposed” to rest a horse after a joint injection, it means you “have” to rest a horse after a joint injection. If you ask 10 vets what their post joint injection protocol is, you will get 11 answers. I have heard and seen anywhere in the spectrum from:
Wrap and stall for 24 hours, paddock x 48 hours, turnout x 48 hours, then slow intro to work over the next several days.
to…
Give 'em the rest of the day off, one low impact day, and then put 'em to work to get that joint moving - that tiny needle puncture is plugged with fibrin by now and you don’t want that spreading.
For the record? An injection of a steroid is pretty darn immediate. That’s why we give steroids. They dial inflammation back very quickly. That’s also why you’re average riding horse is getting HA (longterm lubrication) and many vets no longer use steroids in joints, as it is a fast but shortterm fix that increases the risk of infection. Doesn’t mean you don’t give both HA and steroids together - immediate relief + longterm lubrication - just means steroids alone for arthritis (which is why you and I are using joint injections but certainly not why most racehorses are using joint injections) are a poor choice in the eyes of most practitioners I talk to.
My own horse received steroids in his coffin joint long ago because the lameness guru narrowed the issue down to that area after doing everything up to and including an MRI. The steroid helped. Why did it help? Because he had a deep sole bruise, and getting a dispersal of steroid through the area dialed the inflammation down and made him comfortable enough to look almost immediately sound. It took three years of owning him before I got his tendency towards sole bruises under control. It took weeks at a time for every bruise, whereas that one time steroid injection immediately fixed the “problem” - or at least hid it. I wasn’t interested in the risks associated with injecting steroids (I also now knew it wasn’t a joint issue) so instead of experimenting with injections every time, I got to wait around and twiddle my thumbs while he healed. Of course, I wasn’t staring down the Derby, just missed clinic after missed clinic and missed show after missed show.
Yes, I wince at the idea of injecting young horses with steroids, not to mention all the other drugs they use. I met a lovely, lovely Standardbred gelding who died of renal failure at five years old. Rescued off the track, landed at the perfect home, got to enjoy it for a little, and then probably died because his trainer over used anti-inflammatories or Lasix or who knows what steroid or other performance enhancer and blew out his kidneys.
This is why we need racing to come down like a hammer on every teeny, tiny, piddling positive test. The horses get no say on what goes into their bodies.
BB started out saying Medina Spirit had never received betamethasone… full stop. Not that the horse had received it at some point in the past.
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