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OT: Kentucky Derby winner going to be disqualified?

I've done a lot of things in my 63 years. I have widely varying interests from agriculture to medicine. I'm well educated as are my siblings, in-laws and friends. One of my buddies from college is a veterinarian who at one time did the lion's share of the vet work at Fonner Park and even Aksarben before it closed. With my family's background in the equine industry, I know a fair amount about it. Call it comic relief if you want.

Dingle, I do love your avatar, as regardless his demons, he had more musical genuis in his little finger than most ever will in their entire body.

I will say this...

Go Big Red! 🍻

We might even like each other if we met!
 
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Dingle, I do love your avatar, as regardless his demons, he had more musical genuis in his little finger than most ever will in their entire body.

I will say this...

Go Big Red! 🍻

We might even like each other if we met!
The story now is that they were using a topical antifungal preparation called Otomax on the horse for a skin rash which was prescribed by their vet. I don't think that is a labeled use in the horse but it's used commonly in dogs for otitis. What happens often in horses is that there isn't a product with a label indication for oddball conditions so vets will use off label medications for other species. Apparently either they weren't aware that there was betamethasone in the product or more likely they were too stupid to realize that it would be absorbed through an inflammed area of skin. IF this is what actually happened, it should be easily proven by the vet's records. IF he recommended that they use the preparation right up until the race, he'll be in for a very very large lawsuit.

Again, many of the people (grooms) responsible for the day to day care of race horses aren't necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer and many can't speak or read English. As much as we may not like Baffert, this appears to me to have been an innocent mistake regardless of previous transgressions. My buddy said that intra-articular and local injections of betamethasone were a fairly common treatment in race horses in his practice. That is legal but there is a 14 day withdrawl period according to one story I read. In one scientific journal article I found, they were able to detect betamethasone up to 21 days after intra-articular injection in horses. I'll bet we'll hear more about this case in the coming months but you won't hear the vet issue a statement saying it's his fault. His malpractice insurance company would drop him and refuse to defend him in court.

BTW, if we ever meet up I'll buy the drinks.
 
My bad, I should have put the sarcasm emoji up.
It actually is possible that the blood level of betamethasone detected was due to a topical application especially if the rash was in an area the horse could get to lick. Repeated topical applications of steroids to rashes in dogs has been shown to cause Cushings Syndrome which is normally attributed to long term oral or injected steroids. Some are pretty well absorbed through inflammed skin.

My bottom line for the whole deal is that IMO betamethasone in the level they detected isn't really a performance enhancing drug. There's a huge difference between a glucocorticoid anti-inflammatory drug like betamethasone and a anabolic steroid like Stanazolol. It is legal to use betamethasone in race horses but they have to respect the withdrawl period. In some cases the stated withdrawl on a product doesn't mean that there will be zero residue but rather that the drug level will be below acceptable levels for whatever the intended purpose of the animal is (ie.meat). It would seem that the Kentucky racing commission uses as zero tolerance for betamethasone levels when they test. Some of the rules in horse racing IMO are kind of silly.
 
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