Dick Jerardi: Congress will need more than horse sense in racing hearings

Horse racing's drug culture is so complicated that Congress, which is looking for simple, clear answers (steroids in baseball are bad), is likely to be overwhelmed.

The hearing has an exemplary title: "Breeding, Drugs and Breakdowns: The State of Thoroughbred Horseracing and the Welfare of the Thoroughbred Racehorse.''

What we know is that the drug culture began 25 or so years ago and has been out of control for some time. Anabolic steroids are the issue of the day, but it goes way beyond that.

The best solution to the problem is to ban all performance-enhancing drugs in horses on race day. That way, everybody is on a level playing field.

Horse racing, however, is regulated by the states. Each state has its own rules. This is not the NBA or the NFL. Or anything close to it.

Many owners and trainers have become addicted to drug use on their horses - legal, illegal and undetectable. They worry that if they don't do it, somebody else will. With lots of money at stake in what is often a zero-sum game, the temptation is hard to resist.

Meanwhile, there is the recent hysteria over Big Brown and steroids. When Dutrow revealed that the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner got monthly doses of Winstrol (stanozolol), many who never knew of racing's drug culture were outraged, trying to equate it to baseball.

What they did not know was that, until recently, steroids were legal in every state that has horse racing. The industry's Racing Medication and Testing Consortium already had proposed a model rule for regulating anabolic steroids, knowing that steroids have the potential to affect performance and, more important from the perspective of the industry, definitely could affect public perception.

What they also did not know was that, in states where studies have been done, approximately 60 percent of the horses were racing with anabolic steroids.

Given the coverage, you might have thought Big Brown was the only horse racing with Winstrol. Until Dutrow answered a question about Big Brown's steroid use in the affirmative, it was more of a racing insider's thing. Then, it became a public thing.

Big Brown is not the only Derby winner to race with steroids. Big Brown is just the first one we knew about.

When Big Brown ran so poorly in the Belmont after Dutrow said he did not get Winstrol the previous month, some jumped on that as the reason for the horse's performance.

There are several problems with that. Dutrow was not necessarily telling the truth. Maybe he just got tired of answering the question. There is no test in New York, so there is no way to know. Also, steroids are not like a local anesthetic that masks pain. What steroids can do is allow horses to train more effectively. Any effect on performance is debatable.

Pennsylvania banned all but four steroids on April 1. Delaware has followed suit. Eleven states have adopted rules along similar lines. Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Kentucky are discussing regulations on how a potential ban would work.

The Thoroughbred Safety Committee, formed by The Jockey Club after Eight Belles broke down and was euthanized on the track after she finished second in the Kentucky Derby, has recommended that all but four steroids be banned in all 38 racing states and uniform rules be adopted as of Dec. 31. (Tests revealed that Eight Belles was not on steroids, and her breakdown was a completely different issue.)

Any "ban'' is complicated because three anabolic steroids (boldenone, nandrolone and testosterone) are naturally produced in horses' systems. The Food and Drug Administration approved those three steroids and stanozolol for use in horses.

So, regulators are deciding on "threshold'' levels for those steroids. A positive test would come only if a steroid were present over the threshold level. The science on all this is quite complex, and not all the scientists agree on the science.

Beyond the anabolic issue, anybody on the track will tell you that the much bigger issue is the use of corticosteroids.

"We used anabolics as appetite stimulants,'' said former trainer Mark Reid, who now owns Walnut Green Farm in Chester County. "You get a little filly that won't eat. Touch her up with some anabolic steroids, she'll go right to her feed and improve.

"The cortisone steroids are the ones that are injected into joints which cause the body to quit producing steroids, which causes the breakdown.''

According to Reid, you can't give a horse too many anabolics or they "will have undesired results such as becoming too hard to handle.''

Corticosteroids, Reid said, are "short-term fixes.''

"When the joints blow up and become painful, instead of giving proper healing time, we have often taken the short-term approach, which is to inject them with corticosteroids.''

Other drugs on the track are far worse than anabolic steroids, but this has become a public-relations issue.

"Anabolic steroids don't cause catastrophic breakdowns,'' Reid said. "They are entirely missing the boat. They put a human spin on it.''

Horse racing in North America is a sport/business with a serious drug problem. Drugs, legal and illegal, are banned in every racing country except the United States and Canada. Horse racing thrives in Japan and Hong Kong, where it is highly regulated. In England and Ireland, horse racing is very much a part of the culture.

Maybe federal intervention, as Whitfield has threatened, is not such a bad idea. Certainly, a racing czar with power to impose significant penalties on cheaters would be welcomed. Uniform medication rules from state to state certainly would make sense. That, however, would assume you have regulators who know what they are regulating. Which is a large assumption.

The congressional subcommittee, which will hear from prominent horse owners, officials, trainers and veterinarians, will look at "commercial breeding practices that emphasize speed and precocity over durability, the prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs and other medications, track surfaces, and maintenance of the tracks.''

These are all serious issues to consider. Something needs to be done. The hearings and the safety committee could be a start. Or just more voices into a howling wind. *

Send email to jerardd@phillynews.com.