Suit Challenges Tracks' Lasix Bans in Juvenile Races

A Kentucky horsemen's group has filed suit to preclude Churchill Downs and Keeneland from putting into effect race conditions prohibiting race-day use of the anti-bleeder medication furosemide in 2-year-olds at current and upcoming meets.

In a suit filed in Franklin Circuit Court May 15 naming the two tracks and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission as defendants, the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association is seeking to block implementation of the rules. A May 27 hearing has been scheduled via teleconference on the horsemen's group's request for Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate to issue a temporary injunction against the rules taking effect.

Churchill Downs and Keeneland spokespeople said the two tracks do not comment on pending litigation.

The delayed Churchill Downs spring race meet began last weekend and the first 2-year-old races for which furosemide, also marketed under the trade names Lasix or Salix, could not be administered to 2-year-olds within 24 hours of post time were scheduled for Thursday and Friday, May 21-22.

With a May 27 hearing date on the request for an injunction, the 2-year-old races at Churchill Downs will be conducted under the Churchill Downs rules prohibiting race-day Lasix for 2-year-olds. 

Keeneland canceled its spring meet but is in discussions over a possible summer race meet.

The KHRC late last year approved medication regulation changes that included a phaseout of Lasix, stipulating the drug could not be administered within 24 hours of a race for 2-year-olds starting this year. As part of the proposed regulations, race-day Lasix would be prohibited in stakes races beginning in 2021.

During an April 22 public hearing conducted by the KHRC via teleconference, KHBPA executive director Marty Maline said furosemide has "proven to be an effective preventative to exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (cause of bleeding in horses). Currently, all U.S. racing jurisdictions endorse race-day Lasix. The result of this proposed administrative regulation would place Kentucky at an isolated disadvantage that is not supported by a vast majority of Kentucky horsemen."

The lawsuit, filed by Lexington attorney Mike Meuser, states that in 2015 the KHRC enacted regulations "that purported to allow these private entities, racetracks, to determine for themselves whether to allow the administration of furosemide on race days or for particular races. Violation of any such conditions could be subject to penalties under the authority of the KHRC. Thus, a private decision would have the force and effect of law."

Then Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway issued an opinion that the regulation allowing tracks to ban the use of furosemide "was an invalid and illegal delegation of the KHRC's authority to private actors," the suit states, adding that no tracks attempted to issue such prohibitions between 2015 and 2020.

With only one Kentucky track licensed to race at a time, horsemen would have no alternatives for racing 2-year-olds in the state with Lasix if tracks were permitted to carry out the race-day medication ban, the suit states.

"KHBPA, for and on behalf of its members, respectfully request a temporary injunction prohibiting Keeneland and Churchill Downs from effecting their illegal private race-day ban on Lasix," the request for an injunction states. "This would preserve the decades-long status quo and prevent irreparable harm to the ability of Kentucky horsemen and horsewomen to earn a living or race their 2-year-olds in the Commonwealth."