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Turf Club to expand drug testing regime
Turf Club to expand drug testing regime
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[b]Such testing will commence from the first time that every horse has been returned in training and/or a hunter certificate has been issued until they have finished their racing career.
Surely horses that are in pre training yards that have never been registered or returned in training should be included. There should be a tracking system from the day of birth. |
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JR and Kevin Blake seem to be naive enough or is it standard practice?
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The Gotchee, if you kept reading to the very next line, you would have read:
"Discussions will commence with all stakeholders with a view to extending the testing of all horses as early as possible after birth. A January 1st 2016 commencement deadline has been set for this to happen." |
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They couldn't test horses out of training all of a sudden it took a couple of weeks?
How anyone can take that bunch of vested interests seriously is beyond me?. |
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I missed that redbait. Why do we have to wait until 2016 for that to happen?
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Kevin Blake will be off redbait's Christmas card list after this! http://www.theirishfield.ie/site/article.php?id=4035&cid=5
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The Irish Coursing Club will be in the news shortly.......they are having difficulty with the testing procedure for Clonmel......
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What a mind numbingly boring article.....
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I heard that alright, paulie. Doubt it will make the same headlines as Fenton et al.
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Wildman's theory that redbait and JR Hartley share an office might not be far off the mark...
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Whatever about the Turf Club part, I'd say it would be a fair earner in the pubs at Cheltenham to take bets on which racecourse has the steepest hill, Leopardstown or Cheltenham.
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From my own point of view I would like Kevin Blake to explain what he means about prohibited, controlled substances been used for training purposes in horse training?.
He sits on his blog and tells the world the biggest load of effing **** and never had to answer to anybody, and I get bull for daring to question a blog that was full of untruths. That doesn't mean the guy that wrote that bull is a bad person but just a simple product of the worlds biggest gravy train. |
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The Turf Club lads explained everything to you on the other thread, silver, but you refused to listen?
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Paddywhaker Kevin seems to be advocating the use of prohibited substances and if it doesn't show up on race day its ok, which is bull, any prohibited substance is prohibited for a reason and only used on horses that are very sick or injured, hence why they're called prohibited controlled substances, they should not be used for any other purpose but to heal an obviously sick or injured horse.
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This is toe curling stuff. I need to get a new hobby than be bothering with this, but here I go again.
Prohibited substances (pain killers, medication for illnesses, antibiotics etc..) are prohibited because they are considered to give an advantage to those horses that have them in their systems in comparison to those that don't. Which is why they aren't allowed to turn up in raceday samples, but can be legitimately used to keep horses healthy in between races. You can quote the rules and interpret them in any skewed way you like, but this is how it works in trainers yards and is accepted as normal practice by anyone with a clue, including the Turf Club. So, one last time, for the nice ladies and gentlemen, please point out where exactly he advocated the use of prohibited substances in anything other than unsound/unhealthy horses? "Thirdly, contrary to the apparent public belief, racehorses are not trained solely on hay, oats and water. Veterinary intervention and drugs are extremely important tool for the modern trainer to keep their horses sound and healthy. Medications that would trigger a failed drug test on race day are legitimately administered to horses in training on a regular basis in every yard, but these substances have withdrawal periods that must be adhered to so that they won’t turn up in race day samples. Pushing the medication rules to the limit and seeking every legitimate advantage to keep their horses right is a big part of the art of racehorse training." You are talking rubbish. |
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Medication Code of Practice
In addition to prohibiting the administration of any substance on the day of a race, there is an important Rule, C28, which is about making sure that treatments are given in the best health and welfare interests of the horse. This means that drugs should only be used when the horse has a condition or disease and that the veterinary surgeon prescribing the treatment should advise on the appropriate level of exercise for the horse to take during treatment. If a horse is not trainable as a result of disease or injury, it should be treated before training is resumed. Drugs should not be used, under any circumstances, to allow an apparently normal horse to be trained harder. ________________________________________________________ What part of the above do you not get redbait??. As far as I can gather an antibiotic would not be a performance enhancing drug, Kevin says that a drug that will show up as a positive on raceday, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he is talking about prohibited controlled substances been used. So going by your argument all racehorses are unhealthy until race day so they need to be pumped up with prohibited controlled substances for their entire training careers??. |
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There are two problems here.
#1: You are refusing to read the paragraph you are getting worked up about. The words "keep their horses sound and healthy" and "seeking every legitimate advantage to keep their horses right" completely rule out the insinuations you are trying to make. #2: "As far as I can gather an antibiotic would not be a performance enhancing drug". That exhibits the main problem here. You know next to nothing about the subject matter. Get stuck into Google again and you'll see just how stupid that comment is. For future reference, keep your conspiracy theories as vague as possible, as going into specifics tends to just expose your lack of knowledge. |
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Medications that would trigger a failed drug test on race day are legitimately administered to horses in training on a regular basis in every yard, but these substances have withdrawal periods that must be adhered to so that they won’t turn up in race day samples. Pushing the medication rules to the limit and seeking every legitimate advantage to keep their horses right is a big part of the art of racehorse training."
_________________________________________________________________ I don't know redbait but why would you want to give perfectly healthy horses prohibited controlled substances when its illegal to do so unless the horse is genuinely sick or injured?. I presume most racehorses get the flu jab which is not bombproof but helps in horses not developing colds or flu, but if a horse does contact a cold or flu, box rest would be the best therapy as their is no cure maybe a simple medication to bring down a temperature would help to make the sick horse feel a little better but you're hardly going to work a sick horse on the gallops are you?, would only make matters worse. Small cuts would usually be treated with a little anti infectious agent which doesn't enhance a horses performance in anyway. So basically why would trainers want to push the medication rules to the limit when its not legitimate for perfectly healthy horses to be treated with prohibited controlled substances?. I presume if you're treating a horse with an antibiotic he must be sick or have a cut, I don't know but I presume working a sick horse on the gallops would seem to be counter productive don't you think?. Sometimes you feel like you're banging your head against a wall arguing with redbait. |
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"I presume if you're treating a horse with an antibiotic he must be sick or have a cut, I don't know but I presume working a sick horse on the gallops would seem to be counter productive don't you think?"
The words in bold are key to this whole argument. We aren't going to agree, you aren't going to read or listen, so I am going to walk away for the sake of my own mental health. |
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Mental health?, would that mean you might actually be losing the argument?
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As an aside Kevin Blake has somewhat redeemed himself in my eyes with this weeks blog, not that he loses any sleep over what I think anyway, but it will be interesting to see will any of the racing insiders who left favourable comments for last weeks blog be back again this week, somehow I very much doubt it?.
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Paddywhacker has got my theory wrong,its only Redbait that works for the Turf Club.
J R Hartley is one of the best posters on here,his contributions are usually telling. |
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This weeks Blake blog;
_____________________________________________________________________ MARCH 3RD: TURF CLUB HAVE NOT EARNED PRAISE YET Article Date: 03-March-2014 Blake’s Blog: Turf Club Have Not Earned Praise Yet Last week it was announced by the Turf Club that it plans to significantly expand its drug testing programmes, working with the Department of Agriculture, Customs & Excise and the Garda Síochána to give the Turf Club inspectors much greater powers and improve the information flow between all parties. Of course, this all looks very good on paper and would represent a huge step forward for the area of drug testing in Irish racing, but I wouldn’t rush to doff your cap to the Turf Club just yet. The majority of the press release was nothing more than a highly-ambitious wish list. To achieve many of the stated goals, the Turf Club are going to have to pull off a monumental feat of politics to get cooperation from the Department of Agriculture, Customs & Excise and the Garda Síochána, never mind getting the full support from the breeders/horse traders/pinhookers from within the industry. Even if the Turf Club can convince all of those organisations/interest groups to agree to all of the proposals outlined in the press release, how exactly is it all going to work? In Ireland in 2013, there were 7,757 new foals registered as well as 9,199 horses returned in training, where do you even start policing that number of animals effectively if the aim is to police them at all times from birth to retirement? Or will it simply be a case of hoping that the odd random inspection and the threat of targeted action will be the biggest deterrent? On the subject of wish lists, at the turn of year this space contained a wish list for the Irish racing industry that included these lines: “While there was a spate of stable inspections in the aftermath of the Like A Diamond affair and increased drug testing following a court case in October, it all seems to have gone quiet again. The Turf Club needs to be less reactionary and more proactive in introducing structures to police the sport consistently and effectively.” Despite the Mahmood Al Zarooni case, despite the concerns raised after the John Hughes case, it took a case that put the international spotlight firmly on the issue of drugs in Irish racing for the Turf Club to take action. The Philip Fenton story broke on February 17th, the Turf Club announced its new drug testing wish list on February 28th. Are we to believe that the Turf Club has quietly been working on these new proposals for many months and maybe even years, or is it the case that it has been embarrassed into taking hastily-formulated action by the international attention that has focused on them in the wake of the Philip Fenton story? The key to this whole issue will be the rigour with which the Turf Club follow through their proposals with. These issues will not stay on the front page of the papers for very long, but that doesn’t mean that they will go away. One can only hope that these proposals are not just an effort by the Turf Club to create an illusion of action whilst international scrutiny is at its highest. They will need to continue to work very hard long after the negative headlines have gone away if they are to put their proposals into action. If they can deliver on their promises, the integrity of the sport will be all the better for it and I will give them all the credit in the world, but until then, I will reserve judgement. The Myth of the Cheltenham Hill Such is the sheer level of build-up and discussion that the Cheltenham Festival generates these days, it is inevitable that no shortage of false truths and shaky theories will be passed around, particularly at the Cheltenham preview nights that are now such a prominent part of the road to Cheltenham. One of the more prevalent exaggerated truths doing the rounds is that of the “Cheltenham Hill”. Almost every horse is analysed in the context of whether they will “get up the hill”. So much emphasis is put on this variable that anyone who has never been to Cheltenham might think that facing this hill was akin to being asked to sprint up the side of Mount Everest! However, while Cheltenham is of course a testing track, the reality is a long way removed from the myth. Indeed, using Google Earth, the following estimates of the finishing climb at high-profile Irish National Hunt tracks have been gathered. Navan: From the lowest point of the track at the turn out of the backstraight to the winning post, 16m. Over the final 740m, 11m. Leopardstown: From the lowest point of the track at the end of the backstraight to the winning post, 15m. Over the final 440m, 9m. Galway: Over the final 570m from the lowest point of the track in the dip to the winning post, 14m. So, how do these compare to the punishing climb up what is seemingly the biggest hill in equine sports? You may be surprised to read that no matter what track is being raced on, the finishing climb at Cheltenham which comes over approximately 540m is never more than 13 metres. So, while the finishing climb at Cheltenham is a steep one, if your fancy has raced with success at Leopardstown, Navan or in particular at Galway, it is unlikely to be the hill that beats them at Prestbury Park. For your information, the stiffest track I found in Great Britain or Ireland was Towcester, which rises an eye-watering 29m over the final 865m. Hold Fire With Cheltenham Bets With the Cheltenham Festival just around the corner, those with opinions but who haven’t already placed their bets will be getting itchy trigger fingers, especially as many bookies are now non-runner no-bet in their ante-post markets. However, I would suggest that it is worth holding fire until the day of the race, as more often than not, better prices and concessions are available on the day anyway. The reason for this is that for so many bookies, the Cheltenham Festival is their most important shop window of the year for attracting new customers. With so many of them competing for publicity and business, it has become a regular feature for many bookies to stick their necks right out with their prices and special offers, especially when it comes to high-profile horses, in an effort to generate publicity and the opening of new accounts. Not only is waiting until the day of the race likely to result in a better prices and/or special offers, waiting until the day of the race ensures that you’ll know for certain what the ground is and what opposition your fancy faces, factors that cannot be guaranteed even a couple of days before the races with changeable weather and many horses having multiple targets. If they haven’t already done so, open betting accounts with as many bookmakers as possible in anticipation of the Festival so that you are best placed to avail of the best prices and offers as they become available. Many of these prices/offers are loss leaders for the bookmakers in question and there is serious value to be had in availing of them. Be Aware of Stable Form One factor that will be worth paying particular attention to at this year’s Cheltenham Festival is trainer form. It is something that I personally always pay attention to, but an unusual set of natural circumstances make it of even more significance at this time. It has been an unusual winter in terms of weather, being very damp and mild. There has been almost a complete lack of frost during the winter months and while that may seem like a positive from a trainer’s perspective, that isn’t necessarily the case. Frost does a great job of killing the bugs and viruses that can knock horses off top form, whereas the damp and mild conditions that have prevailed for much of this winter are the perfect conditions for bacteria to thrive. Thus, it hasn’t been surprising to hear reports of little coughs and sniffles doing the rounds amongst some high-profile yards and these snippets of info are very much worth bearing in mind. It is hard enough to win a race at the Cheltenham Festival with a horse that is in the form of its life, never mind one that has a low-grade illness. Comments are welcome below via Facebook or directly to Kevin Blake on Twitter (@kevinblake2011). The best ones may be published in The Irish Field on Saturday. |
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J. R. Hartley is the name of a fictional character in a popular British advertisement promoting the Yellow Pages which was first shown in 1983.[1]
The advertisement shows an elderly man (actor Norman Lumsden) asking in several second-hand bookshops for "Fly Fishing by J. R. Hartley". Every attempt fails, and the next scene shows him at home looking dejected. His daughter, sympathising, hands him the Yellow Pages (The UK's telephone directory for local businesses); in the next scene he looks delighted as his end of a telephone conversation reveals that a shop has a copy of the book. He asks them to keep it for him. He responds at dictation speed to a question: 'My name? Oh, yes, it's J. R. Hartley.' The advertisement ends by promoting the Yellow Pages, the voiceover provided by actor Joss Ackland. In Britain's 2000 "Greatest TV Ads" poll, the advertisement was voted in the top 15.[2][3] When Lumsden died on 28 November 2001 at the age of 95, the advertisement was broadcast again in his memory, nearly 20 years after its first appearance. In February 2011, Yellow Pages re-made the advert, with fictional DJ Day V. Lately searching for a copy of his trance remix Pulse and Thunder,[4] which was released for sale at the same time.[5] The advertisement inspired author Michael Russell to publish Fly Fishing, Memories of Angling Days, by J. R. Hartley in 1991,.[6][7] The book was a best seller and led to two additional best sellers under the pseudonym J. R. Hartley: J.R. Hartley Casts Again-More Memories of Angling Days (1992) and Golfing by J. Hartley (1995).[2] |
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Does anyone know what county is Dennis Egan , the Turf Club chief executive, from ?
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uibh faili... what has that to do with it?
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I wonder will they test 'The War Fronts'?
- The 2yo's look like 3yo Milers with the big powerful chests on them |