I report, you decide

[richiebee]

From the NY Post, Thursday December 4:

\"The bond between racehorse and rider will be explored in a new reality series
about jockeys coming in February to Animal Planet.

\"The show, titled \"Jockeys,\" is produced by the same company, Go Go Luckey
Productions, that produced \"Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County\" and its
followup show, \"Newport Harbor,\" for MTV.

\"Jockeys\" stars eight real- life jockeys who were filmed earlier this year
going about their lives at LA\'s Santa Anita Park.

\"Animal Planet describes the show this way: \'Million- dollar purses, model
girlfriends and trips to the mall to shop in the boys\' department-- Animal
Planet brings viewers into a world... ruled by short men with silk shirts.\'\"

Two thoughts from this corner-- (a) imagine the possibilities if P Val had been
one of the riders that the show focused on and (b) as much as I disdain reality
TV, this show has more potential to expose the sport of Racing to a broader
mainstream audience than anything that the \"braintrust\" at the NTRA has done
recently.

[miff]

PLETCHER CHARGED WITH BREEDERS' CUP PROCAINE POSITIVE
The California Horse Racing Board has filed a complaint against trainer Todd Pletcher for violation of CHRB Rules 1843.2, 1844 (a) (b) (d), and 1887 after the Maddy Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, reported that a sample taken from a horse in his care, Wait a While, exceeded the regulatory threshold for procaine.

The finding was confirmed by Pennsylvania Equine Research Laboratory. Procaine is a local anesthetic and is found in procaine penicillin G, a commonly administered antibiotic for horses. For this reason procaine is a Class 3 violation rather than a Class 2 violation, as are most other local anesthetics for horses.
Wait a While finished third in the sixth race at Santa Anita Park on October 24, 2008, which was the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. The stewards at Hollywood Park have scheduled a December 14 hearing on the disqualification of Wait a While and forfeiture of her share of the purse ($213,000) for redistribution.

A hearing has not been scheduled for Pletcher.

[colt]

...\"a commonly administered antibiotic for horses\"...This is what the toughen drug movement is about?  It will be a disgrace if they loose the purse over some nonsense like this.

[HP]

Read it again.  The horse tested positive for procaine.  Procaine is a local anaesthetic.  It says IT IS FOUND in procaine penicllin G.  It\'s also found all by itself, as just plain procaine.  I do believe they can give you a shot of this in the emergency room if they have to numb you up to give you stitches or something.  

\"The finding was confirmed by Pennsylvania Equine Research Laboratory. Procaine is a local anesthetic and is found in procaine penicillin G, a commonly administered antibiotic for horses. For this reason procaine is a Class 3 violation rather than a Class 2 violation, as are most other local anesthetics for horses.\"

If you want to believe the horse tested positive for procaine because Pletcher gave the horse too much procaine penicillin G to treat a cold be my guest...  Guy has a history, although he also has that Teflon Todd thing going where it doesn\'t seem to have a huge impact on him.  

Horse finished third.  What I get out of this is...he\'s losing his touch!  

HP

[magicnight]

Beer > Procaine

[TGJB]

Basically, yes. Undoubtedly it could be abused (Sight?), but this and Asmussen\'s similar positives were not evidence of using anything to move up a horse, in the sense of making him run faster or fast longer than he would ordinarily be physically capable of. Steroids, milkshakes, and EPO are a whole nother ballgame.

[sighthound]

Consider that the hugely large audience for Animal Plant definitely tends towards the pet-owning, yuppy, AR supporting (while well-intentioned) side of the coin, making horse racing human in those eyes can only help.  

Because those are the eyes that vote, and they most definitely vote on animal issues (such as the disaster of the recently passed demise of greyhound racing in Mass.)

AP viewers are rabidly loyal, and if horse racing is okay by AP, it will be made okay in the minds of their viewers.  That will turn out to be very important in the future.

[sighthound]

No, HP, procaine isn\'t used by itself as a local anesthetic.   This an antibiotic positive.

[sighthound]

Exactly.

We are going to continue to have a problem with our increasingly sensitive ability to detect nanograms - mere whiffs - of drugs, drugs given days ago, with \"positives\" that are not positive in any way other than technically.  

Just because a trace of some drug is found does not mean it is even close to a level consistent being able to alter the performance of a horse.  Depends upon the drug you are talking about, obviously.

Like TGJB, procaine penicillin isn\'t even on my B-list of drug abuse concerns.  It\'s use indicates a horse may have had a problem (cut, risk of infection, that type of thing) - that\'s all.

\"Allowable levels\" are very important.  Zero tolerance absolutely towards some things, but certainly not all.

[HP]

This is getting me a little agitated...I will take one last swing at this and be gone...

Sighthound, I appreciate your confident assertion, and horsemen commonly use the Procaine Penecillin G stuff, but IT CAN BE USED ALL BY ITSELF (Procaine Hydrochloride) and you have no way of knowing what Pletcher was doing.  Read below for the excerpt on the history of the drug.  It replaced cocaine as a surgical anaesthetic and it was used by itself LONG BEFORE it was combined with antibiotics.  

If you want to give Pletcher the benefit of the doubt, go ahead.  It seems to me an unscrupulous horse trainer might use Procaine as an anesthetic PRECISELY because he could say he was using it in preparation with antibiotics, particularly penecillin - since this is so common.  Once it is metabolized and comes out in urine, you have NO IDEA how it was initially administered.  Your assertion that it is an \"antibiotic positive\" has no basis in fact.  All we know is that the urine tested positive for procaine.  Unless you were there when they loaded the syringe, you have no idea whether it was prepared with antibiotics or not, and I won\'t waste any time arguing about it.  You are welcome to your assumptions but YOU DON\'T KNOW.  

As for Jerry\'s point, if you choose to be more concerned about milkshakes, etc., that\'s your perogative.  They test for Procaine for a reason.  I found this surfing around...in a pharmaceutical analysis.  

\"Before a horse is allowed to race, serum must be
screened for procaine, a common anesthetic. The
screening has been implemented to protect the lives
of the jockeys. Procaine has been given to horses
with a serious leg injury to anesthetize the animal to
enable them to run in a race. An injured horse has an
increased risk of breaking a leg and falling, possibly
killing a jockey.\"

On the history of the drug...  

\"Procaine is a local anesthetic drug of the amino ester group. It is used primarily to reduce the pain of intramuscular injection of penicillin, and is also used in dentistry. Owing to the ubiquity of the trade name Novocain, procaine is sometimes referred to generically as novocaine.

Procaine was first synthesized in 1898,[1] and was the first injectable man-made local anesthetic. It was created by the German chemist Alfred Einhorn (1857–1917) who gave the chemical the trade name Novocaine, from the Latin Novus (meaning New) and caine, a common ending for alkaloids used as anesthetics. It was introduced into medical use by surgeon Heinrich Braun (1862–1934).

Procaine is used less frequently today since more effective (and hypoallergenic) alternatives such as lidocaine (Xylocaine) exist. Prior to the discovery of procaine, cocaine was the most commonly used local anesthetic.\"

[sighthound]

HP - I do hear what you are saying, and I respect your concern about this.  

But let\'s look at what makes a drug \"of abuse\":  you have to be able to get it, use it (appropriately), most importantly it has to be effective for your desired purpose of enabling or improving a horses\' ability to run, and you have to not get caught.

So please add some more info to your reference base of information about procaine:

1)  As soon as you can find a bottle of sterile, injectable plain procaine available for purchase, even from a compounding pharmacy, or from some Mexian guy via the internet (likely, but I won\'t guarantee the bottle\'s contents) give me a call.

I just flipped through three drug catalogs, one from an equine compounding pharmacy, here on my desk, and bottles of procaine are not listed.  Carbocaine and lidocaine, that\'s it.

2)  You will have a hard time finding the above, because there are now far better drugs for inducing local anesthesia.  It\'s not readily available.
 
Procaine is now used used primarily in intramuscular injections as an ultra-short acting adjunct so the shot doesn\'t hurt (procaine penicillin)

3)  Everyone knows procaine is so easily, and readily tested for, whoever would use it and expect it not to be found would be a clumsy, \"beginner\" fool.

However, I will grant you that criminals are usually not known for their stellar intelligence

But a horse who had a level high enough in their system to induce anesthesia of a painful area of the body would have had a sky high level found in testing.

That is why people went to trying things like cobra venom years and years ago.

4)  Procaines\' effectiveness as a local anesthetic is for such a short period of time, let me know how they injected the horse prior to the race while the horse was under holding barn scrutiny.  

5) Procaine is a Class 3 (the least consequential) violation because it\'s potential for misuse in horse racing is LITTLE TO NONE.

By the way, the withdrawal for procaine in NY is 7 days.  In CA it is 15.

Pletcher says it was given 18 days out for a respiratory infection.  If that was given as an intramuscular injection of procaine penicillin it makes total sense.  

Not infrequently IM injections get walled off, are not absorbed as they should be, etc.  Can\'t tell you how many times I\'ve found depots of IM drugs sitting there, unabsorbed, on necropsy.

Seriously - if I am going to worry about drug abuse, I\'m gonna worry about drugs of abuse.  And those with repeated, constant violations.

Not an antibiotic either not metabolized, given too close to the race, or given to the wrong horse.

Yes, Pletcher should be given and take his time.  That\'s the rule, everyone plays by it.

[miff]

Sight,

Come on, TAP intentionally used this drug to enhance the performance of Wait A While in the BC, not withstanding that he knew it would be detected. Leave the conspiracy idiots alone, will you!


Mike

[TGJB]

Miff-- that\'s out of line. It\'s one thing to say this was no big deal, another to say anyone who thinks guys are moving horses up are idiots.

[HP]

That\'s okay Jerry.  Miff posts on every subject on this board.  He\'s an expert on everything and he\'s entitled to his opinion.  I don\'t like Todd Pletcher.  That\'s my opinion.  You can call me an idiot all day long.  Better men that Miff have done so.  

Sight you\'re a gentleman and I\'m going to say you are more knowledgeable on this than me.  My only added comment is that you might have a hard time getting Procaine as per your specifications...but you can get it in formulations beyond the common Penecillin G stuff.  Just type it in on Yahoo! and you will see...  I definitely learned from your post.  Thanks.

[smalltimer]

HP,
You\'re correct about miff.  No subject is complete until he\'s weighed in on it.
It must be a huge burden to have all the answers, yet, continue to stay in the forum with us idiots.