Here, in the USVI, horses-racing is an unregulated sport. The statute providing for the new $30 million dollar Racino Development included a provision on anti-doping.\u00a0 The Senate rejected the anti-doping section. I drafted that anti-doping statute.<\/p>\n
In the United States, there is an outcry is a result of the widespread “epidemic” use of furosemide (Lasix) being administered as a performance enhancer and not to treat exercised-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH). \u00a0Racing Industry Experts opine that if every racing thoroughbred is a bleeder, Lasix isn’t the answer, but just a cover-up of a more endemic problem within the breed.<\/p>\n
Before May 10, 2017, I thought the issue of doping was the use of Lasix as a \u201cperformance enhancer.\u201d\u00a0 However, in the lobby of the 32nd<\/sup> Legislature\u2019s special session, I was beset by the arguments from various individuals that anti-doping would not work in the USVI because many of the horses are cripples.\u00a0 Others identified some prominent men in the community as some of the worst horse owners due to the purchasing and inhumanely racing of \u201cdisposable\u201d horses that had seen better days.<\/p>\n I also learned that ALL USVI horses are doped. In fact, some receive speedballs before the race (Cocaine & Heroin). In turns out Lasix, supposedly an anti-bleeding medication is better known and widely used as a diuretic to flush out traces of other illegal drugs.\u00a0 Thus, the objections to prohibiting Lasix is much more sinister.<\/p>\n Doping and the indiscriminate or inappropriate use of medications are detrimental not only to the integrity of the sport but also to the health, welfare, and safety of the racehorses, who cannot refuse such maltreatment, and the jockeys who ride them. In the US, the jockeys\u2019 insurance coverage for personal injury is denied if an investigation reveals that the horse has been doped.\u00a0 Here, the jockeys ride without insurance and will continue to be uninsured if we do not make sweeping changes to the horse racing industry.<\/p>\n Yesterday, two Senators, Senator Neville James and Senator Kurt Vialet, said they would only agree to some version of anti-doping if we had \u201cour own lab.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0This raised red flags for me.<\/p>\n