[Clay13]

I have to agree with all of the replies to the Vet's comments. Hore racing has become such a big profit maker for the greedy owners nowdays, starting with the sales of the babies, inflated purses, shady trainers and endless supplies of drugs.
Trainers nowdays are pressured so much by these greedy owners to keep there horses on the track, that these trainers have stooped to any means of getting those horses into a race reguardless of how sound they are. For sometime now the talk has been about the milkshakes and other performance enhancers, but the real problem is the pain killers abuse.
I've seen horses come to the paddock day after day that has been in the barn all night long with his ankles in a bucket of ice just to deaden the pain so they will run good that day of the race. Cortisone will not make a horse run faster than normal but it will mask the pain so the horse will think it's well. Add a shot of Bute to the system and the horse feels no pain at all and runs it's heart out, bad ankles, or knee's.
Owners don't want the horse's to have enough rest to heal up and resume training, they rather go the injection route and get back on the tracks. The trainer if he want's to keep training for the owner will do what it takes to please the owners and if he doesn't the horses are moved to another trainer thats more willing to do so. I must say though there are still owners out there that have plenty of money and will let the trainer rest the horse if it's unsound, dad to say that number is getting smaller and smaller.
People say well the track owners should do something!! The fact is the track owners are just as greedy if not more than the owners and they turn there heads to things going on the backside of the tracks. All they are worried about is money bet and spent at the track during our visits. I've talk to owner/trainers who have been more or less threathen by the racing secetery at a few tracks to entry a horse in a race so they would have a full field, knowing dang well the horse wasn't even close to running back in a race so soon.
Horse racing doesn't need U.S. goverment stepping in and set rules, but state racing boards need to set better guidlines when it comes to medication and rest time after these medications are used.