Fipke Joins WHOA

Prominent owner/breeder Charles Fipke has joined the Water Hay Oats Alliance in support of federal legislation to ban race day medication. His statement in support of the organization is as follows: 

“In regards to the anti-bleeding medication Lasix, although we are at a disadvantage in racing, our stable policy is that we do not permit our trainers to administer Lasix unless scoping results demonstrate that the horses have bled in the lungs during racing. Although administering Lasix before the race usually prevents bleeding, it causes the horses to urinate excessively resulting in about a 100 pound weight loss before the race giving these horses a huge weight advantage. Therefore, in North America nearly all horses run on Lasix whether or they need it or not. 

“Unfortunately, Lasix causes electrolyte imbalances and it takes most horses about four to six weeks to fully recover from a race before they are able to compete successfully in their next start. In fact, my trainers average eight to 10 weeks between races. 

“In contrast, in all other parts of the world (Europe, Australia, the Middle and Far East) Lasix and race day medications are banned, so that one or two weeks between races is relatively common. In fact, I have known of horses to win a Group 1 race in Australia at a mile and a half and three days later compete and win the Grade 1 Melbourne Cup at two miles. Such statistics are unknown in North America, except before the 1970’s when Lasix became an accepted practice. 

“If Lasix was banned in North America and horses could regularly race with, say even two to three weeks between races, all owners and trainers would have the potential to earn more money and have better odds of potentially not going bankrupt thereby putting many thousands of people out of work. Conversely, if more money is made, this will encourage more individuals to become owners and trainers, thereby increasing national employment statistics and growing our business. 

“WHOA aims to ban all race day medications – as is the case in the rest of the world. Banning race day medications will be appealing to fans and therefore increase our fan base numbers and will give bettors confidence that the field is even and thereby increasing betting. So for all of these reasons I support WHOA 100%.”