Lasix

Again, the medication Lasix might have an impact on the Preakness.It was almost 10 years ago that the owners of Desert Wine were forced to get a court injunction in order to run their horse on Lasix in the 1983 Preakness. Desert Wine subsequently finished second to Deputed Testamony.Now, the Preakness could lose a potential starter, Alydeed, because he might be ineligible to race on Lasix.The Alydeed incident surfaced yesterday in Illinois.Roger Attfield, the horse's trainer, was set to the enter the Canadian colt in the race because he didn't think the horse would have enough earnings to draw into a full, 14-horse Preakness field.

Union City's final race ended in a horse ambulance parked on a dusty lot by a maintenance shop some 100 yards from the starting gate of the 118th Preakness Stakes.Inside the white van, a covered 20-foot metal stall, Dr. Dan Dreyfuss prepared the lethal injection that quickly would extinguish the life of the 3-year-old colt, whose right front ankle was bent, broken and bloody. The veterinarian emptied a 100 cc bottle of sodium pentabarbitol into three syringes. He then took a needle and stuck it into the horse's neck, on the left side, finding the jugular vein.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Alydeed, whose second-place finish in the Preakness turned him into one of the top 3-year-olds in training, will pass on the June 6 Belmont Stakes. The owner and trainer of the Canadian-based colt are reluctant to run him without the anti-bleeding medication Lasix.

LAUREL -- Absolutely Great gave a hint of greatness when winning yesterday's allowance feature at Laurel Race Course by 12 1/2 lengths.Ridden by Mike Luzzi, the filly led all the way when making her first start for trainer Eddie Gaudet after a six-race career in New York. The filly received the bleeder medication Lasix yesterday for the first time; the diuretic is banned in New York.The victory was the first for Luzzi since he won the $350,000 Brooklyn Handicap at Aqueduct on Saturday aboard Timely Warning.

Q. My father recently suffered a heart attack, but with great doctors and good luck he recovered. He is now taking so many drugs, though, that I am worried. He is easily irritated and confused and lacks energy. I know that some medicines do not mix well, and I fear that his three doctors do not communicate. Dad is taking atenolol, Mevacor, Lanoxin, Coumadin, Lasix, Valium, Zoloft, Vasotec, potassium and aspirin. When he has a headache, which is fairly often, he also takes Aleve or Tylenol.

Does the New York Racing Association deserve to hold the Breeders' Cup?That was the question many writers who covered the event were asking last week. Even though the facilities for the animals are excellent, the atmosphere for at least some humans is depressing.Low attendance at the Belmont track and lack of attention paid to racing's fall championship series by the New York media were among reasons cited by racing reporters for low morale.Many of them feel Churchill Downs in Kentucky and the Southern California and Florida tracks, where the Breeders' Cup is more of an event and there is an atmosphere of excitement, are far better locations.

To Michael Matz, Barbaro's legacy includes a recurring image. It is of the horse with all four feet off the ground. It is as if Barbaro is flying. It has been five years since Barbaro shattered a hind leg at the Preakness, beginning a poignant struggle to save the life of the runaway 2006 Kentucky Derby winner. He eventually suffered from laminitis and was euthanized the following January. At Churchill Downs, where the horse's ashes are buried, there is a bronze statue of Barbaro suspended by a rail so the horse is off the ground — just the way Matz sees him in full sprint in his mind's eye. But the trainer and others believe Barbaro's legacy is more extensive — and more complicated — than the 1,500-pound statue celebrating his breathtaking speed.

LAUREL -- Nuniyajissive surged to the front in mid-stretch, then held off a belated run from Long Walk to win yesterday's $20,000 feature at Laurel Race Course.Nuniyajissive raced closest to early leader Sweet Slewsie, then was the first to go past her with a quarter-pole remaining. She won by 1 1/2 lengths and returned $5.60 as the favorite in a field of seven fillies and mares.Rick Wilson, on Long Walk, checked his mount sharply behind the tiring Sweet Slewsie, costing her several lengths.

John's Call, the 10-year-old gelding from Maryland, will bypass the Sussex Handicap tomorrow at Delaware Park and run instead in the Man o' War Stakes on Sept. 8 at Belmont Park, trainer Tom Voss said yesterday. Voss said he was concerned about the condition of Delaware Park's turf course and also wanted to give John's Call another week to recover from his last-place finish Aug. 11 in a Saratoga stakes in which he bled from the lungs for the first time. Voss since has breezed John's Call for the first time on Lasix and will use the anti-bleeding medicine at Belmont as the gelding tries to be the oldest horse to win a Grade I non-steeplechase race.

LAUREL -- The outlook for the $100,000 Northern Dancer Stakes changed abruptly in midafternoon yesterday when Baron de Vaux, the odds-on favorite, was scratched out of the 1 1/8 -mile race for Maryland-bred 3-year-olds.Baron de Vaux's trainer, Charlie Peoples, was reported to be suffering from a stomach ailment, and besides, Bayard Sharp's colt does not run well in certain kinds of footing when it rains.Rain Friday night and most of yesterday left the main track at Laurel Race Course rated muddy.