Researchers recently found no link between the vast majority of horses who suffer from exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH) and long-term racing performance, although they did find that the small percentage of horses who suffer severe EIPH see their long-term performance impaired.

The study was conducted by some of the world's foremost experts on EIPH, including Kenneth Hinchcliff, BVSc, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, and Paul Morley, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM. Hinchcliff and Morley were two of the authors of a landmark 2009 study that concluded pre-race administration of furosemide (Salix, commonly called Lasix) decreased the incidence and severity of EIPH.

That study examined horses racing in South Africa in races carded for the study. In this latest study, the team acknowledged EIPH can impair short-term race performance but examined the relationship between EIPH detected on a single occasion and long-term athletic performance in Thoroughbred racehorses.

In the study, 744 Australian Thoroughbreds a underwent a single tracheobronchoscopic examination to determine presence and severity of EIPH in 2003. The study then kept tabs on the racing performance of each of these horses