Saying they support efforts to limit race-day medications, two prominent Thoroughbred trainers say they hope the initiatives do not go so far as to ban use of the anti-bleeder drug furosemide (Salix).

During an April 11 panel discussion as part of the monthly meeting of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club, trainers Tom Amoss and Bob Hess Jr. agreed that some drugs, such as phenylbutazone (Bute) and cortisone, should not be allowed on race day.

"Knowing that horses bleed when they run, why put a horse through that?" Amoss, a leading conditioner in the Midwest, asked of the proposal to ban Salix, which was previously marketed under the trade name Lasix.

Amoss said when he was working in New York in the 1980s, Lasix was not permitted and trainers went to great lengths to simulate the beneficial effect of the anti-bleeder medication: "In an effort to simulate what Lasix does, they were spending $200 where it would cost $15 for a shot of Lasix. If we got to where there was no race-day Lasix, the only ones who benefit are the vets