NEWS
Consortium to receive Salix for Holy Bull start
Posted: Friday, January 27, 2012 3:03 PM
CONSORTIUM
Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo
by Frank Angst
Three-year-old Consortium will receive race-day Salix for the first time ahead of his start in the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) on Sunday at Gulfstream Park.
While a few years ago it was common practice for young horses to race without furosemide (Salix, also commonly called Lasix), at least until they showed it was needed to treat exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), in more recent years most horses have received Salix from the start of their racing careers.
In concert with some of his top owners, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin had decided not to give his young horses, two-year-olds of 2011, now three-year-olds, Salix unless there was strong evidence that they had bled. McLaughlin trains Consortium, a Darley Stable homebred.
McLaughlin said Consortium bled in his second start, a 6 ½-furlong allowance race on December 16 at Gulfstream Park, where he finished second to Algorithms. McLaughlin does not believe the bleeding incident cost Consortium, a Bernardini colt who won his maiden special debut on November 12 at Aqueduct by 4¾ lengths.
“I think we might have been second best on the day, but being that he had a little blood and mucus, I think the [Salix] will help. But Algorithms is a nice horse. We won’t take anything away from him, but we should improve,” McLaughlin said. “He’s not a bad bleeder, but he did show signs of bleeding mixing in with the mucus.”
Consortium will face Algorithms again on Sunday in a field that also features last year’s champion two-year-old male Hansen.
“It might be that we improve and [Algorithms] improves, that we improve because of Lasix and he improves from only running once in so many months. So he might step forward too,” McLaughlin said. “And Hansen, the two-year-old champion, obviously, is in there, so it’s going to be a good race.”
This year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships will not allow race-day medication in any of its races for two-year-olds. The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s American Graded Stakes Committee said it will not award graded status to any two-year-old races this year that allow race-day medication.
Frank Angst is senior writer for Thoroughbred Times
