Breeders' Cup 2013: Mediation Rules Remain For Juvenile Races; Drops Juvenile Sprint

According to a press release, the Breeders' Cup board decided on minor changes to the 2013 event at Santa Anita Park. The ban of Lasix in all Breeders' Cup races will remain restricted to just the juvenile events; older horses will be allowed to run on the anti-bleeding medication.

Additionally, the Juvenile Sprint is no longer part of the program, leaving the Breeders' Cup with 14 races over two days. No other changes to the event were announced.

The full Breeders' Cup press release is below:

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 1, 2013) - The Breeders' Cup board voted today to maintain its race day medication policies for the 2013 Breeders' Cup World Championships which were in place for the 2012 event. This year, horses competing in the races restricted to Juveniles will not be permitted Lasix (furosemide). Horses participating in all other Breeders' Cup races will be permitted to race on Lasix, which will be administered only by veterinarians authorized by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) and approved by Breeders' Cup.

The Board also pledged funding, and called upon other Thoroughbred racing organizations, to support an industrywide independent study of the causes, effects, and potential alternative methods of reducing the occurrence of EIPH in racehorses.

"We recognize that there has been great divisiveness in our industry over medication rules, but joining together in the common goal of independent scientific research of the effects of race-day medications, coupled with industry pursuit of uniform rules, will move us toward eliminating such divisions." said Tom Ludt, Chairman of Breeders' Cup. "Our board feels this measure, keeping the policy in place for the Juvenile races and maintaining the 2012 policy on the remaining races, is the most practical course of action at this time."

Over the last decade, Breeders' Cup has taken a leading industry position in the areas of out of competition testing, security, pre-race exams and post-race drug testing for its Championships. All Horses competing in this year's Championships will be monitored for 72 hours prior to post time of the horse's race.

The Breeders' Cup also announced it has dropped the six furlong, $500,000 Juvenile Sprint from its roster of races in the Breeders' Cup World Championships after two years.

"The number of starters and overall quality of the Juvenile Sprint fields for its two runnings did not meet the standards expected for the Championships," said Craig Fravel, Breeders' Cup president and CEO. "We also believe that the Juvenile Sprint had a negative impact on field sizes for both the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies.

"Even with the reduction from 15 to 14 races," Fravel continued, "we anticipate we will pay more than $25 million in purses and awards in 2013, more than last year, which is important to our owners and nominators. As far as the roster of races, during the expansion of the last few years and moving forward, our focus is on providing the most competitive fields for racing fans and ensuring opportunities to run at the highest levels for our horsemen and nominators around the world. We will continue to look at our races on an annual basis to ensure they are meeting those objectives."

In addition to these initiatives for the Championships, Breeders' Cup approved a full schedule of 2013 Breeders' Cup Challenge races ("Win and You're In"), which will be announced in the coming weeks.

About Breeders' Cup

The Breeders' Cup administers the Breeders' Cup World Championships, Thoroughbred racing's year-end Championships. The Breeders' Cup also administers the Breeders' Cup Challenge qualifying series, which provides automatic starting positions into the Championships races. The 2013 World Championships will be held at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., on Nov. 1-2, and will be televised live on the NBC Sports Network and NBC. The $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic will be shown live and in primetime on NBC. Breeders' Cup press releases appear on the Breeders' Cup Web site, www.breederscup.com. You can also follow the Breeders' Cup on social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.