Performance Enhancing Drugs

It is very difficult for labs to detect all the illegal drugs used in the racing industry.  In the article, Horse racing: America's Most Dangerous Game?, the author, Walt Bogdanich states, Trainers who illegally inject horses full of painkillers so they can race are rarely fined or suspended.  The pain medication can mask existing injuries, so the horses pass their pre-race inspection and run faster than otherwise would.  Other horses are injected with performance enhancing substances- ranging from cobra venom to blood doping agents that cannot be detected by labs"  Another factor involved is the inconsistencies of the rules that vary from state to state.  Drugs that are legal in some states may be illegal in others.  Therefore, allowing the owners and trainers to chose their races in which they are legal and dispense these dangerous drugs without any consequences.  In one of the biggest drug scandals recently involved Dubai ruler, Sheik Mohammed, eleven horses were tested positive for steroids.  The trainer, Mahmood Al Zarooni said, "I deeply regret what has happened. I have made a catastrophic error.  Because the horses involved were not racing at the time, I did not realise that what I was doing was in breach of the rules of racing."  The case is under investigation and these horses have been banned from racing.  A clear example of how the flagrant use of drugging has now become a global epidemic.

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/10/152363564/horse-racing-americas-most-dangerous-game

In a recent article published in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette titled, Horse racing has Grim Underside, the author Bill Towland discusses the injuries, the use of illegal drugs to mask these injuries and the alarming number of deaths that are on the rise in the sport of horse racing.  He states, 'Between 700 and 800 racehorses are injured and die every year,with a national average of about two breakdowns for every 1000 starts."  It is difficult for veterinarians to diagnose certain injuries such as strained tendons and hairline fractures, which can worsen causing serious and potentially fatal injuries.  In an interview with a former Churchill Downs public relations director, he states, "There are trainers pumping horses full of illegal drugs every day. Which so much money on the line, people will do anything to mask injuries or make their horse run faster."
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sectionfront/life/horse-racing-has-grimunderside-437