Big Brown Uses Steroids: Should We Care?

It's a stupid horse who cares if it died during the Derby. All they do is make rich men richer...

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It would be nice to know if all race horses are given steroids. If not, does the owner of a horse have to disclose the fact that his horse's achievements were a product of chemicals rather than genes when he enters into a stud contract? Perhaps Big Brown should be renamed Big Barry.

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A stupid horese, heh!!!! How long have they been around, wonder boy? A great deal longer than we have and will be around long after. If not for stupid horses where would this country (and most countries) be??

Amazing that humans always think themselves so superior and at the same time are ruining this planet daily. We are the intelligent beings???Hypocrisy at its highest level.

Never seen many people as loyal as horses and that becomes more clear every day.

Good grief, so many self-indulgent humans make the most obnoxious and doltish comments.

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On the subject--if most or all horses do it, then so be it. Seems rather unfair when comparing the great old horses which had no chance to do the same. The records, as in baseball, should not be compared.

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I would like to know if people making comments are really involved in horse racing. I would like for someone to state the total figures of horse that run on all the track around the country all year. I am in the horse business and it ticks me off that Peta focus on Eight Belles when it's just part of the busines. I personally have been thru this same kind of circumstances with one of my horse, it's hard, but it's the business. Horses are checked for drugs as soon as they get back to the paddocks. The business has many thousands of horses born and raceed each year. It's just like any business, certain people are experts in a particular field and then there are people who think they know that business.
These people are the ones that know just enough to be dangerous and "sound stupid" to owners, breeders, jockeys and trainers and the hundreds of other people in the business! Does anyone try to tell a race car driver how to race?

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I just got punched HARD, in the gut.

I am probably a very normal, traditional American and have been caught up with the BIG BROWN thing. I look at his pictures and marvel. I smile with admiration. I think, "go get 'em big boy". Maybe you are the best ever.

Now, just moments ago, I read that my friend BIG BROWN is given steroids.

Crap, that makes him not the "best" potentially, but just another drugged up abnormal participant. It took the fun out of today, Saturday, because the "equality" factor is gone from racing. Drugs have even reached into the horse racing world. They should take your trophies and put them in a grave, along with that San Franfreako Giants Home Run fake, Barry Bonds.

I just lost the enjoyment of the moment. Who cares if the big guy wins. He has been turned into a freak. He is now abnormal. He has been turned into a cheater, just like that bum Bonds.

Sorry big guy. I loved you until just a few minutes ago. I can still love you because you are a good guy but those handling you ought to be taken away, put into orange jump suits, and put away in prison.

Chef Mike,
Tampa

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I have never been closer to a horse race than my TV,
however ,I adore animals.
I was devistated by the cavalier attitude of the trainers and owner of Eight Belles.

As far as Big Brown , how sad indeed if his big wins are due to the use of steroids. I don,t understand the excitement of a win when we will never know what the horse would have done
without being drugged.
I moved to Kentucky this year, I will never attend the Kentucky Derby. As long as money is more important than the animal, I am not interested.

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Debbie I owned Horses also and you sound stupid to me ,Cars can be fixed easy ,horses can not ,cars are not on steriods, Maybe for the sake of the Horses and sport You should go away also

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99.9% of all race horses are on steroids. There is a reason they are on steroids. It helps them recover from training, they eat better, their red blood cell count is higher, the fillies and gelding can run with the colts, helps them be stronger. The horses run fast. If a trainer tells you he is not using steroids, he is lying. Just enjoy the horse racing and leave the drug guidelines to the officials. Go Big Brown!

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I'm a long time horse player. It's no surprise to me. When a trainer can start 3300 horses, win with 25% of them and finish in the money with 57% of them, you know he's using substances. There are trainers like Mr.Dutrowe at every track in the country, with training records that defy logic. There's no such thing as a level playing field. Each track has at least 3 or 4 trainers who dominate through the use of illegal substances. This makes it impossible for other trainers to compete and entices them do the same. The race tracks constantly screen for drugs and those who use them constantly seek new ones that the tracks don't have tests for. These practices plus the governments tax policies are destroying the sport of horse racing and one day will bring it to its demise.

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Horse racing in this country is a barbaric sport. The horses are run prior to their growth plates fusing. One of the major reasons for injuries. It is like having your 9 year old child run a full marathon. Horse growth plates do not fuse until they are 3 or 4 years of age and some breeds a bit later.

And then of course we have the thousands of Thoroughbreds that don't cut it at the track and end up at the feed lots bound for slaughter. We have such a horse. We purchased him for $300.00 which is what his meat was worth and he came to us 200-300 pounds underweight. I think horse racing should either be banned completely or regulated and for immature horses to be banned from racing until they reach full maturity.

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It's obvious most people on this site has never been to a horse race or really know anything about it. Some people here would let there dog continue to crap in the middle of the living room and try to find out what's wrong with them mentally, instead of rolling the newspaper up and giving a good swat as a reminder. That is about what a WHIP is to a horse. People need to get over themselves and their journey to righteousness.

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As a person who has grown up in the industry, I can tell you first hand that all racehorses are on some sort of "legal" steroids. I rehab these racetrack rejects, many of them are very well bred, bought for hundreds of thousands of dollars at keeneland and other prestigous sales, they are started early always being "enhanced" and when they can't bring in the paychecks that's where i come in. Unfortunately, alot of these horses have hidden genetic diformities that go hidden until they are "letdown " coming off the track and the drugs leave their systems. I had a gorgeous gelding by unbridled, he raced 47 times I got him at 6 he only won 1 time. The sad thing is, this horse was wonderful, talented easy to work with then one day he had a heart attack and died in my arms. I firmly believe that if he wasn't so well bred, he would not have been raced so hard trying to live up to his fathers name. Steroids should be banned altogther, as I now of many that have heart attacks while still running at the track.It's dangerous to the animal and the people who ride them. Unfortunately it's a practice that has gone on for decades and won't change unless there is a powerful movement to abolish it.

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The drug Brown is on is often used as therapy for Anemia and poor apetite. Some horses just don't eat. I've ridden in show barns where acusations of doping were rampant because a non-horsey guest saw us give Bute (horse asprin) to an arthritic 30-year-old mare to make her more comfy. She had just colicked (potentially fatal sudden medical emergency) and the vet had recommended it. Lay off the crucifixion until y'all know WHY he's on it.

From Wikipedia:

Stanozolol has been used on both animal and human patients for a number of conditions. In humans, it has been demonstrated to be successful in treating anaemia and hereditary angioedema. Veterinarians may prescribe the drug to improve muscle growth, red blood cell production, increase bone density and stimulate the appetite of debilitated or weakened animals

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I Don't Like Steroids It's not Safe and not fare for all the Horses I Like Big Brown but the people that own Him are Mean and i like Casion Drive TO so in the Belmont I will Be Casion Drive GO GO!!

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Steroids on horses? I wonder why The Humane Society, SPCA and PETA have not raised a stink about this practice like they did when Michael Vick got in trouble for the dog fighting business he financed.

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Big Brown is given Winstrol. Winstrol is a "stripping agent", meaning it removes excess fat from his body. He is not given Equipois which is designed to add muscle mass. Most of the race horses (that I have been around) are given a combination of these two steroids. One of the side effects of the Equipoise is a very aggressive attitude and possible sterility. Winstrol does not carry those side effects. Big Brown is much too valuable as a stud to risk his fertility on steroids.

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I understand the frustration over steroid use in racing, but it stands to reason that if Big Brown is "drugged", many other horses are also (which is proven). However, how many of these horses actually have Big Brown's record? How many of them have won by so many lengths in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness; and has anyone even bothered to look at his pedigree? His great-grandfather is Northern Dancer, the greatest sire in the 20th century.

When I saw this horse galloping home, ears pricked and barely sweating in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, I was reminded of some of the greatest thoroughbred horses in racing history...Man O' War, Secretariat, War Admiral, Exterminator, even Ruffian, racing's greatest filly. All of these horses were champions, and some, like Ruffian, died on the track. That doesn't take away the spirit that burned in them or the love they had for running.

Big Brown is a throwback to when victory was achieved, not by drugs, but by the horse itself...one who loved to run and gave it everything he or she had. One who had an indomitable spirit, one who finished with ears pricked, head held high, as if to say "why did we stop? I was having fun!"

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Yes we should care, who is concerned whether or not other horses are a steriods. Let's get real about this issue..............
Regards

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I used to work at the tracks in Mexico and S. California. Back in the 40's and 50's, trainers and owners were always trying to get an edge..usually with a new designer drug that wouldn't show up in saliva, blood and urine tests. But heatingseems to be a National Pastitme in a way. Baseball, Football, Soccer, Basketball, Track and Field events, and Olympic Athletes are all guilty. As a boxing/kickboxing trainer, I have also seen the rise of steroids in these sports, especially since thew late 80's.
About the only drug we ever used in a gym was liquid Vitamin B 12. Men and champions trained the hard way...dedicated training without performance enhancement drugs. It is therefore so tragic that we now have to have horses compete against each other at the steroid level. I am all for letting horses mature before racing (skeletal and physiologically)and to have all states ban steroids at least 90 days before racing. I do understand that some equines will receive benefit from certain steroids as a prescription for certain illness'. But in no way should they be in their system when racing.
Horses who are hurting do not-I mean do not need to be shadowy doped just to race and face possible serious injury or death. And since gas is so high again, let us think horsepower. Don't take those animals to the meatpacking plant to make jello and dog food when they don't win. Give them to the farm and ranch people who just might find them useful and loving. I wish we city folk could do that. A good horse is better than a bad man, that I know for sure.
HAve a Happy

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