‘Punters being deceived by racing weights’

Press, 3 August 1985, Page 27

‘Punters being deceived by racing weights’

NZPA-AAP Brisbane Punters were being deceived by horse racing weights because the rapid development of new drugs sometimes made them inaccurate, Queensland’s deputy director-general of health, Dr Ken Donald, said tn Brisbane.

“Punters generally consider fillies and mares not as strong as colts and geldings and often place their bets accordingly,” said Dr Donald, who headed the Brisbane Commonwealth Games drug team, and investigated Queensland’s recent caffeine horse doping outbreak.

He said the growing use of anabolic steroids brought horses’ muscle development closer regardless of sex. Punters could then be misled by handicappers who allotted race weights ac-

cording to general racing practices, he told a meeting of Queensland scientists and laboratory technicians. Increasing drug use in the racing industry also was affecting the judgment of buyers who used genetic bloodlines to gauge a yearling's potential, and was reducing a mare’s breeding capacity when it retired. “Mares given drug stimulants during their racing careers do not foal for the first two or three years after mating, losing the owner two or three foals which could have sold for tens of thousands of dollars,” said Dr Donald. High-tech developments in drug production were outstripping authorities trying to stop drug use in a growing number of sports, he said.

“Drugs are probably being used in lawn bowls

today with the development of the Beta-blocker group which steady the nerves and stop hand tremors,” he said. Dr Donald said United States reports claiming tests had been developed which would reveal any drug taken from birth were incorrect. “I wrote to the ‘Washington Post’ telling them their claim that tests at the Pan Pacific Games in Nicaragua would show up remote drugs taken by competitors was rubbish,” he said. “Scientists are not grappling with the problem of drugs in sport and laboratories are not catching up. “There is an enormous escalation in the development of new drugs and genetic hormones and this will lead to growing troubles in the sporting arena,” Dr Donald said.