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LESION OF THE HEART Mnch More Common Among Horses Than Supposed. Administration of Stimulating Drugs Leads to Pernicious nabit of "Doping" with Intent to Cheat. BY SAL.VATOR. Tho diagnosis of a race horses ailment as an affection of the heart, which an English turf writer, whose comments were reproduced in Daily Racing Form, pronounced a new thing in veterinary science, is far from being so. It must be nearly fifteen years ago that a case of valvular lesion in the heart of a race horse was called to my attention. The "sob" which this affection produces was plainly audible when a stethoscope was applied to the animals chest. His turf career was ended by the weakness, and, soon after, his life. Human beings similarly affected can prolong their lives for years by avoiding excitement, undue physical exertion, etc., etc Horses, of course, cannot be controlled so as to prevent these things, so when their hearts become unsound their deaths usually follow ere long. This, however, depends on the type or condition of the heart disease which they contract. In many cases horses with affected eharts continue to race, and afterward are put to breeding. Some of them recover, some do not. Those which do recover with careful treatment may become useful animals, but their usefulness is always of a restricted nature. I "ATHLETES HEART" COMMON. The affection commonly known as "th-letes heart" and formerly referred to as "enlargement of the heart," is much more common among race horses than most turfmen suppose. It is due to two causes. The first, and natural one, is overexertion, either long continued or else on some one particular occasion when the animal had not been properly prepared for what it was asked to do. The second and unnatural one is by the administration of stimulating drugs. Valvular disease, or lesion of the heart, is incurable. Enlargement or dilation of the member is not. Nature has made the walls of the heart elastic and capable of being stretched to dimensions much greater than normal. By this dilation they become thinner and thinner the more they are enlarged and if the process continues are finally ruptured and death ensues. But by cessation from racing or training and recourse to the "rest cure" they may be contracted and restored to almost their natural state. Almost, but not quite. A heart that has once become excessively dilated never again will have the same strong walls with which it was provided originally. The strain upon the heart of the race horse is tremendous when he is called upon for flights of extreme speed. This is true when those flights are short, and of -course it increases when they are prolonged. The cases are infinite of horses which have run ultra-brilliant races "the first time out" and afterward been bitter disappontments, though not considered "broken down." In the majority of instances there is little doubt that they ran these brilliant races with insufficient preparation and the results were damaged hearts. When a horse is extended to his limit of speed the effort of the heart in pumping his blood through his system is a prodigious one. The organ must be properly conditioned for the ordeal or the aftereffects will be disastrous. Sudden, spasmodic efforts by undeveloped hearts are ruinous to race horses. They blight their careers and often they have lulled them. VIGOROUS OLD-TIME TRAINING. When we read the old-time accounts of how race horses were conditioned for contests of four-mile heats, such as our forefathers loved, we wonder how they ever withstood such training ordeals and accomplished anything. The elaborate sweatings and physickings, the rigorous feeding regimes, etc., seem terrific. But the old-time trainer knew his business as well as does the modern one, in so far as his own style of racing was concerned. The horse that raced long distances received a long preparation. His entire physical system was gradually and thoroughly prepared for the tax to be placed upon it. "Quick action for your money" was not then the motto. The tempo of racing was moderate in all things. Speed, according to modern criterions, was almost unknown, albeit fables were retailed of miles in a minute by Eclipse and The Flying Dutchman, or by ancient Firetail and other heroes of tho heroic age. The four-mile race horse was far more apt to go wrong in his legs than in his heart or his wind than is the sprinter of today. With both pairs of horses equally well prepared, it is probable that the strain upon the heart ; involved by races of four-mile heats, such as Boston and Fashion ran, was not so great as that of one dash of a mile, like those of Roamer and Salvator. THE II Alt M OF DRUGS. Damaging the hearts of race horses by the administration of stimulating drugs is a . modern and pernicious outgrowth, a malignant ulcer upon the body, politic of the turf. The "doping evil" has been the text for many sermons, and only recently it has again engaged the attention of racing authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. That form of "doping" synonymous with "nobbling," i. e., administering drugs for the : purpose of preventing a horse from winning, is an ancient, indeed a very ancient thing. It probably came into being almost coevally with the origins of the sport, in i some form or other. But it is within the inemomies of many turfmen now active when l "doping" to win was first known. Previous to its advent it had not been i thought unsportsmanlike to revive the drooping energies of a racer by giving him a l little "Dutch courage." Many a four-mile-heat ..hero or heroine in the brave days of old got a bottle of sherry, or even of champagne, after a hard heat and before another one. But gradually stimulating drugs became plentiful and widely used by humans. . New ones of a power hitherto unknown were ; added to the pharmacopeia and the army of "addicts" originally composed largely of those who used some form of morphia, , swelled to alarming proportions by the introduction of chloral, cocaine, codein, heroin, , etc., etc I ; . : i l i l . ; , , The idea of administering these drugs to i race horses was, of course, inevitable, as 1 was the practice, once the idea had dawned, i In the beginning it was done with little pre- c tense of concealment. "Speed Sustaining : Elixirs" and similar things were actually ad- vertised in the turf journals and itinerant i venders of them plied their trade openly at race tracks. But almost as quickly the hein- -ousness of the practice became apparent to honorable horsemen and turf bodies the world over joined in passing stringent rules prohibiting it. These rules, be it said, have never done j more than to keep the practice within bounds. They have been powerless to stamp it out and they always will be, just as the , so-called "anti-dope" laws upon the statute books are powerless to stamp out drug ad- diction among: men and women. The turf , has its "submerged tenth," just as has soci- , ety in the round ; it also has its powerful , but unscrupulous persons to whom the end . justifies the means. To either class it makes j no difference how one is "put over" so long . as it "goes over." There are men whose . names never find their way into print, neither , are they among those on the black lists of , any turf tribunal, who year after year ply ; their nefarious trade, some of them in the , purlieus of racing, some among its show , places. They "get by" just as many social highwaymen of all kinds do. And they always will. The administration of stimulating drugs to race horses has an immediate and often a terrific effect upon the action of the heart. The wild antics of thoroughbreds, also of harness racers, which have been "doped" are familiar to all experienced horsemen. So much energy is suddenly stirred up that the unfortunate animal is, to all intents and purposes, crazed or frenzied. I will never forget the first case of the kind that came under, my personal observation. Tho drug had been administered to a colt just before he left the paddock to go to the post. For some reason there was a delay in opening the paddock gate. The colt without warning appeared suddenly to become a maniac. A "locoed" horse would not have run amuck more crazily. The scene for a moment resembled a stampede at a theater fire. The colt dashed blindly from side to side of the paddock, sometimes striking pillars and girders as he did so, lunging, plunging and pawing the air frantically. The scramble to get out of his way by the other occupants of the paddock, men and horses, was almost equally frantic. DRUGGED HORSE RUNS AMUCK. He had speedily stripped himself of jockey; valets, saddle and bridle and went on his wild career "au naturel." Eventually he was captured, when the drugs effects began to diminish, and a few moments later, when they had evaporated and the reaction had set in, he presented a pitiable sight The suspicious actions of "doped" horses in the paddock led officials to keep a sharp lookout for such things, and "dopesters" began to refine their arts and invent new ways of administering their drugs so as to escape detection. The original methods were crude and clumsy in comparison writh those of later days. The evidence brought out in the trial of a famous French "doping" case a year or two ago was interesting in this regard. Latterly the search has been, by the users of "dope," for some form which can be administered with impunity and of such effect that the suspicions of the paddock judge and veterinarian be not aroused during the ante-post interval. Dosages are so compounded or attemptedly so as to be "timed" in their effects, like infernal machines and bombs, which are deposited at certain points so regulated as to allow the bombers to make good their escape before the explosion occurs. The late Hugh Keough "Hek" made telling use of this in his "Lay of the Hospital Race," which has become a classic in its genre, and is now embalmed I use that term advisedly in several anthologies. MORE DOPING ON SMALL TRACKS. "Doping," of course, is most prevalent at the minor tracks and in the "tall grass" where official discipline is laxest. The percentage of "dope horses" which run at such meetings is naturally larger than elsewhere. How some of these steeds keep on. and on is a mystery to many horsemen. Nature must have gifted them with hearts tough as whitleather and copper-riveted at that. Their familiar name of "snow birds," owing to the tell-tale traces of the "dope" perceptible to the experienced eye, is one of those bits of vernacular testifying to the unfailing fac-1 ulty of expressiveness in the perversions of the English language. The most serious side of "doping," however, has to do with its evil effects upon horses that are later used for breeding purposes. The scientists may wrangle to their hearts content whether acquired traits are or are not transmissible, but one thing is certain, namely, that "doped" horses produce inferior offspring. Of this practical horsemen are firmly persuaded through personal observation. I have known breeders who would have-nothing to do with horses known to have been raced in certain stables in which it was the popular belief, at least, that "dope" was used, it being their position that such horses were worthless for breeding purposes. If the truth could be known it is not impossible that the failure of many a brilliant stallion or mare, after going from the turf to the stud, to produce winners, was due to this cause. For in time, if drugs are persistently used, horses become like unto Mithridates, Rex Ponticus, that Asiatic worthy of the classical age who, by satur-; ating himself with poisons, administered systematically in doses not large enough to be fatal, rendered himself immune to poisons effects or so, at least, legend has for thou- sands of years averred. "SNOAV RIRDS" ENLARGING APPETITE. As time passes the "snow bird" requires larger and larger doses of "dope" to pro-duce the required effect, until at last one can be administered that would kill any ordinary horse whose system was a stranger to such things. I once had an interesting talk with a pharmacist who kept a drug shop near a certain race track and he in- formed me that some of the doses of "dope" which he compounded were, from the stand- point of his profession, monstrous. "On one occasion," he stated, "I thought it my duty to remonstrate with an owner, for whom I had compounded a pil which, I told him, would cause the death of his horses if he administered it unaltered In form and size. But," he went on, "the man just laughed and told me to come around the next morning and hed show me a live horse, all the same." 1 The difficulty of proving accusations made i 1 i c : i j , , , , . j . . , , ; , , in "doping" cases is inveterately so great 1 that officials often hesitate to enter upon J an investigation, though they are convinced of the guilt of persons suspected. The character of those from whom the convicting . evidence must come is such that their testi- mony, even if true, is always open to doubt. It is for these reasons that many "dopesters" continue to "get by" just as do many offenders in all walks of life. Those "in the know" can call the roll of "dope horses," but reasons of policy prevent the public "naming of names" as well as the difficulty of positive proof above referred to. Some years ago, however, the turf boasted a "dope horse" that was among the most sensational performers then in training. He was capable of magnificent performances, but his career as a whole was of in-and-out character and many of the races he ran were seemingly without any logical explanation. I. waited with considerable curiosity for this horses going to the stud, as I was anxious to see what kind of a sire he would make. He proved a great disappointment, and this tended to confirm in my mind the stories I have heard of him. However, there might have been other reasons, for history is replete with instances of famous performers that have failed as sires which were without any stigma of the kind associated with his name.
