Ok. Steroids.
They were legal to use, and really did help horses gain weight, muscle, sometimes aggressiveness, more apatite, which led to more nutrition, and overall growth and better health . That is what you would see. But that was long before it was realized by the people giving it as well as the trainers, owners, and everyone involved including the FDA , that there were serious side affects that came with them. Now, I can already hear the skeptics hollering, "you should have known better., What the hell were you thinking".
Well, I along with the majority of people out there were thinking exactly what they had learned and been taught. Turns out, what we were taught, and what was 100% legal had really bad long term side affects. As a result, when studies proved this as well as the Lance Armstrong stuff , the Major League Baseball stuff, NFL stuff, and all competition both people and animals, it was banned.
For the record, both my wife and I recall breaking a thermometer so we could flick the mercury balls all over the place, and then go eat some candy and lick your fingers. All this while the parents were smoking cigarettes' in the next room, and might fall asleep smoking at night with NO smoke detectors but little kids in the house to grow up breathing that 2nd hand smoke. So please take a minute to realize that many things did not yet exist, like no seat belts, no helmets for bike riders, skate board riders, every kid had a BB gun at minimum, drunk drivers were everywhere. Heck, drunks passed out in the parks were everywhere. And this was in Wash. D.,C. Capital of the United States. Every TV show has the funny drunk guy in it. So please keep in in perceptive.
Once steroids were banned, that did not stop people from using it but over a time, people started getting caught and we all know how badly that ended.
The actual banning of all steroidal products did not occur until around 2003? +/-. I'm not sure, but any of us old enough to remember, we all knew all about it.
I am not positive because I was not involved anymore with the training BUT, if I'm not mistaken, you can administer steroids today in some instances while out of training, however, I have no idea about the timelines involved with that.
Whatever the case, racing has cleaned that up and without knowing the exacts with withdrawal times, I think it is safe to say that you cannot have steroids on the grounds of a racetrack except for a medical emergency that would have to be administered by a licensed vet, recorded and documented on paper, and that paper work given to ,the Stewards.
To be clear from when it was still legal, at NO TIME was a Trainer allowed to administer ANY injectable whatsoever. Did it happen? YES ! Did I ever do it. Absolutely NOT. Did most trainers do it? NO. Did every track have there handful of trainers that DID do it. Unfortunately, yes.
A few years before I left the game, a steroidal came out and trainers loved using it. I had a horse with a ton of deep congestion in his lungs that seemed immune to everything we tried to eradicate it. He had not run yet so he was a 3 year old baby in the spring. The name of that crap escapes me, probably willed that name out of my head, but I used it, and I absolutely HATED IT. No, wait, I F'in hated it!
I remember getting so upset one morning that I threw it in the muck pit and told my entire barn, heck probably the entire stable area I was so pissed, that we would NEVER have that in my barn again. I really lost my temper. It was very near the end of my career, my mom had passed away, which was the main reason I had stayed as I was mentally done around 1991,2-3 ish but she was still alive. And I was NOT going to leave the track while she was living. It would have shattered her and she had fought alcoholism and at the time was beating it, and there was no way I was going to disturb that.
I guess that is a story for another day but to finish up, with steroids, I saw for the 1st time in my life, what steroids could do to a horse in a bad way. I had seen all the positive effects of it and like most, assumed it was fine, but as we all know today, it is not.
I do not think you should worry at all about steroids Lester. In todays drug tests they are looking for that as hard or harder than probably anything else. I could be wrong, but I think it is long gone and if used, that trainer will be long gone in no time at all.
Whatever todays working time frames are, they are way way out as far as having any in a horses system at the time of the race. Months not days if I remember correctly.
Hope that helped. Didn't mean to go off the rails for a bit but figured you might want to know more than a yes or no answer.
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