How to dope a horse

By E.W. | SYDNEY

THE best-known doper of this century rode on two wheels. But horses, as well as humans, can be drugged to enhance or tarnish their performance. This month eight people linked to a now-defunct racing stable in Australia were found guilty of charges related to the doping of horses over seven years from 2010. One prominent trainer, Robert Smerdon, and two of his stable hands were banned for life. They had administered illegal “top-ups” of sodium bicarbonate, better known as baking soda, which reduces the buildup of lactic acid in muscles, allowing horses to run for longer without tiring. A state authority called it the worst scandal in Australia’s racing history. What, then, is equine doping?

Some potions, such as tranquilisers, calm highly strung horses. Others are meant to speed them up. Roman chariot racers were said to have nurtured their steeds with honeyed water. By the early 20th century, thoroughbreds were fuelled with rather stronger stuff: caffeine and cocaine. Trainers have since experimented with Viagra, energising opioids, drugs that dilate airways, and unlicensed concoctions such as “blue magic”, which is thought to boost cardiovascular function. Racehorses are injected with EPO, the blood-doping hormone that undid Lance Armstrong, and fed cobalt, which also increases the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. Several trainers have been sanctioned for dosing horses with anabolic steroids, which can make them stronger and faster over the long-term, not just on a race day.