LEXINGTON, Ky. – A committee that makes recommendations to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on medication policies on Monday shot down a proposal to phase out some raceday administrations of the anti-bleeding drug Lasix but adopted several proposals to tighten the use of other medications. The Equine Drug Research Council, which is an offshoot of the commission, voted down a proposal to begin prohibiting the raceday use of Lasix in 2-year-old races next year and to extend the ban to all stakes races the following year by a tally of 5-3. Of the eight members of the council, four are practicing racetrack veterinarians, and all of those members voted against the proposal. The fifth member to vote against the proposal was Dr. Michael Kilgore, a research pharmacologist at the University of Kentucky. Discussion on the proposal prior to the vote touched on all the aspects of the debate that has surrounded the raceday use of Lasix for the past 10 years. Veterinarians and horsemen defended the raceday use of the drug for its ability to mitigate the severity and incidence of bleeding in the lungs, while opponents said that the raceday use of the drug created a public-relations problem for an industry that is currently facing public pressure due to concern over racehorse safety. Supporters of the proposal vowed to pursue the rule change in front of the full commission, which meets Tuesday. Damon Thayer, the current Kentucky Senate Majority Leader and a longtime member of the council, expressed outrage at supporters of the vote result after it was tallied. “We have to pull our heads out of the sand,” Thayer said. “If you are not willing to make reforms then you need to take a long look in the mirror and seriously consider whether you should be on this council.” Thayer, along with Mike Ziegler, an executive with Churchill Downs, and Dr. Stuart Brown, a veterinarian who is the chair of the commission, joined in the vote to approve the proposal for recommendation. Earlier this year, Churchill Downs announced that it had joined with a number of other major racing organizations to push for medication changes at the state level, in part to avoid federal regulation of the sport. The partial Lasix phaseout had the support of all Kentucky racetracks, Ziegler said at the meeting. After the meeting, Ziegler said the coalition would ask the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to consider the proposal despite the vote at the EDRC, and that the coalition of racing interests would also seek approvals in other states. “We’re disappointed,” Ziegler said. “But I don’t think we have to pull back. I think we can work with the Kentucky racing commission and be a leader in the industry still.” While the vote on the partial Lasix phaseout failed, the council did approve several recommendations designed to limit the administration of other medications. On a vote of 6-2, the council voted to extend a ban on the intra-articular use of corticosteroids from seven days to 14 days, and on a unanimous vote, the council voted to extend a prohibition on the use of a single non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, such as phenybutazone, from 24 hours to 48 hours. In addition, the council voted unanimously to recommend a ban on the use of bisphosphonates “in racing and in horses younger than four years old.” Bisphosphonates are a class of drugs that are thought to have deleterious effects on bone remodeling when used in young horses. The drugs are only approved for use in horses 4 years old or older to treat navicular disease. The council also voted to require the production of 14 days of veterinary records as a condition of entry. Those records will be available to any horseman following a claim of a horse. An earlier version of this story stated that all five votes against the Lasix proposal came from practicing racetrack veterinarians. Four of the members who voted against the proposal are racetrack practitioners, and the fifth member is a research pharmacologist.