By T. D. Thornton
Despite paying more than $20,000 monthly to exterminators to try and quell an ongoing rat problem on the Laurel Park backstretch, the infestation has persisted, leading track management to seek additional professional help by soliciting new bids from additional companies.
Sal Sinatra, the president of the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC), which owns both Laurel and Pimlico Race Course, disclosed the plan of action during the Jan. 28 Maryland Racing Commission (MRC) meeting.
Sinatra has mentioned the track's efforts to control the rats at previous MJC meetings. But when he didn't bring up the subject during the MJC's monthly update that was on the agenda, commissioner Thomas Bowman asked him to detail a private discussion the two of them had recently about the rats, because Bowman said other commissioners should be aware of what is going on.
“We tried the experiment of emptying one barn out and letting the exterminators in there to do a 'full-court press,'” Sinatra explained. “It seemed to work for a couple of weeks. But after the horses and everybody were settled back in, they returned.”
As is the case in any rodent-control effort, educating the people who work in the stables about proper protocols and getting them to adhere to those guidelines is a key component of the plan.
“Right now it's a work in progress,” Sinatra said, adding that there will be a renewed focus to “clean up some bad practices that we all do back there that are actually keeping the rats, you know, healthy.”
Sinatra said that effort includes making sure horse feed is tightly secured in containers that are above ground level and taking care not to dump uneaten horse feed near the shed rows when meal buckets are cleaned out.
“We're currently paying well over $20,000 a month to these people [and] we need some extra expertise,” Sinatra said. “It's not that the company that were using isn't doing a good job and aren't responsive. But whatever they're doing, they're not getting ahead of the rat infestation.”
The commission's other business was brief on Thursday. The MJC voted by voice without objections to eliminate the allowable race-day threshold for clenbuterol that it proposed back on Oct. 22. No objections to the rule had been lodged during the rule's public commentary period. It takes effect Mar. 1.
J. Michael Hopkins, the MRC's executive director, said this time frame would “give all the horsemen ample time, if they are using clenbuterol, to cease using it for at least 30 days” before the rule takes effect.
The MJC also voted, without any voiced objections, to clarify, on an “emergency” basis, the language on its no-Lasix policy for 2-year-olds and in graded stakes races.
Other jurisdictions have recently enacted similar clarifications that led to unintended consequences when horses shipped from one racetrack to another and/or dropped out of stakes company back into a Lasix-allowed race.
Although the exact language of this new rule was not read into the record, Hopkins explained it is designed to prevent a horse from having to sit out for 60 days and then become recertified by a veterinarian as a bleeder to resume using Lasix, which unfairly penalizes those horses that participated in Lasix-free races.
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