It was gratifying to see the standing-room only attendance for our meeting Wednesday at Belmont Park. We all know how important the issue of raceday Lasix is, and we need the support of every one of our horsemen to get our message to the NY State Racing and Wagering Board.

Please get as many of your owners, friends, family members and anyone you feel will support us in this initiative to participate. You can help in a couple of ways.

First, if anyone you know has close ties or is a major contributor to one of our NY State legislators, ask them to contact that legislator and get our message out there. Also let us know the names of any legislators contacted, and we will reach out to them as well.

Second, we have a letter to NYSRWB Chairman John Sabini, outlining our position on Lasix, up on the NYTHA website at www.nytha.com. We will send you a second email, which you can forward to everyone on your email list you feel will participate. It will include a link to the Sabini letter (http://takeaction.nytha.com/); the participants can click on the link, read the letter, then sign their name and send it on to the NYSRWB. The second email will also include a link (https://nytha.com/pdf/the_lasix_question.pdf) to a report entitled, “The Lasix Question,” which was put together by myself and the NYTHA staff last fall. It answers a lot of the questions people might have on the subject.

NYTHA will also be putting together a detailed and comprehensive response to the NYSRWB’s request for comments, and are marshaling horsemen’s organizations in other states, who are eager to help.

We sincerely appreciate the support and solidarity of the horsemen on this issue.

Thank you,
NYTHA President Rick Violette Jr.