"No thought was given to the cheaper horses that train on bute," Stirling said.

Or, the origins of the modern race-day drug dilemma. From Sports Illustrated, 1960: "Nevertheless, in the two weeks since [Butazolidin] was legalized in Illinois, of the 407 horses that received it 124 finished in the money. Many of them were long shots.... Still, the remarkable reversals of form seemingly attributable to the drug brought some horseplayers to the point of joyful hysteria."

From Union-Tribune, 2007: "I only use it on race day," trainer Bruce Headley said. "I don't train on it. Bute is a painkiller. Everybody else uses it, and it's legal. That's why I use it. But I think we could run without it."