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."

From NYT, 1990: "The study found that horses ran an average of 0.48 seconds faster at a mile, roughly three lengths, when treated with Lasix - whether or not they had a bleeding condition. For older geldings, the improvement was as much as nine lengths. The study also found that over 60 percent of bleeders continued to bleed after being given Lasix."