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Hi-Ho, Steroids, Away!Why it matters that racehorses are on the juice.

By Daniel EngberPosted Friday, June 27, 2008, at 3:10 PM ET

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David Sessions explained that a racehorse actually does pee like a racehorse. Brendan I. Koerner wondered why you would geld a racehorse like Funny Cide. Tommy Craggs described the oddball charm of the Kentucky Derby and debunked the myth of the working-class racehorse. Daniel Engber explained why a broken leg can be an equine death sentence. Meghan O'Rourke considered America's love affair with Barbaro, and Melonyce McAfee looked at the future of Barbaro's bloodline.

But the data on catastrophic injuries are spotty at best. The AP report gives only absolute totals; it doesn't tell us how the injury rate has changed over the years. It's altogether possible that the rate has remained stable for decades, or even decreased over time. According to the Jockey Club, Thoroughbreds have been running fewer races per year, on average, than in past decades. (The numbers reached a peak in 1960.) It's not clear how, or if, that relates to the number of race-related deaths.

Meanwhile, tests run on Eight Belles after her collapse showed no traces of "performance-enhancing" drugs in her bloodstream. Overall, there's no hard evidence linking anabolic-steroid use with catastrophic injury in racehorses. According to C. Wayne McIlwraith, the past president of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the drugs might even help prevent injury by strengthening the tendons and ligaments. (They do have some side effects, including a sort of equine 'roid rage: A juiced-up and angry stallion might be quicker to bite, strike, or kick, and will repeatedly defecate over the feces of another stallion.) So, why the rush to ban them all? "Perception is reality," says McIlwraith. "If people perceive the drugs as harmful, then the horses shouldn't get them."

Horse-juicing isn't unfair, and we have no proof that it's harmful to the animals. The drugs are no less "natural" than baroque breeding schedules and surgical interventions. And we don't have to worry about the social influence of drug-use among celebrity horses—no ponies are going to start shooting up because they saw Big Brown on television.

But horse racing should ban the practice anyway.

We may not have any studies linking anabolic steroids with catastrophic injuries, but the absence of evidence is not, as they say, the evidence of absence. At the very least, we know these drugs have significant side effects. And before doctors can safely prescribe them—to humans or horses—we'll need more data from controlled clinical trials.

That doesn't mean they should never be used. A baseball player who wants to juice up can weigh the potential risks and benefits of an experimental treatment. Is he willing to endure the acne, shrunken testicles, and other side effects of nandrolone in exchange for boosted statistics and a higher salary? Is the trade-off worth the possibility of more serious, long-term damage?

If horses could talk, they might make a similar calculation. Would Big Brown take Winstrol if it might help him win the Triple Crown and retire to the farm as a pampered, well-paid stud? But a horse can't weigh those pros and cons, and he can't give informed consent. Until we're absolutely certain that anabolic steroids don't cause injury, we shouldn't be making that decision for them.

Of course you could make the same argument about the entire sport of horse racing. A football player knows he may be gravely injured—or even killed—in the course of competition; a Thoroughbred does not. In the United States, one or two horses die for every 1,000 races. No one asks the animals if it's worth the risk.