Lasix ceiling a while in coming

Coming across the chart from when our Seducer broke her maiden in a grass maiden at Belmont in 1998, I was very surprised to see that not only did Seducer not run on Lasix, but only two of the twelve horses did! This was a 2-year-old maiden special weight on opening day of the Belmont fall meeting. I knew that when Lasix was first made legal in New York, in the fall of 1994, the percentage of horses running on it on opening day was in the 40% range. But I thought that by 1998, "vast majority" would have been a level-headed description for the breadth of Lasix usage. I knew that usage would be lowest in 2-year-old maiden races, but I didn't think it ever got as low as two out of 12 horses. It's also worth noting that ten of these 12 fillies had actually raced before. So the withholding of Lasix with 2-year-olds was not just for the first start. The changes in Lasix usage have occurred gradually enough that it's been possible not to have been fully aware of them.