He graduated from Nickerson High School, Dodge City Community College, and Ft. Hays State University with a Secondary Teaching Degree. He was a member of Crossroads Christian Church and Sigma Phi Epsilom Fraternity. He spent five years teaching and coaching in Colby and Esbon, and drove a truck for Titus. His life's passion and career was training, breeding and racing thoroughbred and quarter horses. He was a member of the American Quarter Horse and Thoroughbred Associations. Bud was an avid history buff and the cowboy in him loved a good western movie.

On June 11, 1967, he married Rebecca S. Diehl in Dodge City. Survivors include: his wife of 44 years; two sons, Robert Ty and wife Megan, Royal Oak, MI, and Roger Tate, Hutchinson; a daughter, Tandy Bradford and husband Josh, Toledo, OH; a brother, Jim and wife Carol, Hutchinson; a sister-in-law, Jean Partridge, Garden City; three grandsons, Grant and Garrett Partridge, and Blake Bradford; two nephews; and four nieces. He was preceded in death by his parents, a brother, Richard "Dick" Partridge and a nephew.

Funeral service will be 11 a.m. Monday, January 23, 2012, at Crossroads Christian Church, 4310 N. Monroe, Hutchinson, with Wayne Pittman and Clyde Goff presiding. Burial will be in Penwell Gabel Cemetery and Mausoleum, Hutchinson. Friends may call 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, with the family present 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Elliott Mortuary. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Robert E. Partridge Trust (a benevolent fund for horsemen) or to the church, in care of the mortuary. Visit www.elliottmortuary.com to leave a condolence or remembrance for Bud's family.

Gregory A. Hall | The Courier-Journal

The commission’s race day medication committee held a five-hour hearing, the first step in a process that could lead the commission to approve a rule change that would face legislative review. If lawmakers found the rule deficient, Gov. Steve Beshear could override that decision.

“As you could see, they (commission members) were all over the place,” Midway breeder and owner Tracy Farmer, the committee’s chairman, said after the hearing.

The committee heard from 20 people, including a dozen representatives of industry groups. Most of their positions were previously known, but remarks from the commission members reflected sharp divisions that could make a rule change more difficult to pass.

“I think it’s a very polarizing thing,” said commission member Foster Northrop, a veterinarian who opposes the change. Northrop debated, as well as questioned, witnesses who favor a ban.

Commissioners Alan Leavitt and Tom Conway also had spirited exchanges with witnesses and have expressed opposition to a ban.

Northrop said he believes the votes eventually will be there to pass a ban, although he added that it could take a couple of years.

Farmer said he wants to get a transcript of Monday’s hearing before holding another meeting and that he has no timetable for the committee to finish its work.

The anti-bleeding medication furosemide, more commonly known as Salix or the former brand name Lasix, is the only drug allowed to be given on race day in nearly all racing jurisdictions in the United States and Canada. That sets North America apart from the rest of the world, which at most allows use of the drug only during training.

Groups seek ban

Several high-profile industry groups — led by The Jockey Club, which serves as the North American registrar for thoroughbreds — are pushing for a ban.

Different reasons are cited to justify a ban: the use of the anti-bleeding medication feeds a public perception that racing is drug-laden; the drug allows inferior horses to win races and then pass along their inferiorities in the breeding shed; and racing should be conducted under one set of drug rules internationally.

But proponents of furosemide say it’s humane because it has been proven to lessen bleeding in horses’ respiratory systems when they are running at top speeds.

Citing the international argument, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships plans to ban the use of race-day furosemide in its 2-year-old races next year and extend the ban to all 15 races in 2013

Breeders’ Cup President and Chief Executive Officer Craig Fravel told the committee Monday that the perception problem extends to the international market for American thoroughbreds that have raced on anti-bleeding medication. He said the U.S. industry has thereby been “denigrated.”

The American Graded Stakes Committee, which assigns grades to selected races that are meant to give top finishers and their offspring more value in breeding, followed the Breeders’ Cup’s decision with a plan to eliminate the use of race-day furosemide in graded stakes races for 2-year-olds next year as a pilot program.

Officials with the Breeders’ Cup and the Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, which administers the graded stakes committee, have said they may have to delay implementing their bans if there is too much opposition from trainers and owners.

The graded stakes committee’s action would primarily affect states where most such races for 2-year-olds take place — Kentucky, New York and California.

The Kentucky commission’s outgoing executive director, Lisa Underwood, has said that the time is tight to pass a regulation in Kentucky before 2-year-old graded stakes races begin next spring or summer. She said she doesn’t believe it would meet the requirements of an emergency rule that would allow it to take effect immediately before legislative review.

Also complicating matters, the commission’s equine medical director, veterinarian Mary Scollay, acknowledged Monday having said that she would have ethical and regulatory concerns about allowing race-day medication for some horses and not others.

Bleeding common

The hearing’s first witness, Michigan State University researcher Alice Stack, summarized studies done on the issue, known formally as exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhaging, saying that nearly every racehorse bleeds at some level, though it is fairly rare for bleeding to be so severe that it’s visible to the public from the nostrils.

Scollay told the committee that the use of furosemide has not been shown to contribute to fragile bones and fractures in horses as it has in humans.

Jockey Club Executive Vice President Matt Iuliano acknowledged that anti-bleeding drugs have been proven to lessen bleeding, but the analysis doesn’t end there. Other considerations, he said, include whether the drug is performance-enhancing and whether it contributes to a negative public perception of racing.

A study done for the Jockey Club released this year showed that almost half of the respondents believed thoroughbred racing was lax in dealing with performance-enhancing drugs.

Iuliano said there has been no definitive research on whether use of anti-bleeding medication will lead to a deterioration of the American versus the European thoroughbred.

Other proponents of a ban who spoke included former WinStar Farm co-owner Bill Casner; Stone Farm owner Arthur Hancock; and Kern Thoroughbreds President Lincoln Collins, who is a bloodstock agent.

Representatives of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Humane Society of the United States also spoke in favor of a medication ban.

Speakers in favor of the current policy included Eric Peterson, a board member of the American Association of Equine Practitioners; and Rick Hiles, the president of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, which represents owners and trainers.

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Supporters of an effort to ban the raceday administration of furosemide on Monday received a mostly cold reception from members of a committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission during a hearing here to open debate on the use of the drug.

Three of the six committee members made pointed comments during the six-hour hearing that clearly indicated that they would resist the effort to ban the drug, a diuretic commonly known as Lasix that is used to treat bleeding in horses’ lungs. Coupled with the uncertain stances of the other three members, it seemed unlikely that the committee would make a recommendation to ban the drug in the near future without further examination of the issue, which could jeopardize supporters’ efforts to implement bans by early next year.

The hearing was the first formal meeting on raceday furosemide to be held by any state regulatory agency in the United States since calls to ban the drug were launched in March of this year. Several influential organizations, including the Jockey Club and Breeders’ Cup, have thrown their weight behind the effort since then, and the Graded Stakes Committee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association has also adopted a measure that would deny grades to any stakes race for 2-year-olds held in 2012 in which horses are allowed to be administered the drug.

To support its measure, the owners’ and breeders’ group has targeted the racing commissions in the six states in which 2-year-old graded stakes are held: Kentucky, New York, California, Illinois, Louisiana, and New Jersey. Supporters of the effort have acknowledged that the ban will be ineffective if there are states that hold out, so the apparent setback in Kentucky could have large ramifications for the effort as a whole.

The three committee members who made their opposition to a ban clear during the hearing were Foster Northrup, a Kentucky racetrack veterinarian; John Ward, the trainer; and Alan Leavitt, a Standardbred owner and breeder who is a member of the sport’s Hall of Fame. The committee is chaired by Tracy Farmer, a Kentucky owner and breeder who is a member of the Jockey Club, and also includes Betty Lavin, a Kentucky owner and breeder who is married to a veterinarian, and Dr. Jerry Yon, a physician.

Farmer said during his opening remarks that the committee invited 30 organizations to provide testimony during the hearing, which was held in a meeting room at the Kentucky Capitol Annex building to accommodate the large crowd. Sixteen individuals provided testimony on Monday, including representatives of the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who both supported the ban.

The testimony opened with a one-hour presentation by Alice Stack, a doctoral student at the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine who is finishing up her thesis on exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage. Stack said that bleeding is common in racehorses worldwide and that furosemide is the only drug that has been shown scientifically to mitigate the frequency and severity of bleeding, citing studies that opponents of a ban have also used to support their claims that prohibiting the raceday administration of the drug would cause racehorses’ distress.

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association is lining up allies and pressing its effort to get state racing commissions to ban the race-day use of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide in 2-year-old races next year, but there are significant hurdles.

Horsemen’s groups remain united in opposition to the proposal. The horsemen’s position will complicate efforts to pass rules that would be in effect for 2012 even when factoring in the additional time afforded by the 2-year-old racing calendar, which does not start until April.

Already, a number of officials for racing commissions in the six states that TOBA has targeted have said the consideration of a rule banning furosemide on race day, even on a limited, experimental basis, would be a complex and divisive undertaking requiring careful study. They cited not only opposition to the change but also a recent Jockey Club-funded scientific study that indicated furosemide is effective in reducing the severity and frequency of bleeding episodes in horses.

“It’s pretty clear the industry is divided on the race-day use of furosemide,” said Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. “And when you are making a rule, you are going through the legislative process, you are making a law, you are taking everyone’s position into consideration. That process trumps any external pressure.”

The effort to reform the rules is an outgrowth of a decision by the American Graded Stakes Committee last August to rescind the grade of any 2-year-old stakes race in 2012 that allows horses to be treated with a race-day injection of furosemide. A diuretic commonly known as Lasix or Salix, furosemide is administered to approximately 95 percent of all North American racehorses to treat bleeding in the lungs. TOBA is the administrator of the American Graded Stakes Committee, which assigns grades to more than 450 stakes races a year.

The committee approved the rule several weeks after the Breeders’ Cup announced it would ban the use of furosemide in the five races of its season-ending event restricted to 2-year-olds beginning in 2012, when the event is going to be held at Santa Anita Park in California. The Breeders’ Cup said it would ban race-day furosemide for all 15 of its races in 2013, when the event is expected to be run in New York or Kentucky. California, Kentucky, and New York play host to most of graded stakes races for juveniles. The other states are New Jersey, Illinois, and Louisiana.

The pursuit of the ban has increasingly angered some horsemen, who contend the results of the Jockey Club study that were announced two years ago provided conclusive scientific support to allow furosemide on race day. Citing other studies that have said up to 80 percent of horses will show some evidence of bleeding in the lungs after strenuous exercise, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, Rick Violette, has begun characterizing the effort to ban furosemide as “borderline animal cruelty,” a loaded term that has come to symbolize the hardening position of horsemen. Violette said New York horsemen were prepared to file a lawsuit that would prevent New York from enforcing a ban on furosemide, a suit that could tie up the effort for years.

“I would be more than happy to walk in front of a judge who doesn’t know an ear from a tail and put the science in front of him to show the recent and historical data on Lasix,” Violette said recently. “It is black and white, as opposed to the rhetoric on the other side. Horses bleed. That is a fact.”

TOBA’s allies intend to press ahead without the support of horsemen, according to Jim Gagliano, the president and chief operating officer of the Jockey Club. Gagliano said Jockey Club officials have been meeting with TOBA officials to determine how to put the issue in front of racing commissions. He said the Jockey Club intends to “emphasize that the administration of a performance-enhancing medication compromises the image, integrity, and future of our sport.”

If supporters of furosemide reform are unable to convince state commissions to modify their rules, the effort will shift to convincing racetracks to pass so-called house rules that would restrict furosemide use as a condition of entry, according to officials involved in the effort. House rules have occasionally been used to enforce medication reforms, including the effort to ban milkshakes, blood-doping agents, and anabolic steroids, as a way to bridge the gap between a consensus to ban the substances and the formal approval of rules.

But that effort could run into problems. Passage of a house rule would not address existing regulations in all states that are triggered when horses are taken off furosemide and put back on the medication. The rules require layoffs for horses that go on and off the drug, including a one-year ban for a horse that goes on and off three times. Such rules would limit subsequent racing options for trainers and owners of a horse who is taken off furosemide to comply with a house rule.

“We obviously haven’t discussed that in any detail yet,” said Ed Martin, the president of the Association of Racing Commissioners International. “But that is a real big problem.”

If some racetracks pass house rules and others do not, horsemen could avoid the ban by shipping to other tracks, giving some tracks a competitive edge in attracting horses. House rules could also antagonize trainers, who control the raw material that produces the main revenue stream for racetracks.

As a result, most tracks are remaining neutral. Officials for Churchill Downs, which owns tracks in three of the targeted states, Kentucky, Illinois, and Louisiana, declined to comment on questions regarding furosemide. Even the racetracks that support furosemide reform would not commit to a house rule banning the drug.

“It would be premature to comment on that,” said Greg Avioli, the chief executive of the Stronach Group, whose owner, Frank Stronach, sent letters to racing commissions earlier this year asking them to ban race-day furosemide. “What we want to do is work in a collaborative fashion with the regulators and the racing constituencies in the states where we do business.”

Marty Maline, the executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said the TOBA decision to rescind grades for stakes races could backfire if the association goes through with its proposal, contending that racetracks or other groups might implement their own grading system.

“Horsemen are prepared throughout the country to fight this,” Maline said. “Obviously, grading is important, but it’s not so important that we can’t come up with another way of determining what races are graded.”

Dan Metzger, the president of TOBA, said the obstacles could be overcome.

“We laid out a timetable, and we’ll continue to build support to comply with that timetable,” Metzger said. “If it looks like it can’t get done one way, we’ll adjust accordingly. This is a gradual process.”

Take Action Now to Save the H-2B Program!

The Following is a Special Notice to All Horsemen from the American Horse Council (AHC)

On September 30^th the Department of Labor (DOL) will begin using a new formula for calculating prevailing wages.

Additionally, in December the DOL is planning to finalize a second rule that will affect the program further. The rule will likely require employers to hire any qualified U.S. worker up to three days before the H-2B worker is scheduled to begin and require employers to pay transportation and subsistence costs for potential U.S. workers.

The horse industry relies heavily on the H-2B program and both new rules could significantly impact employers who utilize it. The AHC fears these actions could make the H-2B program essentially unusable for many employers.

What YOU Can Do…

A bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives plan to send a letter to the DOL, asking it to rescind the new wage rule and abandon plans to finalize the March 18, 2011 proposed

H-2B rule.

We urge all horsemen to do the following:

1. CALL THE CONGRESSIONAL SWITCHBOARD AT: (202) 225-3121

2. Ask for your Senators' or Representative's office and then ask to speak to the staff person who handles immigration issues.

3. State that you are asking your congressional representative(s) to a.) rescind the new H-2B wage rule and; b.) for the DOL to abandon plans to finalize the March 18, 2011 proposed H-2B rule.