LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 3 - The owners, trainers and jockeys of this year’s Kentucky Derby horses aren’t the only ones on pins and needles as Saturday’s race draws near. At least five of the 17 horses in the race will receive acupuncture treatments in the days leading up to the race — a tip-of-the-iceberg indication of just how popular so-called alternative therapies like magnets, chiropractic adjustments, electrical muscle stimulation and herbal medications have become in the racing industry.

DENOUNCED AS “QUACKERY” by some opponents in the veterinary field, who note that there is little or no scientific evidence that they are effective, the treatments have nonetheless been embraced by a large percentage of racehorse owners and trainers, who say they help to relax the tightly wound thoroughbreds, improve muscle tone and flexibility and relieve pain.

Reflecting the divided opinion over their use, three trainers of Derby contenders questioned Wednesday and Thursday in an informal survey on the backstretch at Churchill Downs admitted to being strong supporters of an array of alternative therapies.

“My horses get the whole works, everything possible,” said John Scanlan, who saddled longshot Talk Is Money in the 127th Run for the Roses.

In addition to acupuncture, Talk Is Money receives chiropractic treatments, sleeps under a magnet-equipped blanket, wears magnet-equipped booties on his feet when relaxing in the barn and receives massages.

Scanlan said he began trying alternative therapies on his horses as a result of his friendship with a former neighbor, boxer Roberto Duran.

“He had a flexologist with him 24-7, which got me curious to try it,” Scanlan said. “I was getting ready to fight Duran after awhile, I felt so good.”

Trainers David Hoffman’s (Millennium Wind) and Joe Orson (Thunder Blitz) both said they have all their horses on a regular program of acupuncture and chiropractic treatments.

HERBAL TREATMENTS

Hoffman’s said he also uses “herbal substances” and massage to treat Millennium Wind, who has been troubled by skin blotches and cracked heels throughout his 2001 campaign.

Hoffman’s, who will be saddling his first Derby starter, said he became a believer in equine acupuncture about 10 years ago, when he tried it on one of his horses with an undecided testicle. He said the acupuncturist successfully treated the problem by sticking needles in the horses neck, though it took six treatments before the balky bollock stayed where it was supposed to.

“It was the damndest thing,” Hofmans recalled Thursday. “He’d stick the needles in and down the testicle would come.”

Orseno said he supplements the acupuncture and chiropractics with magnetic blankets and hoof magnets, which supposedly improve blood circulation.

The other Derby trainer who acknowledged using acupuncture on his horses is Todd Pletcher, who says both Balto Star and Invisible Ink have their skin pricked by a therapist when their muscles “get a little tight.”

But Pletcher admits he has some questions about the efficacy of the treatments. “Sometimes I think the trainer feels better than the horse” for having ordered the treatments, he said.

Most of the other nine trainers polled by MSNBC (two others could not be reached) acknowledged they occasionally turn to alternative therapies — mostly acupuncture and chiropractics — when a horse develops problems that fail to respond to conventional treatments. But all said they have not had to resort to such measures for their Derby entrants.

Typical of this school is AP Valentine’s trainer, Nick Zito, who said “most horses respond” to the treatments when they are used to treat problems as opposed to being used regularly as preventative measures. He added that he ordered acupuncture treatments for Go For Gin before the colt’s winning Derby effort in 1994, but did not need it with his first Derby winner, Strike The Gold, in 1991.

‘GOOD OLD-FASHIONED ICE’

Surprisingly, the trainer with his feet most firmly planted in the old school is Bob Baffert, who says he is a believer in “good old-fashioned ice.”

“I’ve never used any of that,” said Baffert, who will saddle favored Point Given and second-choice Congaree, when asked about alternative therapies. “When they start getting sore or something … if ice doesn’t work, I usually ‘blister’ them (treating the injured area with a substance that inflames the tissue and thereby promotes blood flow and stimulates healing) and turn them out (for rest and recuperation).”

A tour of the backstretch of almost any track in America will quickly uncover similarly divided opinions.

True believers who say they have seen remarkable results from the therapies.

“People may say, ‘No, it’s just hogwash,’ but (once) you use it and see the results, it will make a believer out of anyone,” trainer Louis Albertrani said of the acupuncture and magnetic treatments that his horses regularly receive. Among the horses that benefited from the program, which he said enables the equine athletes to train more efficiently by allowing them to conserve energy while at the same time forestalling injuries, was Artax, the champion sprinter of 1999.

Advocates of “complementary therapies” — their preferred term because it indicates that their specialties are best used in addition to traditional equine medicine, not as a replacement — also contend that the treatments improve a horse’s mental outlook.

Chris Macri, who works with Dianne Volz, uses a Chi Infrasound device on Devilish Erika. The device, which was only recently imported to the United States after being developed in China, is designed to stimulate the production of "alpha waves," which are naturally produced by the brain to induce sleep.

“In the wild, horses move 20 miles a day and they’re moving all the time … and we put them in a stall where they don’t see each other and they train for maybe 20 minutes a day,” said Dianne Volz, an equine therapist who uses “modalities” such as ultrasound, photon or laser therapy, electric muscle stimulation and a new infrasound device that emits low frequency “alpha waves” in an attempt to calm her four-footed patients. “So if we can … help them to relax and feel better and enjoy themselves about what they do, that’s a good part of the job too.”

TREATMENT FOR DERBY HORSES

Volz said at least five of the 19 horses who competed in last year’s Kentucky Derby were receiving such therapy in the weeks and days preceding the race, though she declined to identify them, citing the equine version of doctor-patient confidentiality. Four horses headed for Saturday’s 127th Derby also are regular patients, she said, while not revealing their identities.

Acupuncture, which also is used for relaxation, has the added benefit of allowing early detection of physical problems, often before there is any outward manifestation, according to Meredith Snader, co-author of “Alternative Therapies: Healing Your Horse.”

“A lot of the things I pick up aren’t evident — they’re not limping, there’s no heat, there’s no swelling, but there’s a start of pain and the horses are letting me know this and then I in turn let the trainers know this,” said Snader, who has poked such thoroughbred greats as Holy Bull, Unbridled’s Song, Skip Away, Bet Twice, Buck’s Boy and others since abandoning her veterinary practice 20 years ago to devote herself full time to equine acupuncture and chiropractics. In those early days, she recalls, she was frequently derided as “voodoo doctor” and “needle woman” — terms she very rarely hears anymore.

Advocates of herbal therapies for horses also say that in some circumstances the natural products can be used in place of drugs, though all but the most ardent believers caution that it’s unwise to eliminate all drugs and use only herbal products.

Patti Duffy-Salmon, who sells herbal products and neutraceuticals — dietary supplements offered for the prevention or treatment of disease — on her Meadowsweet Farms Web site, offered as an example herbal treatments aimed at relieving pain from chronic problems like arthritis and joint problems.

“The only alternative they (veterinarians) have are hock injections, steroids and ‘bute’ (the aspirin-like drug phenylbutazone), which are going to trash their liver,” she said. “So turning to a buteless-type (herbal) product is very popular. They seem to be very helpful and they’re also very safe.”

MANY VETERINARIANS ARE ACCEPTING

Veterinary professionals on the whole seem much more accepting of such practices than their counterparts in human medicine. A survey several years ago by the American Association of Equine Practitioners found that half of the organization’s members either practiced alternative therapies themselves or referred clients to others who do.

“I think they’ve been a lot more open-minded (than the human medical establishment) and have not accepted dogma as truth,” said Douglas Kalman, the director of nutrition for Miami Research Associates. “… I think it’s a beautiful co-existence.”

But there are still plenty of skeptics out there who shudder at such talk.

“I think the whole idea that there’s such a thing as alternative medicine is kind of silly,” said David Ramey, a Glendale, Calif., veterinarian and author of “The Consumer’s Guide to Alternative Therapies in the Horse.” “… Nobody talks about fields like alternative airplane engineering. You know you’ve got to follow the rules or an airplane doesn’t go up and doesn’t come down safely.”

‘MODERN HEYDAY OF QUACKERY’

While taking issue with acupuncture and chiropractics, Ramey reserves his most stinging indictment for the herbalists.

“I firmly believe we’re in the modern heyday of quackery right now,” he said. “… In the 1850s, the term ‘horse doctor’ was an insult because it meant somebody who just came up with a bunch of nostrums and snake oil and sold whatever it was that they could get their hands on to people who were well intentioned and trying to help horses.”

The skeptical camp also points to a review of research into the effects of equine acupuncture undertaken in 1998 by an AAEP committee, which reviewed nearly 90 studies on the subject published in medical journals. In examining the studies, an interesting trend emerged, said Nat T. Messer, an associate professor of equine medicine and surgery at the University of Missouri, who chaired the committee.

“We found that … there were (only) 11 well-designed studies that fit the criteria for a good scientific study, and of those 11 studies, the results were equivocal as to whether there was any effectiveness from acupuncture. …As you got into the less scientifically sound studies, the favorability rating went up. In other words, the worse the study, the more favorable it was toward acupuncture.”

Messer said the panel also attempted to review research on equine chiropractics, but determined there were not enough studies to arrive at any certainty about the effectiveness of such spine manipulation.

MORE RESEARCH NEEDED

Wayne McIlwraith, president of the AAEP and the director of equine Orthopaedic Research at Colorado State University, said both reviews highlight the need for quality research into alternative therapies.

“AAEP’s position on it is we need to have more scientific proof, and that’s why we’ve called for applications for alternative-therapy research grants and have funded projects looking at various modalities,” he said, adding that he expects such research to finally lend scientific support to both acupuncture and chiropractics.

With years remaining until a statistically significant body of evidence can be assembled, the AAEP has so far confined itself to revising its guidelines for alternative therapies, altering them to state that such procedures should only be practiced by or conducted under the supervision of licensed veterinarians. The change is aimed at the burgeoning number of practitioners with only specialty “degrees,” sometimes earned by simply attending a class for a few days or weeks.

“It’s not so much the use of complementary therapies, but there are a lot of people who are not veterinarians doing it and so we lose control of the welfare of the horse, which is a concern,” McIlwraith said.