There are many stories of horses improving after adding Lasix, but not too often do you hear about horses racing better after coming off

the bleeder medication.

Don't tell that to Glenn Lalonde, whose star pacing mare Four Starzz Meliss has racked up three wins and five top-three finishes in five starts since racing without Lasix. The recent form of the tough Cambest mare, now nine and still racing competitively with some of the best pacing mares in harness racing, has garnered her 5-2 second choice status in the morning line for Friday night's $38,000 Fillies & Mares Open Pace at Woodbine Racetrack behind last week's winner, Voelz Hanover.

"It was always that if you had a horse that bled a little bit you would put them on Lasix," Lalonde said in a Race Night interview on Monday night, "but recently in the last couple of years, Lasix seems to be so hard on them with their coats of hair and dehydration. I had no other choice but to take her off. I prayed and she's been racing good."

Owned by Jenny Lalonde with John Nother, Four Starzz Meliss has banked over $922,000 in her career and could reach the million dollar milestone in 2010. With that in mind, there are no plans to send 'Meliss' to the breeding shed anytime soon.

"Probably when she's not competitive anymore," said Lalonde after being asked when his mare would stop racing for a life of retirement. "She's meant a lot to us, both John and myself and my wife. It's quite a thrill to have a good horse like that and I think she'll be with us for quite some time."