HOW RACING'S INVESTMENT IN WELFARE BENEFITS ALL HORSES

Investing in equine health

Behind any top athlete is a team of dedicated professionals overseeing their health, nutrition and recovery. Racehorses are no different. From birth to retirement, British racing works hand in hand with veterinarians to ensure Thoroughbreds are healthy and when the time comes, be able to perform to their fullest potential. This is overseen by the BHA, the sport’s official regulator.

With around 20,000 racehorses in training each year, and an estimated Thoroughbred population of 74,500 – it’s no wonder that racing is the biggest funder of equine health, research, and veterinary science in Great Britain. British racing’s goal has always been to lead the way in setting the best welfare standards in the world, both on and off the racecourse.

Since 2000, £56m has been invested by the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) and the Racing Foundation, two major funders within the sport, into equine welfare projects. Over that time, crucial developments in medicines, orthopedic techniques, and the monitoring of diseases have come to fruition.

Racehorse or riding horse

But it’s not just racehorses that benefit from this investment – these discoveries benefit the overall health of the entire horse population.

Simon Knapp of Kingsclere Vets is a senior veterinary surgeon at Ascot, Kempton, Sandown and Epsom, as well as being a veterinary advisor to the Racecourse Assocation (RCA) and member of British racing’s Horse Welfare Board since its inception in 2019.

“As a practicing vet, I’ve seen first-hand the positive impact racing has had on the whole horse population. Whether it’s a Shetland pony turned out in the field or a champion like Frankel, the welfare standards and concerns should be the same. There are still too few horses vaccinated against diseases like flu, tetanus, and herpes, but the work to increase those numbers is driven by racing. As is the work to develop better worming programs for horses, which is essential for the health and wellbeing of all equines. Equally, the development of orthopedic repair and stability - in part from the HBLB’s investment into fracture boots in 2021 – which we now have available at every British racecourse.”

A vet's role on racecourse

Every British race day takes place under the careful supervision of a team of vets to ensure the welfare and wellbeing of every horse. This includes checking that they are fit to compete. A minimum of three vets are required at a racecourse for every race meeting, but many more will attend the larger fixtures. At the Randox Aintree Festival in 2024, 60 individuals including vets, farriers and horse ambulance drivers, worked around the clock ensuring the needs of every horse are covered.

A veterinary officer is responsible for routine pre and post-race checks on race day, along with pre-race trot-ups which occur at many fixtures, in which they will assess the horse’s soundness. The aim of these assessments is to help ensure that all horses are lining up in the best possible health following their journey to the racecourse, providing an additional layer of protection and further reducing the risk of avoidable injury. Following the race, veterinary officers are on hand to ensure that horses recover quickly from their efforts and return home safely. Watch how many times a racehorse is seen by a vet at a racecourse here.

British racing already examines every horse running in a Group 1 flat fixture with a mandatory trot up, and has set the ambition to extend this to every horse on race day.

Day-to-day care

While the health and wellbeing of racehorses is scrutinised on raceday in every effort to reduce avoidable risk, veterinary care for Thoroughbreds extends to the day-to-day too.

Newmarket, which stables more than 3,000 Thoroughbreds (one for every five residents), is also home to the largest equine clinical facility in Europe. The Newmarket Equine Hospital (NEH) is home to over 46 veterinary surgeons supported by a wider team, providing cutting edge treatment including a dedicated ICU, an advanced imagining suite including MRI, radiography suites and scintigraphy.

Horses across the country, whether racehorses, other breeds competing in equestrian disciplines, or simply companion ‘happy hacking’ horses, will be referred to the Newmarket Equine Hospital for their clinical expertise and facilities. The NEH is just one of many veterinary practices across Britain with specialist facilities for Thoroughbreds that benefits all horses in Britain.

The future

British racing is committed to continuously improving the health and welfare of racehorses, and much work is ongoing to drive progress forward including investments into research, clinical studies and new technologies.

In 2022, investments were made to enable every veterinary officer on race day to carry a cutting-edge digitally enhanced stethoscope. These devices not only allow racing vets to hear and assess a horse’s heart more clearly in real-time, but also to store and upload the recording onto the Cloud. This enables the on-course team to share specific data with expert clinicians, and to connect AI tools for enhanced monitoring and diagnoses.

In 2024, racing embarked on a year-long trial to harness the power of AI technology to enhance the existing pre-race trot up and veterinary examination process. “Sleip” motion analysis offers a simple way of tracking points on a horse's moving body using a smartphone and providing stride-by-stride analysis - helping to detect any asymmetries in a horse's gait.

Furthermore, in its efforts to continuously reduce unavoidable risk, the Horse Welfare Board established a collaboration between racing and the esteemed Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in 2023. The partnership brings together RVC’s experienced academic researchers and racing industry experts to further understand the factors associated with injury in racehorses and allow for the development of scientifically-informed, data-driven strategies to improve racehorse safety and welfare, both on and off the track.

Additionally, in the field of research, British racing via the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) has funded seven major veterinary science projects since April 2022 – all with benefits for the wider horse population. Projects include the development of an early warning system for sudden cardiac incidents in horses, harnessing deep learning methods for improved fracture detection in Thoroughbreds, and crucially, the urgent development of a safe and effective vaccine for African horse sickness, a highly contagious, fatal disease.

Read more about the HBLB’s Equine Veterinary Research Projects here.

Racing and its veterinarians will never stand still in improving welfare standards. To follow this topic, and other progress made in improving welfare standards in British racing, bookmark www.horsepwr.co.uk.