A silver lining to wet tracks?

[Catalano 951]

International co-operation will likely be needed for researchers to fully explain why New Zealand racehorses have a lower risk of injury than in other countries.

The recently published study, from Massey University’s Equine Research Centre, examined New Zealand race records and reports over six racing seasons between 2005 and 2011.

During this time there were 188,616 race starts for 16,646 individual horses, with only 177 horses failing to complete a race for health-related reasons.

Musculoskeletal injuries on race-day, which include fractures, tendon and ligament injuries, lameness and soft tissue injuries, accounted for the majority (77 per cent) of these non-completions, occurring at a rate of 0.72 injuries per 1000 starts.

When these numbers are compared to other racing jurisdictions worldwide, the rate is significantly lower, with recent work from the United Kingdom showing a race-day musculoskeletal injuries of 2.1 injuries per 1000 starts and research in Kentucky in the United States reporting a rate of 4.1 injuries per 1000 starts. Cardiac and respiratory events accounted for the further 23 per cent of non-completions.

“While we can speculate that the lower rate of musculoskeletal injuries may be due to the management and training of horses in New Zealand, the research requires further information about the horses’ training to make these connections or to establish other factors,” says Massey’s Dr Charlotte Bolwell.

Establishing a direct link between management and training of horses in New Zealand and the rates of injury during racing will require more work, but the numbers show that such a study is needed to protect animal welfare by further understanding what causes injuries to be lower or higher.

“For this further work to be truly effective, it will need to involve the cooperation of international bodies so that regional similarities and differences can be measured across all racing jurisdictions.”

Some early risk factors identified showed the condition of the track and the length of the race had an effect on non-completion, with tracks that were described as ‘dead’ or ‘slow’ showing less incidence of musculoskeletal injuries, as well as races less than 1200 metres.

The research team included Massey University’s Associate Professor Chris Rogers, Dr Erica Gee; and Colorado State University’s Professor Wayne McIlwraith.

The findings were reported in the open-access journal Animals.

Read more at https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2017/09/27/international-explain-lower-injury-rates-nz-racehorses/#uzWwhOLolRfrH6E8.99

[Guest 2Admin2]

Would be interesting to see data for the last 6 years.  

[Midget 4,489]

Interesting study though, I know McIlwraith and he's a serious academic, and a very good surgeon.

The obvious questions that need to be answered would be whether we're actually recognizing injuries ( the stipes that is ) and recording them properly, and the relationship between say AW / artificial tracks and shearing injuries, as you see so often in North America.

[Catalano 951]

To put an Occam's razorish slant on it, I would guess that the average race distance in the UK is longer, and also the average weight carried would be heavier - running further with a heavier weight has to cause more injuries doesn't it? Probably doesn't explain Kentucky however...

[Patiti 274]

Some old timers used to say it was the limestone that made for tougher horses.

[Berri 2,131]

The really interesting research would be whether track injuries have increased/ decreased/ stayed the same on the introduction of irrigation systems into New Zealand and the directive that track surfaces should be at least rated 4 for racing. It would also be interesting to see whether the number of starts per horse has increased/ decreased/ stayed the same time. Add to the bucket would be the average racing distance.

If I was thorough, then I would be looking at records relating to bone density because there may be some correlations between soundness (general) and bone density. We do breed good tough horses here in NZ. Of interest would also be the type of stallions/ mares we are bringing into the country. Genetics and physical differences could play an important role in soundness so this would also need to be brought into the mix.