Few topics in racing concentrate stakeholder attention as sharply as the cardiac health of the Thoroughbred athlete. Sudden death on the racecourse is rare, but its impact — on owners, trainers, regulators, and on the public's perception of the sport — is disproportionately large. Behind those visible events lies a much wider population of horses whose cardiac function during work may be signalling something, well before any catastrophic outcome.

This issue brings together two articles that look at this terrain from opposite ends.

Dr Emmanuelle van Erck-Westergren addresses the prospective end of the same problem. Her recently published research uses wearable ECG technology to record cardiac rhythm during routine training in more than 70 Thoroughbreds at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. The findings show that exercise-associated arrhythmias are common, that their burden is meaningfully linked to subsequent race performance, and — crucially — that the most clinically informative window is the brief period of peak effort during a training gallop. The implication is direct: a tool now exists to identify horses whose hearts are signalling something during work, before they reach the start gate.

Dr Celia Marr reports on the work of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities' Fatality Taskforce and its dedicated group on exercise-associated sudden death. Her article sets out what is now understood about the pathology of EASD — the role of fatal pulmonary haemorrhage, the difficulty of attributing causes even with detailed post-mortem data, and the urgent need for higher and more consistent necropsy standards across jurisdictions. It is a forensic argument: better data after the fact, leading to better understanding and, in time, better prevention.

Read together, the two articles describe the same problem at different points in time: one looking back from the necropsy table, the other looking forward from the morning gallop. Both make the case that cardiac welfare in the racing Thoroughbred is now a domain in which active, evidence-based intervention is increasingly possible — and increasingly expected.

Although these statistics show EASD is a rare event, it is essential that racing faces the challenge of reducing the death toll and, in recent years, progress towards this has been made in various jurisdictions, in part co-ordinated in part by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities’ Fatality Taskforce. Within this group, the EASD team have focussed mainly on improving standards and availability of post-mortem examination, aiming to generate a better understanding of why EASD occurs and to support research towards this goal.

With wormer resistance increasing and no new products expected soon, targeted parasite control is now essential for all horses.

This approach combines risk assessment, diagnostic testing, and paddock management to reduce infection levels and ensure only those horses that need treatment are wormed. This article outlines practical strategies for sustainable worm control in horses in training.

Harnessing Tech to Enhance Equine Safety and Performance.

In May 2025, Britain became the first horseracing jurisdiction to permit the use of equine heart monitors on the racecourse as part of a pilot scheme to test technology under race conditions.

Roaring in horses is not just a loud, rasping noise made during exercise; it is a disorder of the upper airway that restricts airflow and can limit performance in large breeds such as Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds and warmbloods.

Ontario Veterinary College Associate Professor of Large Animal Surgery, Taralyn McCarrel, is seeking to develop a surgical procedure that could revolutionise treatment following tie-back surgery, offering new hope for affected horses.

ISSUE 90 – JULY-SEPTEMER 2025

ISSUE 90 – JULY-SEPTEMER 2025