Injury is an unavoidable part of life and the ability to repair is one of the most vital characteristics of any living organism continually exposed to environmental harm. Regardless of the cause the body immediately attempts to restore tissue continuity.

Being prey animals as well as finely tuned athletes, Thoroughbreds can experience a wide range of injuries throughout their lives.The three main goals of healing are: to restore tissue continuity with the best possible quality of tissue, to do so in the shortest safest time and to prevent recurrence or breakdown of the repair.

The incidence of serious fractures in horses racing on the flat is low (around one case every one to two thousand starters); but when fractures occur the consequences are often severe for the horse and, sometimes, the jockey. Both the severity and the dramatic nature of these injuries cause a significant negative impact to everyone connected with the horse, as well as spectators. 

The International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) convened the Global Summit on Equine Safety and Technology at Woodbine Racecourse, Toronto, in June 2024, to focus on how current research into causes of racehorse fatalities on the course, including fractures, can be advanced and translated into action, to better understand the factors leading to fatalities and potentially mitigate them.

At the meeting there were two workshops where specialist veterinary clinicians, pathologists and researchers came together to focus on Exercise Associated Sudden Death incidents and fractures.

All horses are exposed to parasitic worms at some point in their lives. It is not possible to eradicate all worms from all horses, nor completely avoid the risk of worm-associated disease, so some level of parasite control is necessary in any environment where horses are kept.  

Traditionally, regular all-group wormer (anthelmintic) treatments were used to control these parasites, regardless of the management conditions. Increasing reports of wormer resistance over the last two decades [1] indicate this is no longer sustainable and will only act to worsen the situation, especially as no new wormers are coming to market any time soon. It is essential to take an approach that safeguards the effectiveness of anthelmintics.

As common equine worms are spread via grass (Fig. 1), and horses in training do not routinely graze for significant periods (so are at lower risk of infection), they represent ideal candidates for diagnostic-led programes.  

WORDS: ALICIA HUGHES

The words come easily and in uninterrupted batches, forming detail-laden sentences delivered with a genuine timbre. They go on for minutes at a time, not because the orator is indulging in a stream of consciousness but rather, when Brook T. Smith is asked to speak on topics that have hit the marrow of his soul, he isn’t going to skimp on the breadth and depth of their context.

Don’t ask the Louisville, KY native and serial entrepreneur how he got into Thoroughbred racing if you don’t have, at minimum, a 15-minute chunk of time at the ready, lest you miss the key intangibles of how he went from cheering on whatever Kentucky Derby (Gr.1) contender’s name he picked from a bowl during his family’s annual rite, to being enthralled after a horse part-owned by his roommate’s father won a graded stakes at Churchill Downs, to taking every half bottle of champagne he could find in his hotel’s minibar into the hot tub after the colt who ignited his current fantastical reality triumphed in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic (Gr.1).

THE PUMA

OGMA Investments (led by Gustavo Delgado Jr.), High Step Racing (Randall Guy, Joe Noble, Kevin Avera, Jim Ferreira and Todd Perry) and JR Ranch (Ramiro Restrepo, Jose and Rita Aguirre)

Back in 2015, Ramiro Restrepo, then working for Fasig-Tipton as a sort of South American ambassador, met Venezuelan trainer Gustavo Delgado Sr. at Keeneland. He said, "Let's start working with each other. I'll own an interest in some of the horses, and you bring people to come in and be partners," Restrepo said. "Then, I owned pieces of some of those horses."

With their home-bred Chief Wallabee stepping into the pre-Kentucky Derby spotlight, Mike and Katherine "K.K." Ball are in unfamiliar territory. "We're not used to this much hype," Katherine said.

Mike and Katherine Ball have spent decades racing and breeding Thoroughbreds in Kentucky without getting as much of a whiff of the Kentucky Derby. Both spent more than a decade training their horses.

"As long as we've been in the business, it's our first Derby," Katherine said. "We are enjoying every minute of it."

The pursuit of genetic perfection no longer ends with traditional selection. Alongside meticulously planned breeding programs and increasingly sophisticated genomic profiling, a new and controversial possibility is quietly gaining ground—gene doping. The idea of altering a thoroughbred's gene expression to enhance muscle power, endurance, or cellular recovery is both compelling and profoundly unsettling.

In experimental research, these tools are already being tested using animal models and although no official cases have been reported in racing so far, the specter of their potential use is growing increasingly real. The discourse around gene doping and gene therapy more broadly, is emerging with greater urgency, raising complex ethical, technical, and regulatory questions.

Are there any racing regulations you'd like to see changed, and if so, why?

HOW FEWER HORSES & SHARPER FOCUS PLACE HIM AMONG RACING'S ELITE

It is said that numbers tell a story. And when it comes to the yarns weaved in competitive landscapes, the Thoroughbred industry relies as heavily as any sporting realm on metrics and percentages when it comes to anointing their most successful participants.

As with most narratives, though, context is a key part of interpreting raw data. In the case of trainer Jonathan Thomas, the framing of said figures is a necessity to appreciate the full scope of his professional standing.