Racing-related factors and results of prerace physical inspection and their association with musculoskeletal injuries incurred in thoroughbreds during races.

The research article is about a study on Thoroughbred horses, comparing those that incurred musculoskeletal injuries during races with those that didn’t. The study is aimed to point out that prerace physical inspections by veterinarians can significantly predict the increased risk of injury among these horses during races.

Objective of the Study

• The study aimed to analyze and contrast data taken from Thoroughbred horses that sustained musculoskeletal injuries while racing with data from matched control horses that escaped injuries during the same races.

Research Methodology

• The study employed a matched case-control method involving 216 Thoroughbreds that sustained musculoskeletal injuries during races and a control group of 532 horses from the same races that remained uninjured.
• Information regarding each horse’s racing history, race-entrant features, racing events as confirmed by videotape analyses of the races, and results of prerace physical inspections were collected and analyzed.
• A statistical tool, conditional logistic regression, was used to compare the data of the injured horses and the control horses.

Research Findings

• The study found a significant association between the odds of incurring an injury and the results of the prerace inspection by regulatory veterinarians.
• According to the researchers, the likelihood of sustaining a musculoskeletal injury, or injury specifically to the suspensory apparatus or the superficial digital flexor muscle of the forelimb, ranged between 5.5 to 13.5 times higher among horses deemed at increased risk of injury following a prerace inspection than those not considered to be at high risk.
• Furthermore, the odds of discovering an abnormality in the suspensory ligament during prerace inspection was 3.4 times greater among horses that later injured the suspensory apparatus compared to control horses. The odds of finding an abnormality in the tendon of the superficial digital flexor muscle were 15 times greater for horses that later injured the tendon than for control horses.

Conclusions

• The findings suggested that regulatory veterinarians may identify, through prerace physical inspections, horses that pose an increased risk of injury during races.
• The researchers concluded that the use of prerace physical inspections could potentially diminish the risk of injury to Thoroughbreds during races.