Data-Driven Innovation Transforms Global Racehorse Welfare
AI AND EVIDENCE UNITE FOR SAFER RACING
As Asian racing jurisdictions expand and modernise, the integration of cutting-edge veterinary science with traditional horsemanship has become essential to ensuring both equine welfare and competitive excellence. From AI-powered lameness-detection systems to comprehensive injury-surveillance databases, the region's racing authorities are pioneering approaches that balance technological innovation with evidence-based veterinary care. This transformation is particularly evident in the work of researchers like Dr. Yuji Takashi, whose groundbreaking studies on jockey safety, exercise physiology, and respiratory health have helped shape modern racing protocols across multiple jurisdictions.
This feature explores veterinary practices, pre-race screening protocols, and injury-prevention technologies being implemented across Asian racing jurisdictions. Through thermal imaging systems, biomechanical monitoring, and sophisticated data analytics, racing authorities are establishing infrastructure that prioritises horse welfare while maintaining competitive standards.
Dr.Takashi's research at the Japan Racing Association's Equine Research Institute exemplifies how rigorous epidemiological studies, combined with emerging technologies, can create frameworks adaptable to racing nations at various stages of development, from those with extensive resources to jurisdictions transitioning from traditional methods to evidence-based practices. The following interview reveals how welfare standards and technological advancements are becoming integral to racing infrastructure development across the region, offering insights that extend far beyond Asian borders.
Your research on jockey falls identified catastrophic musculoskeletal injury as having a 203-fold increased odds ratio for falls. What innovative pre-race screening technologies or data analytics systems could help in predicting and preventing these injuries before horses enter races?
Our research clearly demonstrated that preventing racehorse’s musculoskeletal injury is essential for improving equine welfare as well as jockey safety. There are several approaches to addressing this issue, including high-resolution diagnostic imaging, comprehensive physical examinations, and AI-based lameness-detection before races. While I believe that race-eligibility decisions must be made by humans, rather than devices or algorithms, such technologies certainly support and improve the decision-making. Thanks to wearable sensors that have been commercially available for about 15 years, our understanding of equine gait has improved a lot. These devices provide far better resolution than the human eye, enabling the detection of subtle lameness that may go unnoticed by clinicians. Further, objective diagnosis of lameness has become possible and has been useful for consistently sharing information on gait characteristics.
Recent overseas studies further suggest that wearable sensor data combined with AI-driven algorithms may help identify horses at high risk of catastrophic injury during galloping—an assessment that has traditionally been challenging for veterinarians to make accurately during asymmetric gait. I personally believe that devices capable of longitudinal monitoring of gait characteristics offer a promising pathway to reducing the incidence of serious injuries. Equine lameness is context-dependent; effective evaluation requires consideration of multiple factors, including medical history and individual gait habits, and cannot rely solely on a single time-point measurement. Continuous monitoring and sharing of longitudinal gait changes within a veterinary or stable team could contribute to early detection and prevention of severe injuries.
Furthermore, relying on the data from a single racing jurisdiction is unlikely to be sufficient, as racing surfaces, training practices, and management systems vary considerably around the world. Collecting and integrating gait-related injury data across as many jurisdictions as possible would greatly strengthen predictive models. Developing such a system would be an ideal long-term goal.
How can the extensive JRA database tracking body weight fluctuations and seasonal metabolic patterns be leveraged through AI and machine learning to create personalised training protocols? What infrastructure would racecourses or stables need to implement similar data-driven welfare systems?
AI and machine learning could significantly impact on how we care for horses in our daily work. As you mentioned, they may enable personalised training protocols in the future. Large datasets, such as JRA’s long-term records of body weight fluctuations and seasonal metabolic patterns, could be used to train algorithms that could identify each horse’s typical physiological profile, detect early deviations from its usual pattern, and support the development of personalised training protocols and conditioning plans. These devices are becoming widely available and easy for anyone to use. Although they can detect what humans cannot, their accuracy must be rigorously validated through high-quality research. Additionally, establishing infrastructure that allows stakeholders to share information on horses easily will be essential.
Your epistaxis research analysed nearly one million race starts over 20 years. What technological innovations in real-time respiratory monitoring or post-race diagnostic tools could help smaller jurisdictions achieve similar comprehensive tracking without the same resources?
The most important step is establishing a reliable system for recording outcomes like catastrophic injury, epistaxis, and collapse, etc., and integrating them with race-level and horse-level information. Our epistaxis research is based on classical epidemiology, which remains one of the most powerful tools for understanding long-term trends in racing and for informing decisions about whether certain interventions, such as maintenance of the racing surface, are needed. I believe that establishing a system for accurately recording information is just as important as developing and/or using cutting-edge devices. Concerning epistaxis, a portable and lightweight post-race endoscopy system might contribute to a more accurate and consistent record.
In short, developing an accurate recording system is just as critical as adopting cutting-edge technologies, and combining both approaches can elevate surveillance capacity even in resource-limited environments.
Given your work on exercise physiology and hypoxia training, what cutting-edge veterinary technologies are emerging in Japan for optimising racehorse performance while maintaining welfare standards that could be adapted for varying climatic conditions across the world?
To be honest, it is difficult for me to highlight a single ‘cutting-edge’ technology in Japan. We try to provide evidence-based veterinary care that contributes to equine welfare worldwide. With regard to climate conditions, one of our sports science divisions is now investigating the effect of heat acclimation on exercise performance. Global warming has been a major global concern, and racehorses are transported to hotter climates for races. Sharing our findings with horse trainers or clinicians through seminars or meetings can help prevent heat illness, thereby improving horse welfare and maximising performance.
How can risk factor analysis methodologies from your jockey safety research be applied to develop standardised veterinary assessment protocols that ARF member nations could use regardless of their current technological capabilities?
Our epidemiological research identified several important risk factors and provided in-sights into how race meetings can be operated to enhance jockey safety during races. This was a classical epidemiological approach that relies primarily on structured data collection rather than advanced technology. It can be adapted to countries regardless of their ‘technological’ capabilities. Integrating data from multiple racing jurisdictions will allow us to improve racing operations further.
However, while epidemiological risk factors provide a valuable foundation, they are unlikely to be sufficient for creating a ‘standardised veterinary assessment protocol’. Identifying additional variables, including management-level data, and gait characteristics might be necessary.
What collaborative research frameworks between JRA's Equine Research Institute and Asian racing authorities could accelerate the transfer of veterinary innovations in sports science, particularly for jurisdictions transitioning from traditional methods to evidence-based practices?
Showing what each racing jurisdiction has achieved, including results from surveillance, epidemiology, and related research through international conferences or meetings, is a priority. Building connections is essential, and finding a research topic where we can leverage each other’s strengths would be ideal.
As racing continues to expand across Asia and beyond, the principles articulated here become increasingly relevant. Whether a jurisdiction possesses cutting-edge wearable sensors or relies on meticulous manual documentation, the foundation remains consistent: accurate data collection, evidence-based decision-making, and collaborative knowledge-sharing across borders.
The future of equine welfare in racing lies not in any single technological breakthrough, but in the thoughtful integration of innovation with proven methodologies, always guided by the expertise of veterinary professionals who understand that each horse's well-being depends on comprehensive, contextualised care.
Dr. Takashi's work reminds us that advancing horse welfare and racing safety is an ongoing commitment, one that requires both the vision to embrace new technologies and the wisdom to maintain the rigorous standards that protect the animals at the heart of the sport.