Breeders' Awards and the Gambler's Corner Solution

2004

This study estimates the price determinants of show quality Quarter Horses sold at auction. Several characteristics including genetic and physical traits, the quality of pedigree, and the sale order affect price. Sale price is positively affected by a strong performance record of the horse as well as the performance record of the horse's offspring. A common practice at horse auctions

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2008

Objective—To characterize lameness during training and compare exercise variables and financial returns among yearling Thoroughbreds that were bought for the purpose of resale for profit. Animals—40 yearling Thoroughbreds. Design—Prospective study. Procedures—Horses purchased at yearling sales (summer 2004) were trained prior to resale at 2-year-olds in training sales (spring 2005). Horses were monitored daily for diagnosis and treatment of lameness during training. Selected variables, including sex, age, purchase price, lameness, distance (No. of furlongs) galloped during training, and financial returns, were compared among horses that had performance speeds (assessed at 2-year-olds in training sales) classified as fast, average, or slow. Results—37 of 40 horses became lame during training, most commonly because of joint injury. Eighteen of the lame horses had hind limb injuries only; 5 horses had injuries in forelimbs and hind limbs. The frequency of new cases of lameness increase...

Pferdeheilkunde Equine Medicine, 2015

Globally, the thoroughbred breeding and racing industry is reporting a declining trend. A report commissioned by the Jockey Club in the US, known as the McKinsey report, explicitly linked the public’s concern with animal welfare and the use of drugs to declining betting and attendance in the US. In various racing nations in Europe, in Australia and the US, thoroughbred racing is experiencing pressures from external sources and from within, with even industry participants calling for change. The industry is concerned with the integrity of racing. Structural changes, regulation and transparency in reporting are all issues identified in need of improvement in some racing nations. These are important issues and potentially contribute to better welfare outcomes. However, they do not address the principal question emerging from evolving social norms and values of whether thoroughbred racing is ethically justifiable, and if so, how it can be conducted so that it is socially acceptable. To address the declining trend, the McKinsey report framed the suggested strategies around the concept of sustainable growth and thus adopted the rhetoric of sustainable development. The research in this paper takes up the theme of sustainability and applies it to the thoroughbred industry. Elsewhere it has been shown that a focus on growth, as in the sustainable development model, is at the root of unsustainability. Therefore, it is argued in this research that an ecologically oriented sustainability framework is better suited to fully address the ethical and welfare issues in the industry. In this study, it is assumed that society, for the time being, accepts thoroughbred breeding and racing. Under this assumption, the concept of ecological sustainability is applied as a methodological tool by using it as a language system to investigate ethical and welfare issues in the thoroughbred industry. The following recommendations emerge from this research: There is the need for the industry to engage with issues of normativity and to develop alternative models of what constitutes success beyond winning a race. There is also need to advance knowledge production to better understand and respect the experience of thoroughbreds and thoroughbred knowledge systems, determinants of how to remain within the natural physical and emotional limits of the horse, the limits of human uses of horses, and how to promote the flourishing of horse and human-horse relationships in this industry. Engagement with these matters can better address issues of (un)sustainability and move the industry from an economically driven business and management model to a welfare driven model. The discussion of what constitutes a sustainable horseracing industry is inevitable. The question of the continuation of the use of thoroughbreds requires social negotiations in the interest of social sustainability. This is an ongoing dialogue as society’s ethics and values evolve. It would appear that the thoroughbred industry can expect to greatly benefit from proactively engaging with this process.

Agribusiness, 2001

Thoroughbred broodmares are the primary input in the foal production process. Breeders need to make informed broodmare investment decisions, since substantial financial and genetic risks are associated with overvaluing a broodmare's productive capacity. Each broodmare represents a unique combination of breeding, racing, and genetic characteristics. This study estimates the marginal values of broodmare characteristics. Results identify large price differentials for broodmares that have won or produced graded stakes race winners. The analysis provides information for marketing, accounting and management decisions. [EconLit Citation: Q130].

This study of Arabian horses in Turkey evaluates factors that may affect the possibility of having earnings during the first year of horses’ racing careers. A total of 2046 Arabian horses were included in the study population; 1020 Arabian horses (49.85%) did not earn any money during their first year of racing. To explore the shared characteristics of those that had earnings, a retrospective study was done with racing records of Arabian horses that were born between 2008 and 2011. The factors were ownership status, sex, age at rst race, type of stud farm, and racing on one or both possible types of track surface. Logistic regression was used to evaluate which of these factors may have had a significant effect on first-year earnings. Results showed that horses that started their racing careers early (≤3.5 years of age) and raced on both track surface types (turf and dirt) had significantly increased odds of earning money during their first year of racing.

Animals

As society debates the use of animals in sport, entertainment, and leisure, there is an increasing focus on the welfare, social, and ecological impacts of such activities on the animals, human participants, people close to them, and the physical environment. This article introduces the “Enhanced One Welfare Framework” to reveal significant costs and benefits associated with Thoroughbred breeding and racing globally. In addition, relative to calls to ban horseracing and similar activities as part of sustainability approaches that focus chiefly on animals, the “Enhanced One Welfare Framework” is better positioned politically to guide discussions that renegotiate the conditions under which horses are used for sport and the impact racing has on humans and the planet. In 2020, the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities issued its minimum horse welfare standards based on the Five Domains model, positioning lifelong horse welfare as “fundamentally important to the viability an...

… of Agricultural and …, 2006

This study estimates the price determinants of show quality quarter horses sold at auction. Several characteristics including genetic and physical traits, quality of pedigree, and performance record of the horse, as well as the horse's offspring, were found to significantly impact selling price. Sale order positively affected price and appears to be driven by buyers rather than intentional ordering of the horses. A common practice at horse auctions is for the seller to reject the final bid offered and buy back the horse. Model-predicted prices for these buy-back horses indicate they are not undervalued by the final bids, based on their characteristics.

The Introduction to this book, a collection of peer reviewed chapters by 56 researchers across Europe. This Introduction provides an overview of the book and a definition of the New Equine Economy in the 21st Century. more info on the book can be found here: http://www.wageningenacademic.com/eaap136

Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia, 2014

This survey, conducted with 461 racehorse owners-breeders in Algeria between 2009 and 2011, investigates their perceptions, objectives and practices regarding selective breeding. Racehorse breeding is a full-time professional activity for a third of interviewees. The holdings are small-sized with 77% owning one or two mares. The regular practice of mating is here used to categorize breeders according to their degree of professionalization (38.4% professional vs. 61.6% occasional breeders). Experience in the sector was also used to classify breeders, considering as "junior" the breeders under 10 years experience (38.8%) and as "senior" those above 10 years (61.2%). More than professionalization, experience shows a significant impact on practices and objectives. Thus, experience influences breed choice (junior breeders tend to specialize while senior own both Arabian and Thoroughbreds), age at first foaling (sooner among senior breeders), information sources considered for selecting stallions (senior use more diversified sources), the importance granted to the price of mating (greater for junior breeders), the importance granted to the ranking compared to earnings (the ranking being more important to junior breeders), and the priority given to breeding (junior breeders give higher priority to a buy-race-resell activity). Finally, racehorse breeding is poorly professionalized, the only financial goal being cost coverage. Despite inappropriate practices, an interest for selection is noticed.

Equine Veterinary Journal, 2010

There is no consensus on objective outcome measures that can be used to determine if a medical or surgical treatment affects race performance. Objective: To determine the association between 2 commonly used outcome measures (total starts and total earnings) and age, sex, gait and race surface. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed using the race performance data for all Thoroughbred horses age 2, 3, 4 and 5 years racing in the United States, and Standardbred horses of the same ages racing in the United States and Canada during the year 2006. Median earnings and starts were determined for each combination of age, sex and track surface (for Thoroughbred) or gait (for Standardbred). The effect these variables had on starts on race earnings ($) was determined using linear regression.