European Trainer - October to December 2020 - issue 71

ISSUE 71 – October-December 2020 £6.95 www.trainermagazine.com

THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FOR THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE THOROUGHBRED

What’s next for the 31-year-old Classic-winning trainer?

NICOLÒ

SIMONDI

EUROPEAN TRAINERS’ FEDERATIO AIMS and OBJECTIVES of the ETF:

a) To represent the interests of all member trainers’ associations in Europe. b) To liaise with political and administrative bodies on behalf of European trainers. c) To exchange information between members for the benefit of European trainers. d) To provide a network of contacts to assist each member to develop its policy and services to member trainers.

PRIZE MONEY

Will prize money ever return to pre-COVID-19 levels?

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

How anti-doping rules leave trainers at risk

YEARLING ROLLERS ETF REPRESENTATIVES

Chairmanship: A new design reduces performance inhibiting spinal pressure under rollers Guy Heymans (Belgium) Tel: +32 (0) 495 389 140 Email: heymans1@telenet.be

Vice Chairmanship:

Nicolas Clément (France) Tel: +33 (0)3 44 57 25 39 Fax: +33 (0)3 44 57 58 85 Email: entraineurs.de.galop@wanadoo.fr

Vice Chairmanship:

Christian von der Recke (Germany) Tel: +49 (022 54) 84 53 14 Fax: +49 (022 54) 84 53 15 Email: recke@t-online.de

Treasureship:

Michael Grassick (Ireland) Tel: +353 (0)45 522 981 Mobile: +353 (0)87 258 87 70 Fax: +353 (0)45 522 982 Email: office@irta.ie

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| OPINION |

GILES ANDERSON PUBLISHER’S OPINION

Before we know it, we are into the last quarter of the year.

What a year it has been. Who would ever have thought at the start of the year that our world would change so drastically?

But we need to be thankful that across Europe, racing is still being run, horses are still in training and most importantly, owners are still investing in future prospects.

I’ve said it before, but the cost of keeping horses in training only ever increases; yet the year on year real time prize money returns simply decrease.

In this issue we focus on the prize money situation across Europe, taking a snapshot of what prize money was like (at today’s exchange rates) for graded flat pattern races over the past twenty years and assessing the value of 2yo races (to the winner) during the months of August and September. Our tables exclude both pattern and sales races and makes for some interesting reading.

Who would have guessed that races in Italy (this past September) would give owners the highest average prize for coming first?

Our cover profile in this issue is on a young trainer, Nicolò Simondi who enjoyed his first Classic success this summer when his Night Of Thunder filly, Auyantepui, won the Gp2 Oaks d’Italia at San Siro. The filly has since been relocated to France, perhaps in search of more lucrative opportunities.

But for Simondi, this is an important first Classic success.

Over recent years, Italian racing has come in for much criticism about the time it takes for prize money to be paid to connections. Simondi feels that whilst the payment of money is important - certainly for the cash flow of both owners and trainers - much more work needs to be done to recruit new owners to the sport.

“I think that the Australians are a good example. Their syndicates are the best way to get new owners involved in the game. We have three problems to solve here in Italy to follow their path. When you ask a person to buy a share in a horse, you have to tick all boxes. The people you want to involve in a syndicate need to be 100% guaranteed. The next step is also tied to the public image of racing. If you don’t have a nice racecourse with plenty of entertainment, you can’t have racegoers; and with no racegoers, you can’t sell shares to future owners. The third step is about the trainer’s job. I think that a trainer needs to stay around his horses. The Australians have some PR specialists in charge to run the syndicate properly. The syndication model is the right way; we have to address this as a goal for the future”.

Simondi’s thoughts will resonate with many across Europe and as we think ahead to 2021, it’s imperative that the industry innovates both the ownership experience and prize money sources. They go hand in hand for a successful and progressive industry.

Wherever your racing takes you this autumn - good luck!

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ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| CONTENTS |

R EGUL A R S

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04 Contributors 06 ETF Members 78 Product Focus

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ISSUE

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Visit trainermagazine.com to download our current digital editions and access back issues of both European and North American Trainer.

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CONTENTS F E AT U R E S 08 Johnny Murtagh - TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter

Lissa Oliver talks to Johnny Murtagh whose stable has been in top form this summer.

42 Sales protocols across

64 Gerald Leigh Memorial

Alysen Miller explains how auction houses have embraced changes to their business practices in order to keep the show on the road with the global bloodstock calendar thrown into disarray by COVID-19.

Celia Marr condenses this year’s Gerald Leigh Memorial Lectures and how it will hopefully help support education on equine infectious disease.

Europe this autumn

10 Nicolò Simondi - trainer profile 48 Monitoring bowed tendons Franco Raimondi profiles Nicolò Simondi who became a Classic winning trainer when Auyantepui, landed the Gp2 Oaks d’Italia at San Siro.

Sarah Plevin reviews different treatment options for ‘bowed tendons’ and amongst those a new ultrasound technology called ultrasound tissue characterisation.

18 Can nutrition influence EIPH? 54 Conformation - factors Catherine Rudenko investigates alternative and supportive therapies as trainers seek to find other means of reducing the risk or severity of EIPH.

28 The dominant limb

Can we train a completely symmetrical horse? Georgie White investigates this very interesting theory.

36 The benefit of using ‘yearling rollers’

Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire asks if a roller is a harmless piece of equipment or has it been previously overlooked?

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for racing ability

Judy Wardrope examines which factors might increase the chances to pick a future star on the racecourse.

60 Without prejudice – how anti-

doping rules leave trainers at risk Lissa Oliver points out that it is time to look at whether Europe’s anti-doping rules protect the integrity of the sport and looks into the fragility of the licencing system in the face of integrity accusations, particularly when so many recent breaches of anti-doping rules have absolved the trainer of any responsibility.

@ t ra i n e r _ m a g

Lectures 2020 - minimising risk from equine infectious disease

68 News from the EMHF

It is time to celebrate - The European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation is 10 years old. Dr. Paull Khan tells the story about the first decade.

72 Will prize money ever

return to pre-COVID-19 levels?

Lissa Oliver looks into the various pots of prize money and the racing authorities’ recovery plans to be able to return to pre-COVID.

80 Thoroughbred Tales -

showcasing the good work of the unsung heroes of racing Sally Anne Grassick explains Rebecca Menzies’s own “Thoroughbred Tale ‘’ when there were celebrations in order when Stormy Girl provided Rebecca with a first ever Black Type success.

/ t ra i n e r m a g a z i n e

/ t ra i n e r m a g a z i n e

CONTRIBUTORS Editorial Director/Publisher Giles Anderson Sub-Editor Jana Cavalier Advert Production Charlotte Fossey Circulation/Website Kerstin Coward, Anna Alcock Advertising Sales Giles Anderson, Anna Alcock Photo Credits: Alamy, Arqana, Caroline Norris, Eclipse Sportswire, Galoppfoto.de - Frank Sorge, Giulia Filippini, Hans van Schie, Judy Wardrope, North Lodge Equine, Shutterstock, Tattersalls, Zusanna Lupa Cover Photograph Giulia Filippini

Trainer magazine is published by Anderson & Co Publishing Ltd. This magazine is distributed for free to all ETF members. Editorial views expressed are not necessarily those of the ETF. Additional copies can be purchased for £6.95 (ex P&P). No part of this publication may be reproduced in any format without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Printed in the European Union For all editorial and advertising queries please contact: Anderson & Co. Publishing Tel: +44 (0) 1380 816777 Fax: +44 (0) 1380 816778 email: info@trainermagazine.com www.trainermagazine.com Issue 71

Sally Ann Grassick comes from a strong Irish racing background.

She spent nine years in France as a presenter for Equidia (the French racing channel) covering international racing and is currently on the presenting team for ITV Racing in Britain and RTE Racing in Ireland. She also writes as a freelance journalist and translator, for publications such as European Bloodstock News, International Thoroughbred and Jour de Galop, and rides as an amateur jockey.

Paull Khan PhD. is an international horseracing consultant. He is SecretaryGeneral of the European & Mediterranean Horseracing Federation and Technical Advisor for Europe to the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities. His other clients include the British Horseracing Authority. Previously, Dr. Khan held many senior roles at Weatherbys, including Banking Director and Racing Director.

Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire runs Centaur Biomechanics and works with elite athletes in all equestrian sports, optimising performance and marginal gains.

He recently gained a PhD in equine locomotion from the Royal Veterinary College Structure & Motion Lab. Russell is co-author of more than 30 published papers on horse-saddle-rider interaction.

Professor Celia Marr is an RCVS recognised Specialist in Equine Internal Medicine based Rossdales Equine Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, Newmarket.

She is also Editor-in-chief of Equine Veterinary Journal and Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow and has previously worked at Cambridge University, the Royal Veterinary College, the University of Pennsylvania, and in racehorse practice in Lambourn.

Alysen Miller is a writer, editor and producer based in London.

She has written about racing for publications including The Sunday Times. She launched and produced CNN International’s first dedicated horseracing magazine show, Winning Post.

She has ridden on the Flat as an amateur and currently competes in eventing on her retrained racehorse, Southfork.

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Lissa Oliver lives in Co. Kildare, Ireland and is a regular contributor to The Irish Field and the Australian magazine, Racetrack. Lissa is also the author of several collections of short stories and two novels.

Sarah Plevin is a sports medicine specialist and partner at Florida Equine Veterinary Associates. Her research focuses on preventing injuries in the juvenile racehorse.

Franco Raimondi has celebrated 40 years in racing journalism.

He was Chief Editor of Italy’s daily racing newspaper Cavalli & Corse and travelled all around the world. Currently he is the editor of the daily French newsletter Jour de Galop and correspondent for the European Bloodstock News.

Catherine Rudenko is an independent registered nutritionist with a focus on thoroughbreds. Based in the UK Catherine has worked in the USA, Europe and Asia with trainers and studs creating feeds and feeding plans customised to their needs and climate. With a keen interest in education and research Catherine works with professional bodies and universities to promote knowledge of nutrition and its importance in the management of thoroughbreds and other breeds.

Judy Wardrope mechanically inclined by nature, Wardrope has applied her curiosity regarding how things work in several directions, including a 17-year stint as a locomotive engineer. Combined with an avid interest in horses, she started looking beyond straight legs and subjective descriptors to explain what she was seeing in individual horses.

Georgie White is a master’s degree qualified veterinary physiotherapist. Following graduation from Writtle University College, she now runs a mobile veterinary physiotherapy service for both horses and dogs in the East Midlands. She has a specific interest in equine performance and pre-habilitation.

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You can order BleederShield today at BleederShield.com or buy it locally by visiting Dave Wilson Harness Equipment at www.davewilsonharness.com or by calling +44 (0)1968 660819.

1. Graham L. et al. J Vet Emerg Crit Care. 12:4 (2002) 279-282.

2. Graham L. Vet Clin North Am Equine Pract. 2006.

EUROPEAN TRAINERS’ FEDERATION AIMS and OBJECTIVES of the ETF:

a) To represent the interests of all member trainers’ associations in Europe. b) To liaise with political and administrative bodies on behalf of European trainers. c) To exchange information between members for the benefit of European trainers. d) To provide a network of contacts to assist each member to develop its policy and services to member trainers.

ETF REPRESENTATIVES Chairmanship: Guy Heymans (Belgium) Tel: +32 (0) 495 389 140 Email: heymans1@telenet.be

Vice Chairmanship:

Nicolas Clément (France) Tel: +33 (0)3 44 57 25 39 Fax: +33 (0)3 44 57 58 85 Email: entraineurs.de.galop@wanadoo.fr

AUSTRIA

Mrs. Živa Prunk Tel: +38640669918 Email: ziva.prunk@gmail.com

CZECH REPUBLIC

Vice Chairmanship:

Treasureship:

Christian von der Recke (Germany) Tel: +49 (022 54) 84 53 14 Fax: +49 (022 54) 84 53 15 Email: recke@t-online.de

Michael Grassick (Ireland) Tel: +353 (0)45 522 981 Mobile: +353 (0)87 258 87 70 Fax: +353 (0)45 522 982 Email: office@irta.ie

HUNGARY

UNITED KINGDOM

Mr. Botond Kovács Email: botond.kovacs@kincsempark.hu

ITALY

Rupert Arnold Tel: +44 (0) 1488 71719 Fax: +44 (0) 1488 73005 Email: r.arnold@racehorsetrainers.org

RUSSIA

Joseph Vana Tel: +42 (0) 6024 296 29 Email: horova@velka-chuchle.cz

Agostino Affe Email: affegaloppo@gmail.com

Olga Polushkina Email: p120186@yandex.ru

GREECE

NETHERLANDS

SLOVAKIA

Aggeliki Amitsis Tel: 30 229 908 1332+ Email: angieamitsis@yahoo.com

Geert van Kempen Mobile: +31 (0)6 204 02 830 Email: renstalvankempen@hotmail.com

GERMANY

NORWAY

Erika Mäder Tel: +49 (0) 2151 594911 Fax: +49 (0) 2151 590542 Email: trainer-und-jockeys@netcologne.de

Are Hyldmo Mobile: +47 984 16 712 Email: arehyldmo@hotmail.com

www.trainersfederation.eu

Jaroslav Brecka Email: jaroslav.brecka@gmail.com

SWEDEN

Caroline Malmborg Email: caroline@stallmalmborg.se

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Feed Balancers and Quality Horse Feeds

TOPSPEC TRAINER OF THE QUARTER

JOH N NY MURTAGH The TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter award has been won by Johnny Murtagh.

Murtagh will receive £1,000 worth of TopSpec feed, supplements and additives as well as a consultation with one of their senior nutritionists.

Lissa Oliver ohnny Murtagh had said all along that he wasn’t there for the free lunch; and on the opening day of Irish Champions Weekend, the well-named Champers Elysees ensured the drinks were on her. The three-yearold filly provided Murtagh and his team at Fox Covert Stables on the Curragh, Kildare, with a memorable first Gp1 win in the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown—a remarkable improvement by Murtagh of a filly rated 86 only three months earlier.

J

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Caroline Norris

Despite the foreshortened season, Murtagh has already surpassed previous season tallies, and Champers Elysees is his 36th winner of the season. Just to add icing to the cake, her stablemate Know It All was only narrowly denied third place, held by a head by Prix de Diane and Nassau Stakes heroine Fancy Blue.

“I always thought she had a lot of promise,” Murtagh says of Champers Elysees, who remains unbeaten so far this year. “She ran well on her first two starts last year, so

we had a go at the Tattersalls sales race where the big field was just a little too much for her; but she went back there and won two weeks later. In the Birdcatcher Nursery she just got a bit tired in the heavy ground.”

With a win and three places from her five starts at two, the interruption of COVID-19 saw a late start this year, when she collected a handicap in June on her seasonal debut. “We liked her a lot,” Murtagh reflects, “and then she won a

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Listed race at Galway by seven lengths, so I made the entry for the Matron Stakes.

At that stage we thought of Know It All as our best filly—she’d won the Group Three Derrinstown Stud Fillies Stakes.

“Then Champers Elysees won the Group Three Fairy Bridge Stakes, and that was the key factor in convincing me to run her in the Matron Stakes—I knew she would run well. Both fillies had been going well for us at home all year, but the week before the Matron they were training really well.”

Know It All was beaten less than a length when third in the Prix Rothschild—that first Gp1 tantalisingly within reach—so the Fox Covert team had good reason to be optimistic ahead of Irish Champions Weekend, which they capped with a win in the Northfields Premier Handicap on the second day with Sonnyboyliston.

“We’ve not been doing anything different,” Murtagh says of his excellent year. “They got held up for two months at the start of the season, so they had a bit of extra training in the spring, then a bit of a break before they got going again.

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“But overall we’ve just got a better standard of horse. We’ve got them fresh and well and ready to run, and they’ve been consistent all year. I’ll be going to the sales next week, and I’ll buy a few that I like myself as I always do, and they’ve been lucky for us. The aim is always to win enough prize money for them to pay their way.

“It’s a real family affair, and my wife Orla runs the office. We’ve got a very good variety of gallops, very good staff and very good riders, which is the most important

thing. There’d be no winners without them.

I do enjoy sitting down at night to pick races, and this year it was easy to pick them out; they just fell right.

“Self-belief is everything. I’m a naturally positive person, and I try to put a positive spin on everything we do. To go from champion jockey to successful trainer is hugely satisfying. I’ve worked with some of the best trainers in the world, and I’d like to think some of it has rubbed off and I’ve learned from them.”

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ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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PROFILE

Franco Raimondi

Giulia Filippini

NICOLÒ SIMONDI

T

hirty-one-year-old Nicolò Simondi became a Classic winning trainer on July 5th when Auyantepui, an unbeaten Night of Thunder’s filly, landed the Gp2 Oaks d’Italia at San Siro, less than six years before he saddled his first winner at his home racecourse.

“The filly (Auyantepui) was just an unexpected bomb and she really exploded in less than 40 days, from her debut to her Classic win. She joined my yard in December and I planned, before the COVID-19, to have her ready for a debut at the start of the San Siro’s season in mid-March. The racing was shut down, and I ran her straight in a conditions race in the San Siro opening day, May 27th. She won in a canter by almost five lengths, and the rest is history.

Maybe, as somebody told, she landed the worst Oaks d’Italia ever, but she did it and left my yard moving to France for the partnership OTI Racing and WE Bloodstock heading to my friend Mario Baratti. For me, it was mission accomplished, and I think that she is a much better filly than she showed in her first couple of starts in France. Don’t forget that she had three races in a short time. I trained her to win over 2200 metres (1m 1f ), but she could be better at one mile and a quarter (2400 metres) or shorter”.

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Several Italian young trainers have moved to France in the last years where Andrea Marcialis, a good friend of Simondi, is now fifth in the standings. The rich French prize money is very attractive. Simondi tried his luck there in 2016. “We sent six horses, with my partner Lucia Lupinacci, to Calas in the south of France. That was our first try, but we had the wrong horses. You can run for a lot of money, but when you finish last, the prize money is zero. So, we came back to San Siro with no regrets. The level of competition in France is very high, even in the provinces you can find the big stables.

We decided to stay at home and find our spot in Italy”.

Simondi got the call from leading owner Scuderia Incolinx during the summer of 2017. Diego Romeo called following the retirement of his former trainer Vittorio Caruso and needed a new face to work with him. Nicolò Simondi was the trainer and Vittorio Caruso the assistant.

“To be honest, Vittorio Caruso was the trainer and I was his assistant while the horses of my other owners were in training with Lucia Lupinacci. Vittorio taught me everything, I had to be humble and follow him. For somebody to handle that could be tough and maybe farcical, but we enjoyed big moments together. When I count my big wins, I don’t look at the official stats.

Anda Muchacho won the Gp 2 Premio Roma and

| NICOLÃ’ SIMONDI |

ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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PROFILE

FOR 20 YEARS THE MEDIA HAS REDUCED THEIR INTEREST IN RACING, AND WHEN OUR SPORT IS IN THE NEWS, IT IS JUST DOPING, SCANDALS, MISCONDUCTS THAT GET REPORTED.” TOP & ABOVE: Auyantepui, winning the 2020 Gp2 Oaks d’Italia.

Premio Vittorio di Capua trained by Vittorio Caruso, and I was just his assistant even with my name on the race card. I became the trainer in 2019, and I tried to apply all Vittorio’s lessons. In fact, my first Group win was with O’Juke in the Gp 3 St Leger Italiano, who was under Lucia’s name”, recounts Simondi.

Scuderia Incolinx is the main owner in the yard with 28 of the 52 horses under the name of Nicolò Simondi and his father Mauro, a former jump jockey. The trainer is at the head of two different teams: “The Scuderia Incolinx has its own squad, with Piero Pirisi who was a head lad before I was born. The team is very good, and I learned from Vittorio Caruso how to handle them.

I have my own team for the other owners, Christian Troger, Scuderia Allegria, Elia Tanghetti, WE Bloodstock and others.

Good staff at the yard is very important, and the recruitment is not easy in Italy as in the other countries because the kind of job is really full immersion, 24/7. When I was 20 years old and going out to dance, I was forced to come back at home at 2 a.m. My friends drove back home at 5.30 when I was in the saddle for the string. I am very happy with my staff; you have to respect them and be fair. The Italians are doing well abroad; at Newmarket and Chantilly, they are strong workers and dedicated”.

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Simondi is based at Trenno, the training facility of Milan, just a few miles from downtown. The future of Trenno is under clouds, but Simondi is still confident. “We have a couple of useful training facilities at Milan and Pisa. For sure (it) is not the same level of Newmarket or Chantilly, but if you have the chance to find a good horse you can train him very well. For sure Trenno, the training centre in Milan, could be better. There are some worries about the future of the area and rumours about a development plan, but I think that in the COVID-19 times, the town of Milan don’t need more buildings; and a green space so close to downtown is very important for the citizens. We have to build a new image for racing”.

The Italian racing is facing tough times, even if the payment of prize money is a bit quicker than in the past and not affected by severe cuts like in other countries. Money is a matter but not the most important according to Simondi. “The level of prize money is OK, but the slow payment is a true concern. The cash flow is very important for the owners and obviously for the trainers. That’s the first step, but we need to change the feeling of people about racing. For 20 years the media has reduced their interest in racing, and when our sport is in the news, it is just doping, scandals, misconducts that get reported.

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PROFILE

We lost some generations of potential racing fans. I know about other sports, and they are not much cleaner than racing and even worse”.

The hard core of owners are still going despite the tough economic downturn, but the gap between Italy and the other major countries has increased in the last decades. “We missed the boat of the Arabian investors, who are very important in Britain and France, and we have to deal just with domestic owners. Our owners are enthusiasts and never give up, but on the international market they don’t play at a level field with others; and when they have the chance to find a good horse, they are forced to sell. Scuderia Incolinx is a rare bird—the Ingegner (the Engineer) Diego Romeo wants to have fun with his horses and win good races. The small owners —when they’ve got a good one—will sell him abroad quickly because there is no domestic market. The major concern is the recruitment of new owners. I could be the son or grandson of most of the major Italian owners; I have plenty of respect for all of them and I learned a lot, not just about racing, from the owners; but we have to think about the future. The owners and the punters are the racing’s backbone”.

SCUDERIA INCOLINX IS A RARE BIRD–THE INGEGNER DIEGO ROMEO WANTS TO HAVE FUN WITH HIS HORSES AND WIN GOOD RACES. THE SMALL OWNERS–WHEN THEY’VE GOT A GOOD ONE–WILL SELL HIM ABROAD QUICKLY BECAUSE THERE IS NO DOMESTIC MARKET.”

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| NICOLÒ SIMONDI |

Simondi is a good-looking young man with an open mind and training is his life. He looks abroad to find a solution to the lack of fresh owners. “I think that the Australians are a good example.

Their syndicates are the best way to get new owners involved in the game. We have three problems to solve here in Italy to follow their path. The first one is about regulations, the Australians are very strict, and I agree with that. When you ask a person to buy a share in a horse, you have to tick all boxes; in Italy, a lot of people still think that racing is a crook’s environment. The people you want to involve in a syndicate need to be 100% guaranteed. The next step is also tied to the public image of racing. If you don’t have a nice racecourse with plenty of entertainment, you can’t have racegoers; and with no racegoers, you can’t sell shares to future owners. The third step is about the trainer’s job. I think that a trainer needs to

stay around his horses. The Australians have some PR specialists in charge to run the syndicate properly. The syndication model is the right way; we have to address this as a goal for the future”.

The lack of competitiveness of Italian horses has increased vastly in the last decade. Simondi was a child when Falbrav started his career in Italy. This year he saddled Masterwin, who ran third in the Gp2 Derby Italiano. “The race has been rated as the worst Derby Italian ever, and the horses who ran after the Classic returned terrible results. Probably is the level of the horses themselves; it’s the same thing all around Europe: the level of three-year-old colts is below par. There is no fault of trainers; it’s all about the horses—when you win or lose. Italian racing is not as strong as it was 20 or 10 years ago; we have less broodmares, less foals and obviously fewer good horses.

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PROFILE

From a trainer’s point of view, that doesn’t change the game on a daily basis but is tough to be competitive when the horses come to Italy for the big races. Our job is to handle at the best the good ones; I learned that from Vittorio Caruso”.

According to some analysts, the COVID-19 and the delayed start of the season affected the campaign of a lot of horses. Simondi doesn’t agree. “Even in the worst days of COVID-19, we have worked our horses. I made the choice to keep the horses in a solid routine training, ready to go when racing resumed. When we had the green light I ran them, and I had a good first half of the season. We have all the races, the trials and Classics in six weeks. I just tried to play my game in the best way and luckily that worked well enough. Probably some horses needed more time between races, but all had plenty of foundation work when the season started”.

John Gosden won his first Derby with Benny The Dip at the age of 46, back in 1997. Nicolò Simondi, was born on March 30th, just like the Master of Clarehaven.

But when will he win his first Derby Italiano or his first overseas Group race? He plays a safe game. “John Gosden—he and André Fabre are the best in Europe.

To win the Derby Italiano is the dream of everybody in this business, and I am born in the racing from a racing family. The Derby is more than a dream but not an obsession; you have to find a good horse, train for that target and cross your fingers. I can only hope to win that race. One day, I also hope to have a horse good enough to win a Group abroad, in England and France.

I don’t like to run the horses just for fun; I have plenty of respect for races. No way will I send a horse to Ascot or ParisLongchamp if he doesn’t have a serious chance to win. It’s all about the horses”.

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| NICOLÒ SIMONDI |

I HAVE PLENTY OF RESPECT FOR RACES. NO WAY WILL I SEND A HORSE TO ASCOT OR PARISLONGCHAMP IF HE DOESN’T HAVE A SERIOUS CHANCE TO WIN. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE HORSES.”

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| NUTRITION |

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 71

Catherine Rudenko

E

IPH (exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage) was first identified in racehorses in the 16th century.

Since this time, the focus has been on mitigating the haemorrhage. Management of EIPH largely revolves around the use of furosemide, dependent of jurisdiction, which may or may not be used on the day of racing. Alternative and supportive therapies are becoming increasingly popular as trainers seek to find other means of reducing the risk or severity of EIPH. Nutrition and plant-based approaches are part of an alternative management program. Whilst research is somewhat limited, the studies available are promising, and no doubt more work will be done as using furosemide becomes more restricted. There are several directions in which nutrition can influence risk for EIPH, including inflammatory response, blood coagulation, cell membrane structure, hypotension and reducing known lung irritants.

The various approaches are all supportive, working on altering an element of risk associated with the condition. Some are more direct than others, focusing on the effect on red blood cells, whilst others work on some of the broader lung health issues such as reducing mucus or environmental irritants.

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None are competitive with each other, and there may be an advantage to a ‘cocktail’ approach where more than one mode of action is employed. This is a common practice with herbalbased supplements where the interactive effects between herbs are known to improve efficacy.

• Cell membrane The red blood cell membrane—the semipermeable layer surrounding the cell—is made up of lipids and proteins. The makeup of this membrane, particularly the lipid fraction, appears to be modifiable in response to dietary fatty acids.

Researchers feeding 50mls of fish oil found a significant increase in the percentage of omega-3’s in the cell membrane.

Essential fatty acids (EFA’s), omega 3 and omega 6, are important cell membrane components and determine cellular membrane fluidity. Fluidity of a cell membrane is important, particularly when pressure increases, as a cell membrane lacking in fluidity is more likely to break. A cell that can deform, effectively changing rather than breaking, has an advantage and is linked with improved exercise performance in human studies.

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| NUTRITION |

APRIL 2019

| CAN NUTRITION INFLUENCE EIPH? |

APRIL 2019 The effect of long-chain omega-3 (EO-3TM) supplementation on blood serum (EO-3TM) The effect of long-chain omega-3 gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) supplementation on blood serum levels and inflammation post-exercise gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) in Thoroughbred racehorses levels and inflammation post-exercise in Thoroughbred racehorses Eight fit Thoroughbred racehorses in training at the Kentucky Equine Research Performance Center in Ocala, Florida, were used in a 28-day study to assess the effect Eight fit Thoroughbred racehorses in training at the of long-chain omega-3 (EO-3TM) supplementation and Kentucky Equine Research Performance Center in Ocala, exercise on blood serum gamma-glutamyl transferase Florida, were used in a 28-day study to assess the effect (GGT) levels and inflammation. of long-chain omega-3 (EO-3TM) supplementation and exercise on blood serum gamma-glutamyl transferase Four of the horses were supplemented daily with 60 mL (GGT) levels and inflammation. fo horses served as controls and (2 oz) of EO-3, while four received the same feed without EO-3. All horses were fed Four of the were supplemented daily with 60 mL ABOVE: Inclusion of fish oil horses in the diet increases the ability of red 13-15 lb (6-7 kg) of a commercial racing feed (12% protein, fo horses served as controlsEPA (2 oz) of EO-3, while four andand DHA, blood cells to deform.

8% fat) with free-choice timothy hay. During the study specific received the sameinvestigated feed without horses were fed forms Kansas State University theEO-3. effect All of omega of omega-3 the horses were galloped 3 times per week (1-1.5 miles 13-15 lb (6-7 kg)thoroughbreds of a commercial feed (12% protein, supplementation on 10 overracing a five-month fatty acids per session) on a racetrack and jogged 3 times per week 8% fat) free-choice timothy hay.EPA During period. The dietwith was supplemented with either andthe study commonly (30 min per session) on a mechanical exerciser. At the the horses wereon galloped times per week (1-1.5 miles DHA combined, or DHA its own.3EPA (eicosapentaenoic found in oily conclusion of the 28 days, the horses performed anfish are well per session) on a racetrack andare jogged 3 times per week acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) specific exercise test on the racetrack that consisted of a warmevidenced for forms of(30 omega-3 fatty acids commonly found inexerciser. oily fish. At the min per session) on a mechanical their effect in up jog, 10-furlong (2,000-m) gallop, and a 2-furlong When supplementing with both EPA and DHA, a anregulation of conclusion ofthe thediet 28 days, the horses performed (400-m) breeze.

Blood samples were taken before reduction in EIPH was 83 days and at 145of a warmexercise test onseen theat racetrack thatagain consisted inflammation. exercise as well 2 and hours post-exercise. days. Feeding on itsasown did4not produce effect. up jog,DHA 10-furlong (2,000-m) gallop, an and a 2-furlong Fish oil contains both EPA and DHA and is readily (400-m) breeze.

Blood samples were taken before The horses the supplemented with EO-3 had significantly available, although can be off-putting to both exercise as wellsmell as 2 and 4 hours post-exercise. lower (p<0.05) GGT levels 2 and 4 hours post-exercise horse and human. There are flavoured fish oils specifically RIGHT: compared the control horses.the This may have resulted designed forhorses use into horses that overcome aroma The supplemented with EO-3 had significantly Kentucky from reduction in inflammation observed post-exercise challenge anda(p<0.05) have goodGGT palatability. lower levels 2 and 4 hours post-exercise Equine in the horses fed EO-3.

Research compared to the control horses. This may have resulted study results.

• Inflammatory response and oxidative stress from a reduction in inflammation observed post-exercise Airway in inflammation and the management of this the horses fed EO-3. inflammatory process is believed to be another pathway Supplements for bleeders will often contain relatively in which EIPH can be reduced. Omega-3 fatty acids are high doses of antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin well evidenced for theirFerry effect Road, in regulation of inflammation, 3910 Delaney Versailles, KY 40383 USA • ker.com • +1.859.873.1988 E to support antioxidant status in the horse and reduce and this mode of action along with effect on cell membrane risk of damage to cell membranes. Vitamin C has also been fluidity is likely part of the positive result found by Kansas 3910 Delaney Ferry Road, Versailles, KY 40383 USA • ker.com • +1.859.873.1988 shown to benefit horses with recurrent airway obstruction State University. and increase antibody response. Dose rates required for Kentucky Equine Research has investigated the effect an effect range from 15-20g per day. If including high of a specific fish oil on inflammatory response with horses doses of vitamin C in the diet, it is important to note that in training. The study supplemented test horses with 60mls any sudden withdrawal can have negative effects. Gradual per day and found a significant effect on level of inflammation withdrawal is needed to allow the body’s own mechanisms and GGT (serum gamma-glutamyl transferase). GGT is an for vitamin C production to enzyme that breaks down glutathione, an important recognise and respond to the antioxidant. As GGT rises, less glutathione is available change in status. to neutralise damaging free radicals, creating Rosehips are natural potent antioxidants an environment for oxidative stress. containing many active substances.

A horse’s red blood cells are more Research into the effect of rosehips susceptible to oxidative stress than humans, specifically on red blood cells has shown and maintaining a healthy antioxidant they have a high efficacy when assessing status is important for function and their ability to ameliorate cell damage. maintenance of cell integrity.

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| NUTRITION |

| CAN NUTRITION INFLUENCE EIPH? |

THE ESSENTIAL OIL OF CAUCUS CAROTA SPECIES IS A WELL-DOCUMENTED OIL HAVING A HYPOTENSIVE, LOWERING OF BLOOD PRESSURE EFFECT ALONG WITH ANTIFUNGAL PROPERTIES.” • Hypotensive herbs The essential oil of caucus carota species is a well-documented oil having a hypotensive, lowering of blood pressure effect along with antifungal properties. Its antifungal effects are noted against aspergillus species, a common cause of poor respiratory health. Allium sativum is also well known for its ability to lower blood pressure. An initial study (data unpublished) into the effects of these two plants along with herbs reported to alleviate mucus in the lungs has shown promising results in a group of horses in training.

RIGHT: Caucus carota – wild carrot

Platelet = synonymous with thrombocytes, a component of blood whose function is to stop bleeding by clumping and clotting blood vessel injuries.

Aggregating factor = substances such as adenosine diphosphate, collage and platelet activating factor involved in triggering and mediating the clotting process.

• Prolonged blood coagulation As prolonged blood coagulation is cited as a possible factor for EIPH, herbal products that are noted for their ability to enhance coagulation are in certain parts of the world widely used as part of managing EIPH. It is believed that increased clotting time during exercise-induced injury may exacerbate the severity of EIPH as a result of the delayed sealing of damaged micro vessels. This effect, where exercise diminishes the ability of equine platelets to respond to platelet aggregating factors, occurs in both horses known with EIPH and those with no history or apparent presence of EIPH.

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TOP: Exerciseinduced injury may exacerbate the severity of EIPH as a result of the delayed sealing of damaged micro vessels.

Researchers at Kansas State University have investigated two herbs for efficacy on severity of EIPH with a small number of thoroughbreds. The two herbs considered were notoginseng and bletillae. Both herbs are documented to reduce thrombin time, which relates to the time taken to form clots, and to reduce bleeding time. The study of five horses showed no effect in terms of severity of bleeding or preventing bleeding based on bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) results. This may indicate that impaired haemostasis— the ability to stop blood flow—was not the primary cause of EIPH or that the herbs were not effective in addressing coagulation as a problem.

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| NUTRITION |

Studies of both known bleeders and those without a history of bleeding have shown that all horses when strenuously exercised will experience some degree of bleeding. With this in mind, the coagulation theory is debated as to whether it is a primary factor in EIPH. It is difficult to prove conclusively that impaired coagulability exists in exercising horses for a number of reasons, including timing of sampling and how the body adapts through increased fitness and exercise intensity. Without specific and more conclusive evidence available, use of such herbs becomes a field study—a case of trying and seeing first hand whether an impact is made.

Thrombin = an enzyme found in blood plasma which causes the clotting of blood.

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| CAN NUTRITION INFLUENCE EIPH? |

STUDIES OF BOTH KNOWN BLEEDERS AND THOSE WITHOUT A HISTORY OF BLEEDING HAVE SHOWN THAT ALL HORSES WHEN STRENUOUSLY EXERCISED WILL EXPERIENCE SOME DEGREE OF BLEEDING. WITH THIS IN MIND, THE COAGULATION THEORY IS DEBATED AS TO WHETHER IT IS A PRIMARY FACTOR IN EIPH.” • Ammonia Ammonia is a known respiratory irritant linked with poor respiratory health. Exposure to ammonia results in increased mucin production and reduced pulmonary clearance. Excess protein intake in the diet increases nitrogen presence in urine and faeces, which can be volatilised to ammonia.

To understand protein intake, it is necessary to analyse forage and calculate contribution alongside any hard feed or straights. Excessive protein can also impact performance by causing changes in blood pH. A shortage of protein is equally detrimental, and dropping down to a lower protein feed should only be considered once the total contribution is understood.

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Aservo® EquiHaler® 343 micrograms/actuation inhalation solution for horses contains ciclesonide. UK: POM-V. Further information available in the SPC or from Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health UK Ltd., RG12 8YS, UK. Tel: 01344 746960 (sales) or 01344 746957 (technical). Email: vetenquiries@boehringer-ingelheim.com. Aservo® EquiHaler® is a registered trademark of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, used under licence. ©2020 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health UK Ltd. All rights reserved.

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| NUTRITION |

The majority of horses in training will receive above the base requirement for protein, and in moderation over-provision can have its advantages, such as improved recovery and refuelling of muscle. It is important to understand the difference between an elevated intake and an excessive intake.

Pulmonary clearance = the ability of cells within the lungs to propel mucus and debris upwards and out of the lungs.

• Summary There is a role for nutrition and plant-based therapies in management of EIPH with strong evidence as their effects on cell membranes, regulation of inflammation, ability to reduce bleeding time and hypotensive effects.

The balance of dietary protein is also a factor when considering how to manage general respiratory health, which in turn plays a role in managing the risk of EIPH. Getting the best result for horses suffering with EIPH will involve a cocktail approach reviewing the diet and supplements as a whole. Assessing total protein intake and including fish oil, containing both EPA and DHA, are two easy practices to put in place. Targeted use of antioxidants, hypotensive herbs, coagulative herbs and those involved in mucus clearance can then be built around the base diet changes.

The aim of such practices is to reduce the severity and frequency of bleeding so that the limitations that EIPH has on performance are reduced. Nutritional and plant-based approaches require a period of adaptation, with some studies noting effects only after a month of use, and so patience and planning are required. For known bleeders, ideally all dietary practices and supplements should be put in place as soon as the horse returns from a holiday period, rather than waiting for full work to commence or for a serious incidence of EIPH to occur.

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| CAN NUTRITION INFLUENCE EIPH? |

GETTING THE BEST RESULT FOR HORSES SUFFERING WITH EIPH WILL INVOLVE A COCKTAIL APPROACH REVIEWING THE DIET AND SUPPLEMENTS AS A WHOLE. ASSESSING TOTAL PROTEIN INTAKE AND INCLUDING FISH OIL, CONTAINING BOTH EPA AND DHA, ARE TWO EASY PRACTICES TO PUT IN PLACE.” Further reading •A lves-Silva,J.M., Zuzarte,M. Gonclaves,M.J. Cavaleiro,M.T.C., Cardoso,S.M., Salguerio,L. (2016). New claims for wild carrot (daucus carota subsp. carota) essential oil. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

• Epp,T.S, McDonagh,P. Padilla,D.J., Cox,J.H., Poole,D.C., Erickson,H.H. (2004). The effect of herbal supplementation on the severity of exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrage.

Equine and Comparative Exercise Physiology 2(1): 17-25 •E rickson,H.H., Epp,S.T. Poole,D.C.(2007) Review of Alternative Therapies for EIPH. AAEP Proceedings (7) • Geor,J. Harris,P. Coenen,M. (2013) Equine Applied and Clinical Nutrition. China: Elsevier •P ortier,K., De Moffarts,B., Fellman,N., Kirschvnik,N., Motta,C., Letellier,C., Ruelland,A., Van Erck,E., Lekeux,P., Coudert,J. (2006). Equine Veterinary Journal Supplement, Equine Exercise Physiology 7.

•W iden,C. Ekholm,A., Coleman,M.D., Renvert,S., Rumpunen,K. (2012). Erythrocyte Antioxidant Protection of Rose Hips (Rosa spp.). Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity.

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| TRAINING |

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Georgie White

Eclipse Sportswire, Alamy

C A N W E T R A I N A C O M P L E T E LY S Y M M E T R I C A L H O R S E ? imb dominance, handedness and laterality are all terms closely associated with the functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain and how these may influence preferred use of one side of the body; a direct example in humans would be the preferred hand he/she learns to write with or foot to kick a ball with. The racehorse is often commemorated on their speed or ability to clear a fence, but you would be surprised how relevant limb dominance is to the performance and longevity of a racehorseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career. This preference is often evident in an individual horseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preferred canter lead, preferred leading limb in gallop, leading and landing limb over a fence. It can be argued that the former activities can be influenced by training,

L

but to what degree and at what point should we utilise this preference? And when should we pay attention to the risk of injury? This article is going to discuss this relevance and explain the potential implications of limb dominance.

As with many corners of equine research, the observed phenomenon first began from studying the human and has since been studied extensively in performance and leisure horses, respectively. The goal of many a ridden horse is symmetry of movement, the discipline in which they train will dictate the degree of importance of this; the dressage horse can lose palpable marks when they are not symmetrical in their movement, whilst a racehorse may not be as well versed nor will it be a direct measure of performance quality.

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| TRAINING |

LATERALISATION OCCURS CONTRALATERALLY, MEANING THAT A HORSE WHO IS LEFT HEMISPHERE DOMINANT WILL EXPERIENCE A RIGHT-SIDED MOTOR PREFERENCE AND VICE VERSA.”

• Anatomical structure of a horse’s brain The primary motor cortex is the central hub of dynamic movement, generating nerve impulses that control the execution of all movements and crossing the body’s midline to activate skeletal muscles. Every part of the body is represented and arranged somatotopically, meaning the area controlling the hoof is close to the area controlling the limb. The amount of brain matter or cortical space devoted to a body part represents the degree of control the horse has over that body part. For example, the human will have far greater cortical space devoted to intricate movements of the hands and fingers compared to the horse. In contrast the horse will have far greater cortical space reserved for movement of the ears, lips and nose to represent the vast number of social cues, foraging behaviours and body language exhibited. Although not yet proven in horses, human athletes have been shown to have increased cortical thickness in areas correlating with athletic ability or skill; this is likely to be the case in equines; for example, racehorses would likely see increases in areas devoted to limb control.

From a lateralisation perspective, the brain is divided into two hemispheres or lobes which are referred to the left and right hemispheres and divided by the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is an essential structure composed of a thick band of nerve fibres providing communication between the two spheres. Lateralisation refers to these hemispheres having distinct functional differences, each offering specialised neural functions or cognitive processes. Lateralisation occurs contralaterally, meaning that a horse who is left hemisphere dominant will experience a right-sided motor preference and vice versa.

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• What research is there on limb dominance?

ABOVE: Limb preferences are often developed in the first weeks and months of life.

In horses, grazing patterns are often studied, specifically noting which limb is placed forward most often; however, research is varied with some conclusions stating that innate skeletal asymmetry is highly prevalent in the foal and can be exacerbated by environmental factors. It is recommended that a farrier and vet work closely to correct visual asymmetry in goals as early as possible. A valuable longitudinal study completed by Van Heel et al., (2010) found a relationship with uneven forefeet in foals and subsequent unevenness as a yearling and then as a three-year-old; this was then found to correlate with sidedness in trot and canter transitions. This study highlights several points of interest, firstly the distinct need to correct limb asymmetries and abnormalities from

| LIMB DOMINANCE |

an early age and secondly the potential future inclusion of quantitative laterality data at the time of studbook admission to assist breeders and owners in selection criteria.

Later research by Austin and Rogers (2012) stated there was no significant differences in limb dominance in a group of feral and wild Przewalski’s horses, which suggested that differences can be attributed to domestication at least to some degree. This varying body of evidence opens the discussion on the effect of domestication and relevance of cultural husbandry practices; in the western world it is common practice to complete many routine tasks from the left side of the horse, e.g., leading, tacking up and mounting. Future studies that attempt to measure this cultural influence may choose to select a large group of equines of generally the same breed and discipline to act as a control and prevent skewed results.

Many studies have attempted to decipher the causes of variation in motor bias. This is yet to have solid evidence behind it, with several studies showing links in gender and breed initially with training likely to play a part as they embark on their ridden career. As with all equine research, it is important to take note of cause and effect; for example, it may not be the fact that the horse is of thoroughbred breeding, but the likely type of work or environment that a thoroughbred is placed in that has supplied the correlation.

BELOW: All horses will have a dominant lead in the gallop.

ABOVE: A balanced change of leading limb can be the difference between winning a race and coming a close second.

• The gallop As many a rider and trainer will describe, a horse will naturally have a leading limb preference and over a fence, they are generally left to continue with their preference; on the flat, generally left to the jockey’s discretion but the consensus seems to be less interference the better. Then comes the bends. In the transverse gallop, the horse will have a four-beat gait—a pattern of right hind, left hind, right fore, left fore—with the left fore essentially leading the movement and acting as the leading limb round a left hand bend. In the words of Dr Ray Baran, the correct lead is “the easiest method to get the shortest distance between two points the quickest way”; as a result the horse is in balance.

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| TRAINING |

• Clockwise or anti-clockwise?

Laterality research in the racing thoroughbred has paid special attention to racetrack direction. This is specifically relevant given that in Europe, racetracks are both clockwise and anti-clockwise, some with greater curves and in some cases horses race for one mile in a straight line. Meanwhile, in North America, where all tracks are anti-clockwise, largely oval and flat, there is greater potential for laterality and limb dominance to be magnified due to horses racing consistently in the same direction. In addition, from a performance point of view, it is unlikely horses will be trained in the opposite direction to counteract any developmental preferences.

| LIMB DOMINANCE |

BELOW: Horses leaving the starting gates at gallop.

Anecdotal evidence suggests there is an emerging understanding of the implications of asymmetry in the horse, with more trainers beginning to pay special attention to ensuring horses are as symmetrical as possible during their training.

Simple alterations to training regimes include: • Training horses in both clockwise and anti-clockwise direction.

• Working horses centrally rather than allowing them to develop a dependence and “lean” on one rail.

• Adding variety to fitness routines which may include use of an aqua treadmill, providing cardiovascular training without repetitive or concussive force through limbs.

• Adding gymnastic jump exercises or gridwork, again providing athletic benefit whilst not repeating the same dynamic patterns of movement.

IN NORTH AMERICA, WHERE ALL TRACKS ARE ANTI-CLOCKWISE, LARGELY OVAL AND FLAT, THERE IS GREATER POTENTIAL FOR LATERALITY AND LIMB DOMINANCE TO BE MAGNIFIED DUE TO HORSES RACING CONSISTENTLY IN THE SAME DIRECTION.”

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• Does a horse’s standing posture correlate with their dynamic performance?

Static posture and conformation are not always indicative of how a horse will then move dynamically, and vice versa, some limb deviations will only be present in stance as will deviations in the flight path of a limb only be visible in motion. Further to this, some will only be present in certain gaits.

Research released in the last eight months from Holleboom (2020) at Massey University, New Zealand conducted a small study looking at load distribution in the forelimbs of horses either clockwise or anti-clockwise.

Although no significant differences between left and right limbs were found, this is only indicative of static

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It’s time to take your place on the world stage, pre-entry for the 2020 Breeders’ Cup World Championships closes at noon on Monday, October 26.

Each Breeders’ Cup World Championships starter that travels to Kentucky from an international location will receive a $40,000 travel stipend, domestic shippers receive $10,000. In addition, the ownership entity will receive six complimentary seats, a $1,500 hotel credit at an official participant hotel, VIP car transport to hotel from airport and exclusive invitations to all official events. Purses and awards have been increased to $31 million and each race pays down to the 10th finish position!

All Breeders’ Cup World Championships races are non-invitational and are open to all thoroughbreds competing around the globe. For your copy of the Horsemen’s Information Guide, visit members.breederscup.com, or contact the Breeders’ Cup Racing Department.

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| TRAINING |

| LIMB DOMINANCE |

but we must remember the canter is a three-beat asymmetrical gait initiated by the opposite hind leg from the leading forelimb. Therefore, this study corroborated the work of White and other previous researchers.

Dynamic exercise is of particular relevance given that the force exerted through the leading forelimb at gallop has been shown to be as much as twice the horse’s body weight; and this may be relevant when considering the potential implications for a horse that is significantly preferred of one limb.

• So, what does this mean for the horses that I train?

The prevalence of repetitive strain injuries and stress fractures in the sports horse, and in particular racehorses, has been widely documented for the last 40 years— occurring most commonly in the third metacarpal, third metatarsal, humerus, tibia, and proximal phalanx.

These locations have been proven to be anatomically and biomechanically susceptible to excess wear and tear, rendering them at risk of stress fracture. But what has not been identified is the relationship between these sites of fracture and if the fractured limb were indeed the horse’s dominant or preferred limb. Emergence of this research would better inform us how to improve training practices to prevent such fractures.

The use of ground reaction force measurements and force vector diagrams have been shown to identify inter-limb asymmetries in preliminary studies by Hobbs et al., (2018) which shows a reliable method of being able to further conduct these studies in the future. If paired with the work of Holleboom, this may begin to provide the equestrian industry with some answers on this topic and therefore better inform best training practice.

• And what about rider influence?

weight bearing and during dynamic exercise. This may well change when other external variables are also in place such as racing environment, rider aids and other horses present amongst others.

Several researchers conducting thesis studies have also looked at facial hair whorl direction as a measure of laterality and found it to be indicative of greater forelimb weight load distribution. Research by White (2018) found that a horse with a clockwise whorl direction preferred to load the right forelimb more; comparatively, the left forelimb was favored in horses with anti-clockwise whorls.

Interestingly, the study also found links between forelimb loading preference and cannon bone circumferences when measured externally. Gohery (2017) found correlative links between whorl direction and desirable stride characteristics in canter. Horses with clockwise whorls had a longer stride in the left stride pattern, and horses with anti-clockwise whorls had a longer stride in the right stride pattern.

Initially the two studies appear to contradict themselves,

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TOP: The direction of the facial whorl has been shown to indicate limb preference.

ABOVE: The rider can influence the horse’s leading stride throughout a race.

Of course, we must also consider the influence of the rider who themselves will no doubt have their own dominant limb which may influence the aids given to the horse and which over time may increase the effects of laterality or potentially even it out. Currently scientific evidence would be hard to come by in-field due to the difficulty in separating rider laterality and horse laterality, but it is certainly a topic for development in the future.

• In summary Having discussed the available and emerging research and its potential implications we are left with a causality dilemma or informally known as the “chicken or egg” situation, where we have scientific evidence of the existence of laterality in horses but currently lack data that solidifies cause and the potential implications. Until we have this solid evidence, we can begin to work with existing and anecdotal evidence and current best practice to train our horses to be as symmetrical as possible to minimise risk of the detrimental effects of extreme lateralisation. The appreciation and relevance of limb dominance may seem like a small cog in a large wheel of the performing racehorse, but when the aggregation of marginal improvements to performance is at the forefront, can we really afford to ignore its potential significance?

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| TRAINING |

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER PERFORMANCE INHIBITING

SPINAL PRESSURE UNDER ROLLERS Reducing pressure under the saddle, bridle and girth has been found to significantly improve performance, and now the roller has been scientifically tested.

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Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire North Lodge Equine

| LUNGEING ROLLER RESEARCH |

L

ost training days, treatment and medication for back problems are time consuming and costly, so optimising equine spinal health from early on is an essential consideration in improving equine health and welfare. When a young horse is started, one of its first experiences is to have tack on its back, initially a lungeing roller. The roller, a seemingly harmless piece of equipment and its effect on the horse, has previously been overlooked. However, it has now come under scientific scrutiny by the same research team that investigated the impact of pressure distribution under the saddle, bridle and girth on equine health and performance.

Their recent study used high-tech pressure mapping to examine the pressures exerted on the horse’s back during lungeing (see technology panel). Localised areas of high pressures were consistently recorded under the roller on the midline of the horse’s back directly over the spinous processes in the region of the 10th and 12th thoracic vertebrae (T10-T12, see anatomy panel).

High pressure directly in this region, as seen under a conventional roller, is likely to cause the horse to seek a compensatory locomotor strategy and adopt a posture where the back is stiffened and hollowed, resulting in an extended spine. Previous research has shown that back function and gallop kinematics are compromised by a stiffened spine.

Studies have demonstrated that pressure-relieving modifications in a saddle result in increased stride length and hip flexion, along with a greater femur-tovertical angle (indicating that the hindleg is being brought forward more as the horse gallops). Reducing saddle pressures leads to a marked improvement in the horse’s locomotion, allowing it to gallop more efficiently.

Alleviating pressure encourages spinal flexion T10 T12

The roller is positioned over the part of the back where the front half of the saddle sits; by applying these principles, modifying the roller to remove pressure would allow unhindered back function.

The equine back is an essential component of the locomotor apparatus, transferring biomechanical forces from the hindlimb. So, a modified roller will not only result in improved locomotion and performance but will also have long-term spinal health benefits.

• Strong start In racing, where lungeing is primarily used prior to backing, what we do to and the equipment we use on the young horses in the preparatory stages are likely to have a significant impact on the development of the horse’s posture, back health and locomotion.

If a young horse begins the training process of being lunged with a roller that exerts pressure directly on the spine at T10-T12, it will develop a strategy to compensate for the discomfort. Then, as the horse progresses to a saddle—which similarly exerts high pressure in the same area—it is inevitable that this will have an effect on the locomotor system. The horse’s athletic performance will be significantly compromised before it even gets on the track.

Innovative pressure-relieving modifications in tack design have demonstrated improved locomotion when pressure is reduced. Identifying and replacing any equipment that has limiting effects on locomotion or development could have long-term benefits for the longevity and performance of the horse. This applies particularly to the lungeing roller as it is the first piece of tack a youngster has on its back. It is essential that the horse does not develop a locomotor strategy to compensate at this stage.

Fig 1: A modified roller that removes pressure will allow the back to function without restriction.

Spinal pressure causes hollowing

T10 T12

FIG 1

ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| TRAINING |

• Under pressure

• Lungeing for rehab

In a recent study, horses were lunged on a 20-metre circle on both reins in trot and canter wearing a roller fitted with pads. In canter, peak pressures were seen each time the inside forelimb was in stance (on the ground). In trot, pressure peaks occurred each time a forelimb was in stance phase.

Given that the horse is experiencing high pressures under the roller directly on the spine in the region of T10-T12 in every repeated motion cycle (stride), it is inevitable that a compensation strategy will develop.

When trotting and cantering with no attachments, such as side reins or training aids, peak pressures under the centre of the roller were found to be similar to those seen under the saddle with a rider on board. Studies have shown pressures over 30kPa can cause back discomfort. In this study, researchers measured pressures up to 35kPa directly on the midline of the horse’s spine, in every stride, with just a roller and pad.

With side reins attached, the location of the peak pressure was brought further towards the front edge of the roller. Essentially, the pull of the side reins caused a ridge of pressure under the roller, and the readings increased to 45kPa.

In addition to the backing process, lungeing also occurs during other influential periods of a horse’s life, including rehabilitation after surgery. Post-operative recommendations for kissing spines can often include lunge work with training aids to induce spinal flexion and opening up of dorsal spinous processes. In these cases, if horses are being rehabilitated wearing a roller which creates high pressure on the very area it is supposed to be improving, it is likely that the benefits of using any training aid will be diluted.

It is also likely that lungeing for rehabilitation using a roller which creates high pressures will have a detrimental effect on any veterinary or physiotherapy programme.

• Compensation costs Compensatory gait strategies lead to asymmetric forces which have a negative effect on limb kinematics (movement). The consideration here is that the horse is experiencing these locomotor compromises before the back has been conditioned to manage the increased forces, and before a jockey has even sat on its back.

It remains to be shown whether the compensatory gait and asymmetric forces caused by early roller pressure manifest as lameness or loss of performance later on. There is a coexisting relationship between back problems and limb lameness, but evidence is still being gathered as to which one comes first.

Researchers are investigating to what extent loss of performance and lameness issues might be traced back to these ‘training and backing’ experiences. It is therefore essential that young horses are started with correctly fitting equipment to limit any long-term effect.

FIG 2

• Assess all areas Thanks to advances in recent research developments and design, it is now possible to take a more holistic view and examine the whole horse when looking at training tack. Of course, there are benefits from making modifications to individual items, but maximum gains are achieved when the whole locomotor apparatus can function without restriction.

For example, girth pressure has been the subject of extensive investigation, and a modified girth design which relieves peak pressures behind the elbow has been proven to significantly improve gallop kinematics. Combining a pressure-relieving lungeing roller with a girth designed to de-restrict the musculature will maximise locomotor benefits.

Bridle design has also been shown to have a significant impact on the horse’s locomotor apparatus. When bridle pressure is reduced and stability is improved by using a correctly-fitted noseband, gait analysis shows an increase in forelimb extension and a greater range of hindlimb motion. Using a modified bridle when lungeing will enhance the benefits afforded by the roller and girth. Each modification is a step towards improving comfort, which will improve athletic performance.

CONVENTIONAL ROLLER Conventional CONVENTIONAL ROLLER Conventional Conventional Conventional Conventional rollerroller roller roller Conventional Conventional Conventional rollerroller roller roller WITHOUT ATTACHMENTS WITH SIDE REINS with with side-reins with side-reins with side-reins side-reins without without attachments without without attachments attachments attachments

NEW ROLLER DESIGN

New New roller New roller design New roller design roller design design WITH SIDE REINS with with side-reins with side-reins with side-reins side-reins

45.0045.00 45.00 45.00 35.0035.00 35.00 35.00 25.0025.00 25.00 25.00 15.0015.00 15.00 15.00

PRESSURE MAPPING DURING LUNGEING Conventional roller - 35kPa pressure directly on the spine at T10 Conventional roller & side reins - pressure consistent at T10 but increases at T11 and T12 to 45kPa New roller design, even with side reins - all pressure is removed from the spine

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T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

10.00 10.00 T1010.0010.00

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

6.00 6.006.006.00 1.00 1.001.001.00 1.00 1.001.001.00 kPa kPa kPa kPa

| LUNGEING ROLLER RESEARCH |

MODIFIED ROLLER DESIGN

A new design of roller, based on a tree similar to that used in a saddle, alleviates pressures directly on the midline of the back by ensuring clearance of the spinal processes is maintained while the horse is moving (Fig 3).

High pressure was recorded directly on the spine (T10-T12) under conventional rollers (with pads) used by the majority of yards. Even when used with pads, these rollers still draw down on to the spine when the horse is in motion because they have no integral support to ensure that clearance of the spinous processes is maintained.

FIG 3

FIG 4

1 4

5

2 3

• New Roller Design Built on a contoured tree to maintain spinal clearance Splayed girth straps stabilise the roller even when side reins are attached natomic long elasticated girth provides A optimum clearance behind the elbows and increases freedom of movement Can be adjusted to accommodate horses from narrow to wide Built-in pressure relieving pads cushion the musculature at either side of the spine

1

• Reins and rings Usually, side reins are attached around one or both of the roller’s ‘girth straps’. The lungeing study demonstrated that this pulls the front edge of the roller forward, increasing pressures on the horse’s back. A roller with ring attachments tends to stay parallel to the horse’s back during motion—the ring provides articulation between the roller and the side rein, helping maintain stability.

An added benefit of a design with extra rings is that it enables the roller to be used throughout the backing process. For example, stirrups can easily be attached to prepare the horse for the saddle.

4

5

2 3

• Conventional Roller No integral strengthener to prevent roller drawing down onto the spine arrow girth straps cause instability and N tipping especially when used with side reins Short straight girth causes pressure behind the elbows and reduces freedom of movement Cannot be adjusted to fit different widths of horses dditional pads are used to increase comfort A but don’t prevent draw down onto the spine

ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| TRAINING |

| LUNGEING ROLLER RESEARCH |

FIG 6

THORACIC TRAPEZIUS MUSCLE T10 LATISSIMUS DORSI MUSCLE

T12

FIG 5

SPINAL ANATOMY

The area around the thoracic vertebrae T10-T13 (the base of the withers) is the location of a high concentration of muscle activity related to posture and movement.

The Longissimus dorsi (m. longissimus dorsi) is a stabilizing muscle that’s most active at T12, and spinal stability is essential for the galloping thoroughbred. This is because, in gallop, the forelimbs have to support two-and-a-half times the horse’s body weight with every stride. In addition, the cranial thoracic vertebra (where the saddle, roller or jockey is positioned) are responsible for force transfer from the forelimbs, head and neck.

It’s the back that has to manage these high forces.

The horse has no collarbone, and the forelimbs are attached to the trunk by the thoracic sling musculature. Some of the most influential and important thoracic sling muscles attach to the spine, so it’s easy to appreciate why spinal health is critically important. Any compromises in this area at any stage of the horse’s career will impact on performance.

When compromises such as high pressures occur, the horse adopts a compensating strategy. It will still perform but will develop a gait that alleviates discomfort.

Anatomical structures or locomotion patterns that have been affected by a compensatory gait will be disadvantaged in terms of performance and, potentially, more susceptible to increased risk of injury.

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PRESSURE TESTING

Pliance is the industry-standard method of measuring pressure on the horse’s body. It has been utilised extensively in research under saddles, and it can operate in all gaits, including gallop and jumping.

A large mat with 128 individual pressure sensor cells on each side of the spine is usually positioned over the back, under the saddle. In this study, the mat was positioned transversely across the back, with sensors able to measure pressure directly on the spine.

Initially the results are displayed as a moving colour-coded image, with areas of peak pressure showing as pink and red. Data regarding peak pressures, maximum force and mean force is also available, and is extracted and processed for statistical analysis.

Further reading • European Trainer Magazine, January-March 2020 • European Trainer Magazine, April-June 2020 • European Trainer Magazine, July-September 2020 •R Mackechnie-Guire, Local back pressure caused by a training roller during lungeing with and without a Pessoa training aid, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 67 (2018) •R Coomer, A controlled study evaluating a novel surgical treatment for kissing spines in standing sedated horses, Veterinary Surgery 41 (2012) •K Von Pienen, Relationship between saddle pressure measurements and clinical signs of saddle soreness at the withers, Equine Veterinary Journal 42 (2010) • F Henson, Equine Neck and Back Pathology, Wiley Blackwell (2009)

Guaranteed to improve performance Remove the pressure on your horses’ muscles and see the improvement in their action for yourself.

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| INDUSTRY |

SALES

SEASON BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT With the global bloodstock calendar thrown into disarray by the coronavirus pandemic, auction houses have had to embrace changes to their business practices in order to keep the show on the road.

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Alysen Miller

Arqana, Frank Sorge, Tattersalls, Zuzanna Lupa

ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| INDUSTRY |

BBAG

WE WERE VERY HAPPY THAT WE COULD HOLD OUR YEARLING SALE. IT WAS HELD IN A WAY WHICH WAS QUITE DIFFERENT TO WHAT IS NORMAL HERE, BUT AT LEAST WE COULD HAVE A SALE.” KLAUS EULENBERGER - BBAG’S MD

A

s a European summer racing season like no other winds towards its conclusion, the eyes of the racing world turn towards the autumn yearling sales. But the view from a corona-ravaged gallery might be somewhat different from previous years.

“Things have been different already,” explains Alix Choppin, Head of Marketing and Business Development for Arqana. Earlier this summer, the major houses in Europe and North America made emergency changes to their calendars to enable their summer sales to go ahead. Arqana partnered with Goffs to move their Breeze-Up Sale to Doncaster to allow then-locked-down British buyers to attend.

Now, hot on the heels of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that any person entering the UK from France will be subject to 14 days’ quarantine, their Select Yearling Sale was brought forward to early September in order to allow buyers who make the journey to Deauville to follow with the Goffs Orby Sale, also relocated to Doncaster, then on to Newmarket for the relocated Tattersalls Ireland sale and the regular Tattersalls October Yearling Sales at Park Paddocks.

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This ‘moveable feast’ approach to auctioneering is just one way in which the major European sales houses are adapting to this strange new world. But it is not without its challenges. As the all-important yearling sales season approaches, the major houses around Europe are facing the prospect of restricted attendance and reduced volumes. “At the moment, the situation is that no American buyers are going to be able to attend unless they have a European residence or a European passport,” notes Choppin.

“So that’s a big issue. The same applies to Australians and people from the Middle East. That’s obviously a big challenge.”

The decision to hold the Arqana and Goffs Breeze-Up Sales at the same time and in the same place, albeit with a reduced catalogue, proved to be a benefit for both buyers and sellers who would otherwise not have been able to make the trip.

It was a different story for BBAG. The German auction house had to cancel its breeze-up sale in May. At time of writing, their Premier Yearling Sale had just taken place, topped by a recordequalling sister to Sea The Moon. “We were very happy that we could hold our Yearling Sale,” said BBAG’s Managing Director Klaus Eulenberger. After first demonstrating that they could

TATTERSALLS

hold a ‘concept’ sale that complied with Baden-Württemberg state COVID regulations, BBAG was given the go-ahead for entrance to up to 500 active buyers. “It was held in a way which was quite different to what is normal here, but at least we could have a sale; and there are no big troubles right now.”

With its smaller volumes (BBAG catalogues between 600-650 horses a year) and boutique catalogue, the annual yearling sale in the picturesque spa town of Baden-Baden —nestled in the foothills of Germany’s Black Forest—is as much a social event as a yearling sale. “This year our sales are not open for the public,” laments Eulenberger. “Usually we have loads of tourists, loads of visitors here. It’s a special atmosphere for them. They can’t access the sales this year.” For those agents and trainers who could not attend in person, a live stream was provided and telephone bidding accepted, although BBAG has no immediate plans to offer online bidding at any of its auctions.

Tattersalls has used the opportunity presented by COVID to expedite the introduction of its new online bidding platform.

“We’ve already rolled out an awful lot of new initiatives to try and make things as easy as possible for buyers in what’s proving

to be a very difficult and challenging year for all concerned,” says Marketing Director Jimmy George. “We’ve been looking at developing an online sales platform for the last few years, but the outbreak of the virus accelerated that process. We now have a really good, fully functional online sales platform.” Live internet bidding was available for both the Craven and Ascot Breeze-Up Sales. Nevertheless, it’s hoped that the October Yearling Sales will be able to be conducted in a conventional manner. “So far, we’ve conducted five sales at Tattersalls paddocks since the outbreak of the virus, and every single one of them has enjoyed clearance rates of 83% or higher,” says George. However, even the mighty Tattersalls is not immune to the economic fallout of a global pandemic. “The numbers in each of those catalogues were smaller than they would be in a normal year, and that’s COVIDrelated,” says George. “And I don’t think anybody is under any illusions about the challenges that everybody’s facing—not just in the thoroughbred industry, but in every walk of life.”

Widely regarded as Europe’s signature yearling sale, Book 1 traditionally attracts buyers and sellers from all over the world.

Jewels in this year’s catalogue include a Frankel half-brother to Prix de l’Abbaye and Nunthorpe Stakes winner Marsha, and a Kingman half-brother to 2,000 Guineas hero Galileo Gold. So what impact will ongoing travel restrictions have on the ability of clientele to snap up a future champion? “This is an ever-changing scene, so it’s extremely hard to predict. But we’ve introduced many different ways in which we can facilitate participation from buyers who are unable to attend any of our sales, to reflect the difficulties that some people are having. But equally, we’re in a better place than we were earlier in the year in terms of who can, and cannot, travel reasonably freely to the UK. The challenge is to do everything we possibly can within our power to make it easy for people to participate,” says George. While online bidding will not be available for the October Yearling Sales, Tattersalls has rolled out more extensive telephone bidding for those unable to attend the sales in person.

By contrast, Arqana offered online bidding for its Select Yearling Sale. “We had the advantage of having an online platform before, named Arqana Online,” says Choppin. “But it was quite different.

Originally, it was run under the format ‘one horse, one sale’ for ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| I N D U S T RY | | EUROPEAN SALES PROTOCOLS |

ARQANA

rather elite horses in training or stallion shares. So this is the first year that we’re moving it to a mainstream online platform to complement live bidding.” Arqana also produced videos of all the yearlings to be auctioned so buyers can get a first glimpse.

Goffs rolled out its online-only sales facility, Goffs Online, and held its first sale for Horses-in-Training Sale earlier this summer.

It complements Goffs’ existing live online bidding service, which was used at the Goffs/Arqana Breeze-Up Sale, the Goffs UK Summer Sale and the Goffs Landrover Sale. The new platform will be used for the Orby Sale to allow potential buyers to participate in the sale, while videos of yearlings will be uploaded to the site.

While online bidding would certainly seem to have a place in a post-COVID world, some within the industry remain sceptical that it can replace in-person contact, particularly for the yearling market. “I think for all other kinds of sales, especially broodmare sales and horses in training, the digital market will be a big help,” says Euenberger. “But for the yearling market it will be difficult.

I think people won’t buy yearlings they can’t see.”

Gp1 winning trainer-turned-bloodstock agent Valfredo Valiani agrees. “Unfortunately, I’m old fashioned,” he says. “I can’t see online sales as a substitute for the normal sales because I think that at the end of the day, you need to go and look at the horse.”

Valiani plans to attend sales in person this year as in previous years. “I like to check out the horse myself: to touch him, to touch

Select Yearling Sale brought forward to 8-10 September.

In-person, internet and telephone bidding were available.

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Yearling Sale took place on 4 September.

Closed to the public, with 500 approved agents admitted.

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 71

his legs and to see him walking. You have to have a feeling with horses. When you’re trying to understand if a horse is going to win, it’s not written on top of them.” Nevertheless, even Valiani accepts that in these strange times, digital sales might be the future: “During these times we have to try,” he says.

It is clear that, even as the world begins to return to a sense of normalcy, challenges lie ahead. Uncertainty is the nemesis of markets, runs the old economics adage, and the global thoroughbred industry is no exception. “I would say that the biggest challenge at the moment is the ongoing uncertainty and the prospect of no certain improvement by the end of the year,” says Choppin. “We keep getting organised to aim at a certain target, and then the target moves.” Perhaps the most radical innovation, however, is the way in which the industry has largely banded together to support its members—startling for an industry as stereotypically cut-throat as auctioneering. “I think sales companies throughout the world are all having to respond as best they can,” says George. “There’s been a huge spirit of cooperation amongst the sales houses in Europe and in all the major jurisdictions. We’re all having to work together. There’s a bigger picture than just one’s own particular commercial aims and aspirations. This is an industry we’re all facing these challenges together, and I think the way everybody has worked in a spirit of cooperation reflects extremely well on all concerned.”

Orby Sale will be held on revised dates of 1-2 October in Doncaster.

October Yearling Sales beginning with Book 1, 6-8 October.

Yearling Sales were held in Newmarket on 21-22 September.

Videos made available on Goffs Online.

In-person and telephone bidding available.

In-person and telephone bidding available.

In-person and telephone bidding available.

| VETERINARY |

MON ITORI NG Sarah Plevin

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Shutterstock, Hans van Schie

| MONITORING BOWED TENDONS |

O

verstrain injuries to the superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) are among the most common musculoskeletal injuries for all athletic equine disciplines but account for a significant amount of wastage in the thoroughbred racehorse.

Treatment options for such ‘bowed tendons’ are many and varied, but all have a couple of things in common: time out of training; expense and no guarantee of success.

It makes sense then, that prevention of injury should always be the goal, and failing that, a method to optimally guide rehabilitation is needed.

Unfortunately, limitations of current imaging diagnostics have restricted their use for accurately monitoring the tendon.

A new ultrasound technology, however, called ultrasound tissue characterisation, may get us one step closer to achieving the goals of injury prevention and optimal rehabilitation.

• What would the ideal tendon imaging modality allow us to do?

• Monitor the effects of exercise on the tendon • Early detection of overstrain injuries • Be able to stage the lesion, i.e., determine the level of degenerative change within the tendon structure • Fine-tune therapy • Guide rehabilitation

I

FIG 1

• Why are tendon injuries so tricky?

A normal healthy tendon is made from aligned organised tendon bundles.

(Fig 1) Deterioration of this structure ranges on a spectrum from complete disruption (core lesion) to more minor changes, but all affect the ability of the tendon to function optimally.

Degenerative changes within the tendon matrix are not uniform —meaning that not all overstrain injuries to the SDFT are represented Fig 1: Functionally normal healthy aligned tendon bundles.

by the same level of deterioration or structural change, so there is not a one-size-fits-all pathology or diagnosis, and therefore there cannot be a cure-all treatment.

Most tendon injuries have a sneaky onset with tendon degeneration developing initially without clinical signs, so problems start without you or your horse even knowing about them. Often by the time you realise there is a problem, tendon matrix degradation has already begun.

Staging the structural integrity of the tendon or classifying the extent of structural deterioration present is, therefore, imperative—not only for optimal therapy selection and appropriate rehabilitation guidance but also if prevention of injury is ever to be achieved.

• Why isn’t conventional ultrasound enough?

Unfortunately, although conventional ultrasound has historically been used to evaluate equine tendon, limitations have restricted its ability to accurately monitor tendon structure, predict injury or guide rehabilitation.

Clinical improvement is usually not accurately correlated with changes in imaging status using conventional ultrasound, especially in the later stages of healing with conventional ultrasound not demonstrating enough sensitivity to determine the type of tendon tissue under investigation.

So, while regular ultrasound can easily identify the presence of a core lesion when it first appears, by about two months post injury, its capacity to provide information regarding the health of the tendon is limited. Because of its inability to interpret the integrity of the underlying tendon structure accurately, along with inconsistencies in imaging, reliance on operator skills and the inherent lack of ability of a 2D conventional ultrasound image to fully decipher a 3D tendon structure, reliable evaluation and monitoring of the SDFT following the initial acute period is severely restricted.

• What is ultrasound tissue characterisation?

Ultrasound tissue characterisation is a relatively new technique intended to alleviate some of the problems encountered with conventional ultrasound by improving objective tendon characterisation.

It does this by providing a 3D reconstruction of the tendon and by classifying and then quantifying tendon tissue into one of four color-coded echo types based on the integrity of the tendon structure.

It can assess in detail the structural integrity of the tendon; it can discriminate a variety of pathological states and is sensitive enough to detect the effect of changing loads on the tendon within days.

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FIG 2

Fig 2: Color-coded ultrasound tissue characterisation echo types represent the stability of echo pattern over contiguous images related to tendon matrix integrity.

I

II

III

IV

+ Excursion of transducer

Beam axis Fig 3: Ultrasound tissue characterisation tracker frame with attached ultrasound probe.

Fig 4: Ultrasound tissue characterisation machine positioned over the SDFT. It is held with gentle steady pressure in this position for the 45 seconds it takes for the probe to move down the tendon and collect images. Horses need to stand still with all 4 limbs fully weight bearing during this time.

0

–

• What do the colors mean? (Fig 2)

FIG 3

Green (type 1 echoes) are normal, well-aligned and organised tendon bundles, and at least 85-90% of this echo type should be found in a healthy tendon (SDFT). Blue (type 2 echoes) are areas of wavy or swollen tendon bundles. They can represent remodelling and adapting tendon or inferior repair. Red (type 3 echoes) represents fibrillar tissue (the smaller basic unit or building block of tendon). This echo type can represent partial rupture of the tendon where they reflect breakdown of normal structure or they can represent initial healing as the tendon begins to rebuild. Black (type 4 echoes) are areas of cells or fluid and represent core lesions where no normal tendon tissue exists.

• How is ultrasound tissue characterisation currently used?

The aim of ultrasound tissue characterisation is not to replace conventional ultrasound but on the contrary, it is recommended to perform an evaluation with both conventional B mode ultrasound and ultrasound tissue characterisation to achieve a complete picture of tendon health.

Currently it is used successfully in elite human athletes such as NBA and soccer players to monitor the health of their tendons (Achilles tendon and patellar tendons) and to guide exercise regimens post injury.

In the equine field, it is used in elite sport horses as part of routine maintenance evaluations to direct exercise, to monitor tendon health and guide rehabilitation following an injury.

FIG 4

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• How does it work?

It consists of a standard linear ultrasound probe mounted onto a motorised tracking device (Fig 3). Due to the sensitivity of this equipment, the limbs should be clipped in order to obtain good quality images.

The probe moves non-invasively and automatically down the tendon from top to bottom over a 12-cm scanning distance (Fig 4): As it does so, transverse images are captured at regular distances and stored in real time in a high-capacity laptop for processing. Images are automatically recorded every 0.2 mm to generate a 3D tendon volume made up of 600 images (Fig 5). This precise spatial ‘stacking’ of images is simply not possible to achieve with conventional ultrasound and is fundamental to the ultrasound tissue characterisation technology. Image acquisition takes approximately 45 seconds.

| MONITORING BOWED TENDONS |

FIG 5

This tendon volume can subsequently be used for visualisation of the tendon in 3D, for tissue characterisation (to determine the structural composition of the tendon) and for quantification of tendon matrix integrity. (Fig 6) The color-coded echo types provide objective information regarding the integrity of the tendon matrix and are thought to reflect the underlying tendon health. Ultrasound tissue characterisation can discriminate between healthy normal tendon, adaptive/remodelling tendon and injured/healing tendon—often in cases where conventional ultrasound is unremarkable in appearance. (Fig 7) The key to this technology is to perform successive evaluations. This allows comparison of differences in tendon structure between scans. Such consecutive examinations, along with clinical data and history, allow veterinarians to determine if a tendon is static, adaptive, healing or degenerating; and this information enables changes in training intensity to be made accordingly. (Fig 8)

FIG 6

• Research Published research has reported correlation of ultrasound tissue characterisation echo types with histological studies, meaning they correspond to postmortem findings.

Numerous peer-reviewed research studies exist, documenting the ability of ultrasound tissue characterisation to evaluate and monitor tendons both in human and equine athletes.

Research has reported ultrasound tissue characterisation to be highly reproducible with the ability to detect subtle changes in tendon structure in response to exercise loads in both human and equine athletes—something not possible utilising conventional imaging modalities.

Two studies specific to the thoroughbred racehorse exist both demonstrating the ability of ultrasound tissue characterisation to monitor changes in tendon structure.

• How can it be used in the racehorse?

It is widely accepted that complete removal of load on tendons post injury is deleterious for tendon health, and the complete removal of exercise is only advocated in the very acute inflammatory phase following a tendon injury. Appropriately progressive loading of the tendon is desired to stimulate remodelling and healing, and this is where ultrasound tissue characterisation may prove to be most useful.

FIG 7

FIG 8

Fig 5: Stacking up of regular transverse ultrasound images to create a 3D rendition of the tendon.

Fig 6: Grayscale and colored images of the tendon in transverse, longitudinal, coronal and 3D coronal. To generate the picture in color, the computer classifies and quantifies tendon structure into 1 of 4 color-coded echo types representing structural integrity.

Fig 7: Image on the left shows a conventional grayscale ultrasound image that is unremarkable.

Conversely, the image on the right depicts an ultrasound tissue characterisation image of the same tendon and shows an area of suspected injury (see arrow).

Fig 8: Image from a show jumper depicting tendon matrix degradation prior to clinical signs.

This information has the potential to provide opportunity for early intervention and a change in exercise level prior to clinical injury. Research is ongoing to validate any predictive capabilities that this technology may have and to develop optimal evaluation programs.

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FIG 9

| MONITORING BOWED TENDONS |

adjust and tailor exercise regimens for the specific needs of the individual tendon and horse, allowing for informed decisions regarding the tendon’s capacity for performance. (Fig 9)

• The future: injury prediction?

Fig 9: Suggested timeline of repair visualised using ultrasound tissue characterisation. As healing progresses, the proportion of red and black echoes decrease and blue and green increase.

Typically, an exercise regimen post injury follows a generic format using clinical signs and conventional ultrasound as the only methods of assessment. But because most early tendon degradation is silent and conventional ultrasound struggles to decipher the integrity of the tendon unless a lesion is present, it has been traditionally difficult to precisely guide exercise regimens during rehabilitation.

By providing real-time information regarding the integrity of the tendon matrix, ultrasound tissue characterisation, in contrast, allows veterinarians to take advantage of the limitedtime window of opportunity that exists for appropriate tendon remodelling after injury. By mapping the ultrastructure of the healing tendon and its remodelling response to exercise at each step in the rehabilitation regimen, it allows optimisation of the most vital tool we have in our rehabilitation arsenal: exercise.

While ultrasound tissue characterisation technology is groundbreaking in its ability to non-invasively evaluate tendon structure and aid in tendon rehabilitation, it must be remembered that once a tendon is injured it will always be inferior to an uninjured tendon. Scar tissue will always be scar tissue. So, while green echoes are the goal (normal and aligned tendon bundles) and represent success for a rehabilitating tendon, they still just represent scar tissue—albeit aligned appropriately and in the best state to combat the strains of training and racing. This technology doesn’t remove the risk of reinjury in the bowed tendon, and it doesn’t provide information regarding its biochemical makeup.

It simply tells us if the tendon is structurally normal; and by doing so, it improves our ability to monitor and guide healing.

It provides veterinarians the best opportunity, currently, to

While the current scientific literature seems to support the use of ultrasound tissue characterisation to guide rehabilitation and monitor the effects of changing loads during training on the tendon, anecdotal accounts from both human and equine clinical practice also report the ability of ultrasound tissue characterisation to warn of impending injury. Although human research is currently ongoing to definitively confirm this, equine research is needed to determine any predictive capabilities it may have in the thoroughbred racehorse. For now, however, the evidence suggests that ultrasound tissue characterisation can reliably and accurately be used to help guide rehabilitation of injured tendons—in both humans and horses—providing potential for a more successful return from injury.

References 1) van Schie HT, Bakker EM, Jonker AM and van Weeren PR. Efficacy of computerized discrimination between structure-related and non-structurerelated echoes in ultrasonographic images for the quantitative evaluation of the structural integrity of superficial digital flexor tendons in horses. Am J Vet Res 2001; 62(7): 1159-1166.

2) van Schie HT, Bakker EM, Cherdchutham W, Jonker AM, van de Lest CH, van Weeren PR. Monitoring of the repair process of surgically created lesions in equine superficial digital flexor tendons by use of computerized ultrasonography. Am J Vet Res. 2009; 70(1): 37-48.

3) Docking SI, Rosengarten SD, Cook J. Achilles tendon structure improves on UTC imaging over a 5-month pre-season in elite Australian football players.

Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2016;(26) 557-563.

4) Docking SI. Tendon structure changes after maximal exercise in the Thoroughbred horse: use of ultrasound tissue characterization to detect in vivo tendon response. Vet J. 2012 Dec;194(3):338-342.

5) S. Plevin, J. McLellan, H. van Schie, T. Parkin. Ultrasound tissue characterization of the superficial digital flexor tendons in juvenile Thoroughbred racehorses during early race training. Equine Veterinary Journal 2019;51:349-355.

6) Jarrod Antflick. Management of Tendinopathies with Ultrasound Tissue Characterization. SportEX Medicine 2014;61(July):26-30.

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FA C TORS FOR RACIN G ABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY Judy Wardrope

E

Eclipse Sportswire, Judy Wardrope

veryone wants to be able to pick a future star on the track, ideally, one that can compete at the stakes level for several seasons. In order to increase the probability of finding such a gem, many buyers and agents look at the pedigree of a horse and the abilities displayed by its relatives, but that is not always an accurate predictor of future success. When looking at a potential racehorse, the mechanical aspects of its conformation usually override the lineage, unless of course, the conformation actually matches the pedigree.

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For our purposes, we will examine three horses at the end of their three-year-old campaigns and one at the end of her fourth year. In order to provide the best educational value, these four horses were chosen because they offer a reasonable measure of success or failure on the track, have attractive pedigrees and were all offered for sale as racing prospects in a November mixed sale. The fillies were also offered as broodmare prospects.

Is it possible to tell which ones were the better racehorses and predict the best distances for those who were successful? Do their race records match their pedigrees? Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s see.

| C O N F O R M AT I O N |

HORSE 1 Horse #1 This gelding (photographed as a three-year-old) is by Horse of the Year Mineshaft and out of a daughter of Giants Causeway, a pedigree that would suggest ability at classic distances. He brought a final bid of $275k as a yearling and $45k as a maiden racing-prospect at the end of his threeyear-old year after earning $19,150. His story did not end there, however. He went back to racing, changed trainers a few times, was claimed and then won a minor stakes at a mile while adding over $77k to his total earnings. All but one of his 18 races (3-3-3) were on the dirt, and he was still in training at the time of writing.

Structurally, he has some good points, but he is not built to be a superior athlete nor a consistent racehorse. His LS gap (just in front of the high point of croup) is considerably rearward from a line drawn from the top point of one hip to the top of the other. In other words, he was not particularly strong in the transmission and would likely show inconsistency because his back would likely spasm from his best efforts.

His stifle placement, based on the visible protrusion, is just below sheath level, which is in keeping with a horse preferring distances around eight or nine furlongs.

However, his femur side (from point of buttock to stifle protrusion) of the rear triangle is shorter than the ilium side (point of hip to point of buttock), which not only adds

stress to the hind legs, but it changes the ellipse of the rear stride and shortens the distance preference indicated by stifle placement. Horses with a shorter femur travel with their hocks behind them do not reach as far under their torsos as horses that are even on the ilium and femur sides.

While the difference is not pronounced on this horse, it is discernable and would have an effect.

He exhibits three factors for lightness of the forehand: a distinct rise to the humerus (from elbow to point of shoulder), a high base of neck and a pillar of support (as indicated by a line extended through the naturally occurring groove in the forearm) that emerges well in front of the withers. The bottom of his pillar also emerges just into the rear quarter of his hoof, which, along with his lightness of the forehand, would aid with soundness for his forequarters.

The muscling at the top of his forearm extends over the elbow, which is a good indication that he is tight in the elbow on that side. He developed that muscle in that particular fashion because he has been using it as a brake to prevent the elbow from contacting the ribcage. (Note that the tightness of the elbow can vary from side to side on any horse.)

He ran according to his build, not his pedigree, and may well continue to run in that manner. He is more likely to have hind leg and back issues than foreleg issues.

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HORSE 2 Horse #2 This filly (photographed as a three-year-old) is by champion sprinter Speightstown and out of a gradedstakes-placed daughter of Hard Spun that was best at about a mile. The filly raced at two and three years of age, earning $26,075 with a lifetime record of 6 starts, one win, one second and one third—all at sprinting distances on the dirt. She did not meet her reserve price at the sale when she was three.

Unlike Horse #1, her LS gap is much nearer the line from hip to hip and well within athletic limits. But, like Horse #1, she is shorter on the femur side of her rear triangle, which means that although her stifle protrusion is well below sheath level, the resultant rear stride would be restricted, and she would be at risk for injury to the hind legs, particularly from hock down.

She only has two of three factors for lightness of the forehand: the top of the pillar emerges well in front of the withers, and she has a high point of neck. Unlike the rest of the horses, she does not have much rise from elbow to point of shoulder, which equates with more horse in front of the pillar as well as a slower, lower stride on the forehand. In addition, the muscling at the top of her forearm is placed directly over her elbow… even more so than on Horse #1. She would not want to use her full

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range of motion of the foreleg and would apply the brake/ muscle she developed in order to lift the foreleg off the ground before the body had fully rotated over it to avoid the elbow/rib collision. This often results in a choppy stride. However, it should be noted that the bottom of her pillar emerges into the rear quarter of her hoof, which is a factor for soundness of the forelegs.

Her lower point of shoulder combined with her tight elbow would not make for an efficient stride of the forehand, and her shorter femur would not make for an efficient stride of the hindquarters.

Her construction explains why she performed better as a two-year-old than she did as a three-year-old.

It is likely that the more she trained and ran, the more uncomfortable she became, and that she would favor either the hindquarters or the forequarters, or alternate between them.

She did not race nearly as well as her lineage would suggest.

Horse #3 This filly (photographed as a three-year-old) is by champion two-year-old, Midshipman, and out of a multiple stakes-producing daughter of Unbridled’s Song.

She raced at two and three years of age and became a

| C O N F O R M AT I O N |

HORSE 3

stakes-winner (Gr3) as a three-year-old, tallying over $425k in lifetime earnings from 12 starts. Although she did win one of her two starts on turf, she was best at 8 to 8.5 furlongs on the main track. She brought a bid of $775k at the sale and was headed to life as a broodmare.

Her LS gap is just slightly rearward of a line drawn from hip to hip and is therefore well within the athletic range.

Her rear triangle is of equal distance on the ilium and femur sides, plus her stifle protrusion would be just below sheath level if she were male. She has the engine of an 8- to 9-furlong horse and the transmission to utilise that engine.

Aside from all three factors for lightness of the forehand (pillar emerging well in front of the withers, good rise of the humerus from elbow to point of shoulder and a high base of neck), the bottom of her pillar emerges into the rear quarter of her hoof to aid in soundness.

Although she shows muscle development at the top of her forearm, the muscling does not extend over her elbow the way it does on the previous two horses. Her near side does not exhibit the tell-tale muscle of a horse with a tight elbow, and thus, she would be comfortable using a full range of motion of the forehand.

Proportionately, she has the shortest neck of the sample horses, which may be one of the reasons she has developed the muscle at the top of her forearm. Since

horses use their necks to aid in lifting the forehand and extending the stride, she may compensate by using the muscle over her humerus to assist in those purposes.

Of the sample horses, she is the closest to matching heritage and ability.

Horse #4 This filly (photographed as a four-year-old) is by Belmont winner, Union Rags, and out of a multiple stakesproducing daughter of Smart Strike, making her a halfsister to a millionaire. Her $375k price tag as a two-yearold-in-training was the highest for a filly from her sireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first crop. She won stakes races at two (Gr1), three (Gr2 placed) and four (Gr2); and pocketed a tidy $537,625.

Her 11 starts were all at the stakes level, and her wins were at 6.5 and 7 furlongs despite her lineage. She did not reach her reserve at the auction at which she was photographed; instead, plans were made to send her to the court of none other than Frankel.

Although she is a year older than the other horses, she was included as a model for comparison in certain areas.

One of the first things to note about this filly is that she does not have the muscling most people associate with a sprinter of her caliber. Lack of conditioning is likely not the reason as the catalogue listed her last work was only a ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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HORSE 4

month before the photo was taken. Horse #3 last worked two months before being photographed, Horse #2 last worked five months previously and Horse #1 last worked 1.5 months prior.

She does not have a pedigree one would normally associate with sprinting, yet her conformation favoured distances under a mile. Her LS is within athletic limits; her ilium and femur sides are essentially equal, her stifle protrusion would be just at the bottom of the sheath on a male, she is light on the forehand, and her pillar emerges into the rear quarter of her hoof.

It is also worth noting that her elbow appears to be well away from her ribcage, allowing her the freedom for a full range of motion of her forequarters. Consequently, she does not show a well-defined muscle at the top of the forearm.

This contrasts with the other horses. Remember, Horse #1 shows muscle development over the forearm and a bit over the elbow, indicating he may be shortening his full range of motion to avoid a collision between elbow and ribs. Horse #2 definitely shows the classic sign of tight elbowsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;obvious muscling over the elbow. Horse #3 shows muscling over the center of the forearm, but not over the elbow.

She may have inherited the athleticism of her immediate ancestors, but she did not inherit their classic distance preferences.

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Lessons learned A lot of things go into the making of a successful racehorse: conformation, training, desire, etc. Naturally, the competitive nature of a horse or its level of pain tolerance cannot be known until the horse is tested; however, it is reasonable to assume that the horse that is built to comfortably do the job and stay sound while doing that job is likely to run better than the horse that is competitive by nature or has a high pain threshold but is built to have little ability and/or little sustainability.

No single factor determines ability, but a single factor can limit ability. Superior LS placement is not that prevalent in horses and is certainly a determining factor in athleticism and the ability to compensate for some minor deficiencies, but it does not make a racehorse. Although Horse #2 has the strongest LS placement of our sample horses, she has the poorest race record due to other deficiencies.

It is natural for our eye to be caught by the shiny horse with well-defined muscles and a strong pedigree, but our eye can be fooled without further analysis, as Horse #4 proves.

The bottom line is that picking a future star at the track takes more than a marketable catalogue page and straight legs. Athletes have to be built to be athleticâ&#x20AC;Śand sound.

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WIT HOUT PR EJUDICE HOW ANTI-DOPING RULES LEAVE TRAINERS AT RISK

A

fter a recent spate of positive samples occurring in German racehorses, where the trainers in question were exonerated fully of any duplicity, it is time to look at whether Europe’s anti-doping rules protect the integrity of the sport to the possible detriment of the professionals whose livelihood is dependent on an honest record.

‘Innocent until proven guilty’ is a maxim relied upon by the justice system worldwide, but it becomes less clear cut in the racing world. With a public image to maintain and improve and the omnipresent perceived threat of foul play from gambling opportunities, upholding the good repute of the sport is given higher priority by some of racing’s authorities than protecting the reputation of the professionals working within it.

We have only to look back to the high-profile case of former jockey Kieran Fallon, which in July 2006 saw him suspended by the BHA until an impending court case acquitted him in December 2007. What subsequently amounted to a 17-month suspension was justified by the panel of the former Horseracing Regulatory Authority because “the integrity of horseracing is impugned by such conduct. Our task is to balance the potentially

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conflicting interests of, on the one hand, the reputation and integrity of racing and, on the other hand, the right of the individual to pursue his chosen career.

“There is a strong likelihood that during such a period racing would be severely damaged both by the possibility of further race fixing, and the perception of such; and by the adverse reaction of many members of the racing public to the concept that a jockey charged with an offence is permitted to continue to participate.”

The decision was made not to grant a licence renewal until the conclusion of the trial. Fallon said at the time, “The HRA ruled me guilty without trial by banning me from racing.”

While this is an extreme example, it stands as a stark reminder of the fragility of the licencing system in the face of integrity accusations, particularly when so many recent breaches of anti-doping rules have absolved the trainer of any responsibility.

Contamination and cross-contamination cases have highlighted how difficult it can be to prevent positive samples occurring; and with only disqualification to be gained from administering performance-enhancing drugs, malicious doping becomes an even greater threat when tightened anti-doping rules put licences and careers on the line.

Lissa Oliver

France Galop, Fank Sorge, Giles Anderson, Shutterstock

| ANTI-DOPING RULES |

WE HAVE TO ENSURE THAT OUR RULES IN RELATION TO ANTI-DOPING ARE SUFFICIENTLY ROBUST, BUT ALSO THAT AS MUCH AS IS POSSIBLE IN SUCH A TECHNICAL AREA EVERYONE BOUND BY THE RULES UNDERSTANDS WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THEM.” TIM NAYLOR, BHA

With this in mind, a number of updates to the British Equine Anti-Doping Rules, primarily to clarify how the Responsible Person can avoid a penalty under such circumstances, came into effect from 1 September 2020 but have been described as “a mixed bag for trainers” by National Trainers Federation (NTF) Chief Executive Rupert Arnold.

The changes by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) came as a result of a comprehensive review of the Equine Anti-Doping Rules undertaken in 2018, following a number of Disciplinary Panel cases which called into question previous assumptions regarding the rules and how they should be applied—prompted largely by the case of malicious doping involving a filly trained

by Hughie Morrison (pictured above).

Morrison was charged in May 2017 with breaching the rules of racing, after the filly Our Little Sister tested positive for nandrolone following a race in January of that year in which she finished last. Facing the possibility of a ban of between one and 10 years, Morrison sought police help and offered a cash reward for any information to support his innocence.

“What on Earth could I have to gain from this?” he stated at the time. “Our Little Sister was a horse of limited ability, in a race with hardly any prize money, and there was no unusual betting on it. You’re basically committing suicide by giving any horse the substance which was found in Our Little Sister. Racing is my life.

My reputation is everything.”

The filly was at a racecourse with three other stable runners at the time the nandrolone was thought to have been administered and had been left unattended due to an injury to another of the runners. “As the rules stand, the onus is on me as the licence holder to establish who administered an anabolic steroid to Our Little Sister,” accepted Morrison.

The trainer escaped any ban by the BHA Disciplinary Panel in December 2017, though he was found in breach of the Rules of Racing and given a £1,000 fine. Jamie Stier, then chief regulatory officer for the BHA, explained of this conflicting decision, “The rules are clear that it is the trainer’s responsibility to prevent horses taking part in our sport with prohibited substances in their system. It is important, therefore, that the trainer in this case has accepted he was in breach of the Rules of Racing, and that the Disciplinary Panel has confirmed that as the Responsible Person, Mr Morrison is in breach of the Rules.”

The subsequent review of the Rules has led to simplifying them to understand and follow, whilst the BHA maintains they still protect those who work in, follow or bet on British racing. In conducting the review, the NTF, UK and World Anti-Doping agencies, as well as sport horse bodies such as the FEI, were consulted.

The main changes to the Rules, which were last updated in 2015 in the wake of the 2013 Mahmood Al Zarooni (pictured above) steroid scandal, relate to the circumstances in which the Responsible Person may be found in breach of the Rules but not be penalised when a case is heard in front of an independent Disciplinary Panel.

Cautions, rather than fines, are now available for lower level breaches, and suspended sanctions are also available for breaches.

However, the Rules also demand that if a horse tests positive for a prohibited substance, in order to avoid a penalty the Responsible Person must establish the precise source of the positive finding and prove they had taken all reasonable precautions. As is clear from the Morrison case, establishing the source of a positive sample may not be possible and would certainly be an expensive and lengthy process.

Tim Naylor, director of Integrity and Regulation at the BHA, states, “We have to ensure that our Rules in relation to anti-doping are sufficiently robust, but also that as much as is possible in such a technical area everyone bound by the Rules understands what is required of them. Whilst in places the requirements upon ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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EVERY ONE OF THE 7,300 RACES RUN EACH YEAR IN FRANCE ARE SUBJECT TO AT LEAST ONE CONTROL. WITH 30,000 RANDOM CHECKS, THIS REPRESENTS 11,272 SAMPLES TAKEN FROM THE 77,757 RUNNERS ANNUALLY.” the Responsible Person have been strengthened, there have also been changes to allow more appropriate penalties for lower- and mid-level breaches of the Rules.”

However, the NTF argues that while the BHA took on board the need to remove penalties where malicious administration could be proved, strict liability reverses the principle of innocent until proven guilty by putting the onus on the defendant to prove innocence—in this case by having to prove the precise source of the prohibited substance.

“This is notoriously difficult to do,” Rupert Arnold points out.

“Even the BHA says in its note to trainers that to place the burden of establishing the source of the positive sample on the regulator ‘would make enforcing an effective anti-doping regime impossible, due to the access and resource implications.’ The regulator has comparatively greater resources than most trainers.”

The BHA and NTF have agreed on restructured penalties, including the option of cautioning a trainer instead of imposing a financial penalty for the least culpable breaches, thereby protecting a trainer where a treatment has been correctly administered on veterinary advice, all guidelines have been adhered to and the horse has still provided a positive test.

However, the minimum sanction of a suspended disqualification in addition to a financial penalty for the lowest-level breach for prohibited substances is a contentious issue. “If the Panel is satisfied, the trainer had no knowledge of the substance’s administration and had taken reasonable precautions, a suspended disqualification is an unwarranted stain on the trainer’s reputation,” Arnold insists. “We appealed to the BHA Board to allow the Panel discretion to impose a financial-only penalty in the right circumstances. It is very disappointing that they chose not to allow that discretion.”

France Galop also updated its Anti-Doping Rules as of 1 January 2020. A new procedure for storing samples for ten years has now been implemented so that samples can be checked retrospectively when new research becomes available. From January, horses under four years of age may not be treated with bisphosphonates.

Additionally, prescription registers are now recognised and supervised by France Galop.

France Galop already boasts one of the largest anti-doping resources in European jurisdictions, with an annual budget of more than €10 million specifically allocated. Every one of the 7,300 races run each year in France are subject to at least one control. With 30,000 random checks, this represents 11,272 samples taken from

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EVERY ONE OF THE 7,300 RACES RUN EACH YEAR IN FRANCE ARE SUBJECT TO AT LEAST ONE CONTROL. WITH 30,000 RANDOM CHECKS, THIS REPRESENTS 11,272 SAMPLES TAKEN FROM THE 77,757 RUNNERS ANNUALLY.”

ABOVE: In Germany this summer, five horses tested positive for caffeine which was traced to contaminated feed that contained apple pomace.

the 77,757 runners annually. France also carries out the most unannounced checks during training—more than 900 per year.

Meanwhile, in August, after much pressure by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), the Irish regulatory board extended its random testing to unlicensed premises. The minister at the time for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Dara Calleary TD, welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), providing IHRB officers with enhanced investigative powers with regard to the use of animal remedies.

Calleary explained, “This Memorandum aims to advance the already collaborative working arrangements between my Department and the IHRB to improve the oversight, investigative and enforcement powers of the horseracing industry to support animal welfare and to strengthen domestic and international confidence in its brand. Whilst extending the powers of the IHRB officers, the Memorandum does not alter the criteria or sanctioning process of the IHRB. Related prosecutions will remain at the discretion of my Department.”

IHRB officers will be trained to exercise powers and functions of authorised officers, such as seizing unauthorised or prohibited animal remedies, in relation to horses, land, premises and people across the sector. This will include thoroughbred breeders, their breeding establishments, or horses from other establishments which have not yet entered training; licenced persons and horses

| ANTI-DOPING RULES | in their possession; and any owner. “It’s one part of an overall welfare story that is going to be a strong focus for the industry. And it’s a positive focus,” HRI Chief Executive Brian Kavanagh said.

The welfare aspect of drug testing and anti-doping has always been to the fore in Germany, but positive samples made the headlines this summer when in July five horses tested positive for caffeine, including the subsequently disqualified Deutsche Derby third, Grocer Jack. The prohibited substance was traced to contaminated feed, and the manufacturer responsible admitted adding apple pomace, residue from the production of apple juice, which contained caffeine traces. Under those circumstances, the trainers concerned were not punished.

ABOVE: Marcus Klug, Moonlight Man & jockey Maxim Pecheur.

“Not least for reasons of animal welfare, Deutscher Galopp continues to adhere to the policy of zero tolerance that has been practiced for many years and to a consistent, internationally exemplary anti-doping policy. In this case, the trainer cannot be accused of intent or negligence,” stated Michael Vesper, president of Deutscher Galopp. “The normally applicable starting ban of six weeks was not imposed in this particular case. In this situation it is only fair to give the horses the chance to start.” Prior to their next start, a further doping test was required to show there were no longer any prohibited substances in the horses’ systems.

The five cases led to Deutscher Galopp issuing a statement on the subject of feed, warning that the positive samples were possibly caused by apple pomace, which is contained in some animal feed and can be metabolised to caffeine. Trainers were urged not to use products containing apple pomace with immediate effect.

Even more recently, Moonlight Man was disqualified from two wins in August as he had returned positive for methocarbamol, a muscle relaxant, which far from being a performance enhancer is thought to weaken a horse’s performance. Although samples taken after his second win were negative, that race fell within the six-week ban period. How the substance got into the sample is currently unclear.

What is clear is that trainers can take every recommended precaution, but mistakes may still occur. If the regulatory body is unable to invest the time and finance to trace the origin of a positive sample, given the resources at their disposal, it is surely unreasonable to expect a trainer to have to do so in order to prove his or her innocence. Shouldn’t the onus remain with the regulators to prove guilt?

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EQUINE INFECTIOUS DISEASE C

OVID-19 has affected all corners of the thoroughbred world and has changed lives, work patterns and the social activity that underpins racing. One of its minor impacts was that this year, the Gerald Leigh Memorial Lecture series, usually coordinated by Beaufort Cottage Educational Trust at the National Horseracing Museum, Palace House, Newmarket each summer, was cancelled.

This annual lecture series is supported by the Gerald Leigh Charitable Trust in honour of Mr Leigh’s passion for the thoroughbred horse and its health and welfare. Coincidentally, the topic which had been selected for 2020 was Minimising Risk from Equine Infectious Disease. Finding that a meeting was impossible, the trustees organised for presentations to be filmed remotely, and these are now available online.

SCAN THE QR CODE TO WATCH THE LECTURES SERIES INTRODUCTION BY NICK WINGFIELD DIGBY, CHAIRMAN, BEAUFORT COTTAGE TRUST.

• Gastrointestinal disease in the first year of life Gastrointestinal disease is a common problem in foals and youngstock with potentially serious illnesses involved. Dr Nathan Slovis, director of the McGee Center, Lexington, Kentucky, USA, explained that by six months of age, 20% of foals will have had infectious diarrhoea. Dr Slovis presents a concise and very practical account of how we can minimise risk of infection in this age group.

The specific causes of gastrointestinal disease vary with age.

Foals frequently display mild diarrhoea at around the time of the foal heat, generally a problem that will clear up uneventfully.

Major infections in foals include rotavirus, Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium difficile. Infectious disease can be life-threatening if infection leads to shock, so every gastrointestinal case should be assessed carefully; early intervention is critical.

Vaccines are available to help minimise risk of rotavirus but prevention relies primarily on proper hygiene and appropriate choice of disinfectants, which vary depending on the particular microorganism concerned.

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SCAN THE QR CODE TO WATCH THE PRESENTATION

BY DR NATHAN SLOVIS, DIRECTOR OF THE MCGEE CENTER, LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY.

• Diagnosis: PCR and ELISA technologies The speed and availability of laboratory testing have been revolutionised in recent years with the introduction of ELISA and PCR technology. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is an immunological assay commonly used to measure antibodies, antigens or proteins. An ELISA test relies on finding a molecule which is unique to a virus or bacteria and is used to find several equine pathogens, including rotavirus, Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens.

PCR technology rapidly makes millions to billions of copies of a specific DNA sample, allowing the lab to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it to a large enough amount to study in detail. Rapid tests are now available, which have revolutionised the diagnostic approach across a huge range of equine infections; relevant to foal diarrhoea is that this technology is used for rapid testing of faecal samples for Salmonella.

In addition to being extremely quick, both PCR and ELISA tests are very sensitive. Dr Slovis emphasised how important this is in early identification of diseases with the potential to spread rapidly in young horses.

• Auditing environmental contamination All the speakers in the webinar series spoke of the importance of robust biosecurity and common themes emerged in all four webinars regardless of the animals’ age or whether respiratory, skin or gastrointestinal infection is involved.

Dr Slovis’ clinical practice includes offering services to identify areas of environmental contamination. This involves a detailed inspection of all areas on the farm together with laboratory

Celia M Marr

20 TIPS FOR BIOSECURITY ON STUD FARMS AND RACING YARDS HORSES 1 Quarantine new arrivals.

2 Keep vaccines up to date.

3 Avoid mixing age groups and create separate housing zones for 2-year-olds apart from older horses.

4 Establish mini-herds of foals of similar age that can be turned out together and housed near each other.

5 Be alert to early signs of infection such as loss of appetite, listlessness, nasal discharge, coughing, enlarged lymph nodes, diarrhoea; and keep records of any observations, no matter how minor they may seem initially.

6 Take temperatures, and make sure staff know this should be less than 38.4oC. 7 Seek veterinary advice quickly if horses are ill but do not move, and horses that are sick except for isolation or veterinary treatment.

8 Keep records of horse movements on the property so that contacts can be traced if there is a disease outbreak.

FACILITIES 9 Keep buildings in good repair with tidy and easily cleaned surfaces and storage areas.

10 Ensure ventilation is adequate.

11 Keep rodents under control, and avoid keeping other animals in the stable area.

12 Demand high standards of cleanliness in all areas; disinfectant is not effective where there is dirt and debris. Clean first then disinfect.

13 Regularly clean and disinfect horseboxes and shared facilities such as vet and farrier rooms, stocks, weight bridges, spas and treadmills.

14 Don’t forget to clean and decontaminate areas which people use, like tack rooms, staff rooms and toilets.

15 Pay particular attention to including hand-touch areas such as stable and cupboard door fittings, electrical switches, kettles, fridges and computer keyboards.

WORKING PRACTICES 16 Optimise daily stable hygiene, especially foaling boxes and those with young foals.

17 Do not share tack, feed and water bowls amongst horses; and make sure all this equipment is clean and well maintained.

18 Highlight the importance of personal hygiene to all your staff; this includes ensuring they reserve work clothes for work, keep boots clean and emphasise hand hygiene.

Washing then towel drying is more effective than using disinfectant gels, but gels are better than nothing.

19 Attend to sick horses last, or ask a separate staff member to deal with them. Wear separate protective clothing and footwear, and use separate equipment when working with sick horses. Make sure staff know how to put on and remove protective clothing without contaminating it.

20 Don’t wait for problems to arise before acting. Develop a strict timetable for regular cleaning and decontamination; keep records of when areas are deep cleaned, and consider periodic audit of environmental contamination.

| EQUINE INFECTIOUS DISEASE | testing for the common pathogens. Key benefits of a facility evaluation service are to help support staff education and to highlight areas of weakness in biosecurity practices; and farmers and vets can work together to devise practical solutions to farm-specific problems. In his webinar, Dr Slovis shows some great examples of what not to do, which are drawn from his extensive experience of advising on biosecurity practices in equine facilities.

• Infectious challenges in young horses on training yards Peter Ramzan, member of the Racing Team at Rossdales LLP, Newmarket discussed how to reduce risks when horses move into training. Piet is a fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and has written extensively on a range of disorders affecting horses in training. He summarised three areas relevant to this age group: lower respiratory tract disease, ringworm and the rare but sporadic disease threats such as strangles and neurological herpes.

SCAN THE QR CODE TO WATCH THE PRESENTATION

BY PETER RAMZAN, A MEMBER OF THE RACING TEAM AT ROSSDALES LLP, NEWMARKET, UK.

• Lower respiratory tract disease This problem is mainly responsible for coughing and affects around 80% of two-year-olds and 25% of three-year-olds. Research in Newmarket has shown that for every 100 horses, there are around 10 cases each month, but prevalence varies between yards and seasons with a peak in early spring. Bacteria are believed to be a more common cause than viral infection, but both can cause coughing and can occur simultaneously.

• Prevention is better than cure Exposure to disease-causing microorganisms is inevitable and cannot be prevented, but risk of clinical disease can be reduced by optimising immunity. It is helpful if exposure occurs prior to or early in training.

Ramzan concluded that homebreds that have bypassed public sales and the inevitable mixing with other horses there are at greater risk of interruptions to their training when they do enter yards as two-yearolds. He went on to emphasise that it is not necessarily helpful to aggressively treat respiratory infections in pre-training—better to let infection run through yearlings and young two-year-olds, providing that they remain mildly affected as this helps them build immunity to protect them during their racing careers.

As well as discussing the biosecurity measures which apply across all age groups and disease threats, particular points that Ramzan emphasised for reducing the impact of infectious disease in training yards included the importance of avoiding the introduction of yearlings to the main yards before the end of the season and adoption of a strategic vaccination programme. Vaccines should be given to horses in a year ahead of the influx of yearlings while maintaining immunity throughout the racing season; autumn and spring boosters are most likely to achieve this.

• Antimicrobial stewardship It is increasingly clear that overuse of antimicrobials is promoting resistance to these potentially lifesaving drugs. Vets and trainers should avoid their use, except where bacterial infection is highly likely, or ideally confirmed with laboratory testing. Ideally the lowest class of antibiotics should be used first, reserving protected classes, such as enrofloxacin and ceftiofur. Ramzan shared data from his practice over the last two decades which showed an alarming increase in resistance to oxytetracycline, which is the commonly used antimicrobial. Conversely, in the same period, oral trimethoprim sulphonamide, which is not used as much as it could be, has had a rise in sensitivity, likely because it is not used as often as it could be.

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• Herpes virus Type 1: a uniquely challenging foe Professor Lutz Goehring, head of Equine Medicine and Reproduction at Ludwig-Maximilian University, in Munich, Germany, has had a distinguished research career focussed on equine herpes type 1 (EHV1). This virus has the potential to cause both abortion storms and outbreaks of neurological disease in all age groups, including horses in training.

SCAN THE QR CODE TO WATCH THE PRESENTATION

BY PROF. LUTZ GOEHRING IS HEAD OF EQUINE MEDICINE AND REPRODUCTION AT LUDWIGMAXIMILIAN UNIVERSITY, IN MUNICH, GERMANY. EHV1, like its virus relatives that cause cold sores in humans, has the ability to become latent. This means that the virus can sit in an inactive form in certain nerves and lymph node tissues, only to be reactivated and start to spread amongst groups of horses. While latent, the virus is out of reach of the immune system. Latent infection with EHV1 is widespread in horse populations globally.

Reactivation of EHV1 is not a common event, but it is associated with “stressful” situations such as mixing with new horses, transport, above-normal exercise, and in mares with foaling.

Understanding the mechanisms involved in reactivation, spread to other horses and subsequent uptake of the virus into tissues— such as the placenta and fetus to cause abortion and to the spinal cord to cause neurological signs and paralysis—has been the main focus of Prof Goehring’s research career.

EHV1 is easy to kill with soaps and disinfectants when it is outside the body, again highlighting the importance of good biosecurity practices in studs and training yards. The virus spreads from horse to horse when there is close contact and droplets breathed out by an infected horse are inhaled by another. Shortly after inhaling the virus, there is a short temperature spike and then a second more intense spike usually occurs 8-10 days later.

Neurological signs or abortion will typically come days or weeks after this second temperature spike.

• Outbreak mitigation Early detection and effective quarantine are the mainstays of EHV1 outbreak prevention. In the face of a potential outbreak, swift action to stop spread is critical. Movement on and off the property must cease. Horses with subtle clinical signs—slight nasal discharge, lymph node enlargement and fever—can now be tested very quickly for EHV1 using a nasal swab PCR. Horses should be tested to identify any that are shedding the virus; and any which are positive must be removed to isolation. Horses housed near these individuals should be quarantined in case they are incubating the disease. Horses in the early stages of infection may benefit from treatment to prevent neurological complications.

Distance is the key to stopping this droplet-aerosol infection; and although the distance does not need to be great, more is always better. Traditionally racehorses exercise in strings. An exercising horse which is shedding virus creates a tail of viral particles trailing behind it. In his webinar, Prof Goehring talked about the advantages of increasing distance between exercising horses and showed the benefits of exercising alongside rather than one behind the other. When there is infection around, consideration should also be given to the order horses go out to exercise, with those least likely to have infection exercising first.

• Immunity, current and future vaccines Following infection or vaccination, horses produce both antibodies and specialised cells with the ability to fight off EHV1 infection.

Vaccination can be expected to reduce both the clinical signs and the shedding of virus if they are challenged. However, this

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immunity gradually wanes with time and with currently available herpes virus vaccines, repeat vaccination every six months is recommended.

It is also important to understand that there is a balance between immunity level and infectious dose such that horses which are challenged with a very high dose of virus are more likely to develop fever than those that are exposed to a low dose—this again highlights the importance of effective biosecurity practices on studs and training yards.

Finally, although not yet available for equine herpes viruses, novel sub-unit vaccines introduced for similar herpes viruses in humans have been shown to cement latent virus into its hidden location and stop reactivation. Prof Goehring suggested this technology may be the light at the end of the tunnel for horses because this novel approach may reduce the likelihood of the outbreak initiation, which begins with reactivation of latent virus.

• Lessons from the European flu epizootic 2019 Although current attention is on COVID-19, it is important to reflect on lessons from the equine influenza outbreak which affected many countries in Europe last year. Dr Richard Newton, epidemiologist and an authority on equine infectious disease, coordinated much of the UK’s surveillance and communication during this outbreak, working at that time at the Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, Suffolk.

SCAN THE QR CODE TO WATCH THE PRESENTATION

BY DR. RICHARD NEWTON IS DIRECTOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND DISEASE CONTROL AT THE ANIMAL HEALTH TRUST, KENTFORD, UK. Equine influenza is a contagious rapidly-spreading viral respiratory disease. Common signs of infection include fever and coughing; and coughing is an important factor in spread as infected particles are released and can spread over wide distances to affect others.

Unlike EHV1, there is no carrier or latent state, and the flu virus needs chains of transmission to persist in a horse population; an infected horse has to pass the virus on to another in order for the infection to perpetuate in a group. Vaccination is used to break these chains of transmission by reducing susceptibility. However, flu virus evolves continuously, constantly producing new strains; and in order to be effective, vaccine strains must keep up with this evolution and be updated periodically.

• The R number: what does it mean?

The R number, or basic reproduction number, is the number of cases on average that one case generates over the course of its infectious period. If the R number is less than one, the chain of transmission will die out, and infection will cease. Vaccination plays a major role in reducing the R number by limiting the number of susceptible animals.

• Lessons from 2019 Flu occurred in several countries in Europe last year. In the UK, we saw two waves of this infection whereas other countries, notably Ireland and Holland, had different patterns. The Clade 1 strain of virus involved in the 2019 outbreak had not been seen in Europe for over a decade.

Flu mainly affects non-vaccinated horses but can occur in vaccinated animals, particularly if a new strain challenges a population. Fortunately, prompt action by the British Horseracing Authority last year minimised flu occurrence within our racing population. In January, based on information coming out of other European countries, the BHA veterinary committee advised six monthly booster vaccinations.

| EQUINE INFECTIOUS DISEASE | A six-day stoppage in racing and horse movements after flu was identified in a racing yard in early February. The majority of flu outbreaks occurred in unvaccinated horses, and the second spike seen in the summer of 2019, was associated with horse gatherings at shows and fairs. Nevertheless 18% of flu cases involved appropriately vaccinated animals, some of which might have been vaccinated after contracting infection, while many of the others were nearing the time when a booster was due.

The UK’s racing populations are highlight connected, and the racing stoppage was prompted by the occurrence of flu in vaccinated animals. This break provided the necessary pause during which the scale of infection could be assessed. A huge number of racehorses were tested, and Dr Newton explained that an important conclusion from this experience was that there is a need to scale up lab testing capacity to support such a response in future, particularly if we were to be challenged by a completely novel strain of flu.

• What did we do well?

Racing heeded the earliest warnings with its six-month booster recommendation, applied a lockdown and implemented test and trace and finally, on releasing lockdown, racing applied biosecurity precautions, concepts now familiar to us all in relation to COVID-19.

Dr Newton acknowledged that these lessons were missed or ignored outside of racing, leading to a second wave in the non-thoroughbred during the summer; and horse owners and event organisers did not adequately embrace the simple messages regarding the importance of vaccination and isolation. Many of the outbreaks which occurred last summer were associated with the introduction of new animals on a premise. The UK horse population has a low national vaccine coverage, estimated at around 40%—a statistic which puts the UK in a poor light

compared to other European countries where uptake in the general horse population is much higher.

• Do we need to improve vaccines and vaccine strategy?

Vaccine strains are continuously reviewed by The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) panel—critical work which in the UK is supported by the Horserace Betting Levy Board.

Currently there is insufficient scientific evidence to recommend an equine influenza vaccine strain update, although this might not be far away. On the other hand, reducing booster vaccine intervals is clearly beneficial. Flu vaccines work by stimulating the horse to produce antibodies which decline with time. There is variation in vaccine response between individual horses with some animals less well protected than others. Dr Newton reviewed information from multiple studies and outbreaks and concluded the weight of evidence overwhelmingly supports a six-monthly booster. Increasing vaccine uptake across the national herd will involve improved education in the non-thoroughbred world but is critical to supporting herd immunity. Improved awareness will benefit all horses including thoroughbreds.

• Take-home messages All four speakers highlighted practical biosecurity measures as critical in reducing the risks of infectious disease. Vaccines are essential for both flu and EHV1. They are not infallible, and ongoing research will lead to improved vaccine technology.

Most important of all is that education of people working with thoroughbreds, and across the wider equestrian world, will help support early recognition and management of disease when it occurs. This year’s Gerald Leigh Memorial Lectures will hopefully help support this education by making information on equine infectious disease available online.

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Dr. Paull Khan

EMH F

THE FIRST TEN YEARS T

he European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation is 10 years old. A mere stripling when compared to its counterpart regional federations in other parts of the globe, the Asian Racing Federation (ARF, formed in 1960) and Latin America’s yet more venerable OSAF (Organizacion Sudamericana de Fomento del Sangre Pura De Carrera – established 1958). So what has been the story of our first decade?

Who better to turn to first than the ‘Father of the EMHF’, Bjorn Eklund, ex-CEO of the Swedish Jockey Club?

“I think I got my thoughts about the need of European racing integration and cooperation when I visited my first International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) conferences in the late eighties. I say ‘visited’ and that is what it really was, from my point of view. They were grand meetings and offered a lot of hospitality but not much by way of discussion or democratic interaction. Everything seemed to have been discussed and decided in advance by the big racing nations. I asked some representatives from the minor racing countries if it was always like this.

The answer was ‘yes’, and they were not too happy about it.

“So, together with my friend Harald Dörum from Norway, I invited some of the minor European racing nations to a meeting in Stockholm in 2000. The result of the meeting was an informal organisation called the European Racing Development Conference (ERDC). It was mostly a network organisation which met once a year. After a few years, we

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were able to arrange the meeting during the ‘Arc weekend’ in Paris, which increased the interest and more and more organisations took part. As chairman of ERDC I was invited twice to speak at the IFHA meeting by invitation of its chairman, Louis Romanet. And he was the first to suggest an integration into IFHA by setting up a European (and Mediterranean) organisation for both the big racing countries and the minor ones.”

BELOW: Paull Khan, Behcet Homurlu, Bjorn Eklund, Dominique de Wenden, Brian Kavanagh and Zsolt Hegedus.

| EMHF |

‘White Turf’ racing at St.Moritz

OVER THE PAST EIGHT YEARS, WE HAVE SOUGHT TO MAXIMISE THE VALUE DERIVED BY THE MEMBERS AND TO RAISE THE PROFILE OF THE FEDERATION, BOTH WITHIN THE RACING AND WIDER EQUINE SECTOR AND IN EUROPEAN POLITICAL CIRCLES.” LEFT: Hands-on at the Farriery Seminar, 2016.

And so it was that representatives of 18 countries—Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey— gathered in Stockholm on June 1st 2010, and resolved to found the European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation. Italy, a notable absentee, hosted the second meeting, three months later, and was included amongst the 19 founder members listed in the federation’s by-laws.

Brian Kavanagh, CEO of Horse Racing Ireland and a vice-chair of the IFHA, was chosen as chairman, a position he still holds today.

TOP: Dr Marian Surda, Mark Johnston and Paull Khan, Bratislava, 2016.

Areas of focus suggested by those attending that inaugural meeting, as revealed by its minutes, included several which have become key themes for the federation: information exchange; tutorship, including in practical aspects of racing administration; and advocacy within the European Union amongst them. Zsolt Hegedus, representing Hungary, argued that it was extremely important for the major European racing nations to visit the developing ones to assess and assist them.

Within the first couple of years, during which time the Czech Republic and Lebanon came on board, the need for a more formalised secretariat became apparent and, in 2012, I was delighted to be approached and commissioned to give one day per week of my time to become its secretarygeneral—an arrangement that applies to this day.

Over the past eight years, we have sought to maximise the value derived by the members and to raise the profile of the federation, both within the racing and wider equine sector and in European political circles.

Two formal meetings are held annually—an Executive Council meeting involving nine member countries, in addition to the General Assembly—and we have been determined to fulfil Hegedus’s wishes by holding these meetings over as wide a spread of countries as possible.

In this way, our members have been able to experience the wondrous breadth of horseracing in our region. From the quirky Grand Steeplechase de Flanders at Belgium’s Waregem, to the swashbuckling ‘White Turf ’ meeting on ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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Morocco has fully benefited from being a member of the EMHF by helping it to develop its own racing ecosystem.

St Moritz’s frozen lake; from the urban oasis that is the racecourse in Casablanca, to the beauteous setting of Jersey’s elevated Les Landes racetrack. Small wonder that the EMHF membership is as one in recognising that the racing product and experience offered by each of its countries is unique and to be treasured and protected.

All EMHF members pay the same membership fee (currently €1,750pa). But those with the largest racing industries contribute in kind by hosting and delivering seminars on aspects of racing administration. This educational element of the federation’s work is among its most important. Topics have included farriery, handicapping, licencing, doping control, racetrack management, marketing and many more. Memorably, in 2016, Mark Johnston delivered a Trainer Masterclass to a rapt audience who had travelled from far and wide to Bratislava to hear him discuss the intricacies of purchasing and selling bloodstock, sourcing owners, recruiting and retaining staff, media relations, planning horses’ campaigns and many other aspects of the trainer’s job and art.

•H ow do the ‘smaller’ racing nations view these efforts?

Omar Skalli is CEO of Morocco’s racing authority; SOREC and has been a vice-chair of EMHF since its inception. “Since the very beginning,” he explains, “the aim of the founders (I was one of them) was to put EMHF, unlike equivalent structures, on these three strategic axes: • Sharing practical experiences on structural themes for racing authorities • Active participation of all members in defining topics of common interest • A desire to develop the entire racing ecosystem

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Omar Skalli

THESE ARE DIFFICULT TIMES FOR HORSE RACING GLOBALLY; AND AS WE TRY TO NAVIGATE OUR WAY THROUGH THE COVID PANDEMIC AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR OUR INDUSTRY, THE NEED FOR A STRONG FEDERATION SUCH AS THE EMHF IS GREATER THAN EVER.” “Morocco has fully benefited and learned from this sharing to develop its own racing ecosystem, and I am proud to see that the EMHF is faithful today to these objectives and in line with what I had hoped and expected back in 2010.”

Several developing racing nations have elected to join the EMHF in recent years, including Azerbaijan, Channel Islands, Greece, Libya, the Netherlands and Portugal. (Sadly, Austria, where thoroughbred racing has all but ceased, has found it necessary to drop out). By contrast with the practice in the federation’s early days, membership is not offered automatically to applicant countries. The IFHA has devolved responsibility to its regional federations for assessing the merits of aspiring member organisations, and all new potential members are now visited and inspected to demonstrate their competence and commitment to adopt the best practices set out in the IHA’s International Agreement of Breeding, Racing and Wagering.

| EMHF |

In the European political arena, the EMHF has become an active lobbying force and has helped shape relevant European legislation. We hold a Board seat on the equine sector lobbying group the European Horse Network, contribute to equine conferences at the European Parliament and, annually, send a party to visit key decision-makers in both Parliament and Commission.

What, then, would the ‘school report’ be on the federation’s first 10-year term, by its chairman, Brian Kavanagh? “By any measure, the EMHF has exceeded expectations since it was established,” he says, “which is a tribute of the vision of people like Bjorn Eklund in advocating its establishment. Since Paull Khan came on board as secretary-general, the federation has thrived and plays an important role in international racing alongside other regional federations such as the ARF and OSAF. One of the main objectives in setting up the EMHF was to ensure that larger, more developed racing nations could assist smaller countries; and this is achieved through the series of bi-annual seminars on areas of specific interest to the smaller countries.

“The fact that the membership has increased from 18 founder members to 26 current members is a tribute to the work of the federation. These are difficult times for horse racing globally; and as we try to navigate our way through the COVID pandemic and its consequences for our industry, the need for a strong federation such as

the EMHF is greater than ever. In that regard, the level of cooperation and sharing of knowledge between European racing authorities is higher than I have ever seen it, and undoubtedly that is a consequence of the creation of the EMHF and the structure for dialogue which it creates.”

•M y own view, from the secretary-general’s seat?

There are certainly areas in which I wish greater progress had been made. For example, when we launched the website www.euromedracing.eu, I had high hopes that it might become a resource through which, uniquely, the fixture lists of all member countries could be searched, enabling, for example, the planning of itineraries for racing tourism. This proved to be a project beyond our means.

(The EMHF has operated on a budget of just €35,000pa, a sum dwarfed by the revenues of sister organisations). But there have been many more positives than negatives, and perhaps among the federation’s greatest attributes—and that which brings me most pleasure—is that it remains the least ‘political’ organisation I have encountered. I hope it does not seem mawkish to say, but the EMHF is truly a community bound by a common wish to help and improve the racing industries in all its constituent countries. That sense of shared purpose will be especially important over the coming months and years.

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PRIZE MONEY & THE COVID IMPACT 72

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 71

Lissa Oliver

Frank Sorge, Caroline Norris

We are in a period of uncertainty throughout the global business world, with the loss of many businesses and a need for government aid among others. Racing is no exception, but is the COVID crisis truly affecting European prize money levels or is it simply a new excuse?

I

n Ireland, 2020 began with great optimism as Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) announced a five-year strategic plan—its first in ten years—aiming to increase annual government funding to €98 million by 2024. The Irish State contribution to racing in both 2020 and 2019 stands at €67 million. HRI also hoped to have prize money increased to €90 million by the end of the five-year period and increase minimum race value to €12,500. Two weeks later, the COVID emergency erupted, and prize money for the year ahead was reduced by at least 10% and up to 50% at the highest level.

Deutscher Galopp produced a similarly upbeat reflection on 2019 as the year began, with imports well above average, negative trends reversed and prize money continuing an upward curve, with a further increase maintained for 2020. Then came COVID and Dr. Michael Vesper, president of Deutscher Galopp, announced that due to having no spectators prize money would be cut by 50%, but minimum levels of €3,000 would be retained.

This is a common picture across Europe, even when the new year had not brought with it such high expectations. The Norwegian Jockey Club announced that the association was in a difficult financial situation and prize money in the big races would be reduced.

Prize money reduction, and fluctuation, is nothing new. At the higher end of the sport, the Group races have seen a steady decline in prize money since the turn of the century in all bar Ireland and Britain, although increases to the average prize value overall suggests simply a fairer distribution of the pot across all levels. The average Irish prize value, however, shows a recent decline and the financial focus appears to be more on quality racing. Nevertheless, the average prize money in Ireland last year only just topped 2015 levels and failed to match the heights of 2005. In Britain, 20 years have made a scant impact on average prize money, which more or less remains at 2000 levels. Are trainers also having to operate at fees unchanged for 20 years as inflation increases their costs?

Although we are far from any economic recovery and racing continues behind closed doors in many jurisdictions, racing authorities are making recovery plans and hoping to return to pre-COVID levels by year end. Other measures to lessen the

personal economic hardship on industry professionals are also in place, and this will also ultimately impact overall recovery.

Deutscher Galopp asked participants to halve their fees and German betting companies to waive all fees until there was a full resumption of racing.

“This is a bridging period between the phase without races and the one with races in front of spectators. It therefore lasts as short as possible and as long as necessary,” said Jan Pommer, managing director of Deutscher Galopp. All races have been broadcast live and free of charge on the Deutscher Galopp website and other digital platforms during this period. “We want to make the best of this situation and present our great racing to even more people. We hope to win new fans like this,” Pommer said.

In March, France Galop stopped collecting the access fees for horses stabled in the training centres at Chantilly, Deauville and Maisons-Laffitte and regional training centres—a measure in place until at least May 1st 2020. It also granted trainers who rent their boxes a suspension on rent payments for as long as racing remained suspended. Funds collected from fines were redirected to trainers to help relieve the financial blow of the lockdown.

The fund contained €540,000, and if split evenly among all 381 eligible trainers each would receive €1,417. France Galop, however, gave trainers the opportunity to forego the aid to further assist those in need.

OPPOSITE: Arctic with jockey Martin Seidl and trainer Lennart Hammer-Hansen.

BELOW: Dr. Michael Vesper

ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| INDUSTRY |

PEOPLE ACROSS RACING, INCLUDING MANY OWNERS, ARE CURRENTLY FACING SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL CHALLENGES WHILST CONTINUING TO MAINTAIN PAYMENTS. THEY NEED THE PROSPECT OF RACING ACTIVITY AND PRIZE MONEY TO SUPPORT THEIR COSTS AND GET THE SPORT MOVING AGAIN.” CHARLIE LIVERTON, ROA

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) provided emergency financial support of £22 million (€24.5m) to help racing people, businesses and communities cope with the crisis. British racing’s main charity, the Racing Foundation, holds the proceeds from the 2011 sale of the Tote, and the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) also stepped up with a substantial package of grants and loans.

The Chief Executive of the British Racehorse Owners Association, Charlie Liverton, said at the time, “Racing’s leaders want to act as quickly as possible to protect livelihoods and address hardship. We hope this funding will go a long way to supporting the most vulnerable.

We also support the Levy Board’s decision to ensure that there is enough money still available to get racing back on its feet once we resume.

“People across racing, including many owners, are currently facing significant financial challenges whilst continuing to maintain payments. They need the prospect

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 71

ABOVE: Al Boum Photo ridden by Paul Townend after winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup, 2020.

of racing activity and prize money to support their costs and get the sport moving again. We would like to thank trainers and everyone else who have worked so hard to ease costs and care for horses in these most trying of times.”

Many racing authorities have yet to make public their recovery plans and France Galop, for example, was delayed in producing even the 2020 programme. But in Britain, a dedicated Resumption of Racing panel has outlined its plans to the end of the year.

The HBLB had been spending 25% more on prize money since racing resumed in England on 1 June, but increased its contribution by 50% from 1 September to 31 December, bringing contributions up to £26.6 million (€29.75m) over the four-month period. The original allocation had been £17.7 million (€19.8m). The resumption of racing in England involved reduced minimum prize money values based on the HBLB providing almost all prize money for the first three-month period.

Minimum prize money values in Britain have now increased at all levels from 1 September, with most races at Class 2 and below returning to pre-COVID levels. The middle and grassroots tiers of British racing also returned to their pre-COVID levels. For Class 1 races and Heritage Handicaps, minimum values are now 75% of their pre-COVID levels. In addition to extra HBLB funding, all racecourses will be making executive contributions towards the prize money of every race programmed.

The appearance money scheme, created in 2018, that had been in place until the suspension of racing in March, has also been re-introduced. Designed to improve the return to owners at the middle and lower tiers, qualifying races pay £300 (€336) on the Flat and £350 (€392) over Jumps for horses finishing between fifth and eighth place.

Richard Wayman, chief operating officer of the BHA, said, “As we enter the autumn and racehorse owners begin to make their plans for 2021, this increase in minimum prize money levels across all levels from September is a critical part of the sport’s recovery plans. Owners have displayed great patience in recent months, and it is crucial that prize money grows at all levels as quickly as possible.

Whilst there is a long way to go, the increase in minimum values together with the re-introduction of the appearance money scheme are clearly steps in the right direction.

AS WE ENTER THE AUTUMN AND RACEHORSE OWNERS BEGIN TO MAKE THEIR PLANS FOR 2021, THE INCREASE IN MINIMUM PRIZE MONEY LEVELS ACROSS ALL LEVELS FROM SEPTEMBER IS A CRITICAL PART OF THE SPORT’S RECOVERY PLANS.” RICHARD WAYMAN, BHA

AVERAGE 1ST PRIZE VALUE FOR GROUP RACES - BASED ON 2020 EXCHANGE RATES 2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2010

2005

2000

FRANCE

€ 162,087

€ 165,377

€ 179,702

€ 156,401

€ 157,691

€ 221,684

€ 185,699

€ 57,829

BRITAIN

€ 142,598

€ 136,936

€ 134,409

€ 120,300

€ 136,117

€ 96,011

€ 90,840

€ 76,576

IRELAND

€ 126,589

€ 122,877

€ 134,761

€ 118,139

€ 115,353

€ 156,287

€ 232,808

€ 76,237

ITALY

€ 100,908

€ 99,957

€ 112,190

€ 97,902

€ 91,765

€ 167,190

€ 153,353

€ 128,579

GERMANY

€ 78,042

€ 80,065

€ 89,129

€ 77,549

€ 78,332

€ 108,497

€ 126,002

€ 144,853

TOTALS

€ 610,224

€ 605,212

€ 650,191

€ 570,291

€ 579,258

€ 749,669

€ 788,702

€ 484,074

AVERAGE 1ST PRIZE VALUE (ALL RACES) - BASED ON 2020 EXCHANGE RATES 2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2010

2005

2000

IRELAND

€ 24,786

€ 26,767

€ 26,952

€ 25,641

€ 24,624

€ 22,996

€ 29,230

€ 11,554

FRANCE

€ 24,869

€ 24,869

€ 24,382

€ 24,428

€ 24,758

€ 22,897

€ 20,130

€ 16,889

BRITAIN

€ 17,939

€ 19,010

€ 16,824

€ 17,165

€ 19,526

€ 12,443

€ 17,480

€ 17,673

SWEDEN

€ 14,736

€ 14,736

€ 13,307

€ 12,416

€ 12,203

€ 12,225

€

8,670

€

8,861

ITALY

€ 12,043

€ 12,043

€ 11,154

€ 10,873

€

€ 12,274

€ 11,130

€

9,890

GERMANY

€ 11,868

€ 11,369

€ 11,347

€ 11,289

€ 11,056

€

9,457

€

€

8,082

POLAND

€

€

€

€

€

€

2,341

€

1,818

TOTALS

€ 110,322

4,081

4,081

€ 112,875

Prize Value Data: IFHA Blue Books & Annuals.

3,911

€ 107,877

3,958

€ 105,770

BELGIUM unavailable.

9,766

4,075

€ 106,008

€ 94,633

8,470 N/A

€ 95,110

€ 74,767

Figures in red were unavailable and based on previous year.

EXCHANGE RATES: 1 Swedish krona = € 0.0965037, 1 Polish zloty = € 0.227255, 1 British pound = € 1.11132

ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| INDUSTRY |

“This has only been possible due to the Levy Board significantly increasing its support of prize money compared with its original plans, and we would like to express our gratitude for their approach as we seek to plot a long-term course for our sport to recover from its current challenges.”

A public plan has also been aired by HRI, and in June a number of prize money reductions took effect in Ireland, with the possibility that further reductions would be required. The focus has been on maintaining prize money levels in the lower to medium tiers. The Irish Derby and the Irish Champion Stakes were both cut to €750,000 (by 50% and 40% from €1.5m and €1.25m respectively), and there were significant reductions to all other Gp1 races throughout the year.

Initial prize money reductions in Ireland saw base values for Gp1 Flat races cut by 30%-50%. Values for races above €50,000 were cut by at least 25%. Races between €20,000 to €50,000 were cut by 20%, and values for races between €15,000 to €20,000 were cut by 15%. The lower tiers were less hard-hit, and races between €10,000 to €15,000 were reduced by 10% while the minimum value of €10,000 was reduced to €9,000.

PRIZE MONEY CUTS ARE INEVITABLE AND WE HAVE ADOPTED A TIERED APPROACH, ENDEAVOURING TO PROTECT THE GRASSROOTS OF THE INDUSTRY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.”

SPOT CHECK - VALUE (TO THE WINNER) OF 2YO RACES ACROSS EUROPE IN AUG / SEP 2020 - EXCLUDING PATTERN / SALES RACES ITALY* VALUE TO WINNER

IRELAND RACES

VALUE TO WINNER

RACES

€

33,000

1

€

17,405

1

€

25,300

2

€

16,520

1

€

18,700

2

€

14,750

7

€

17,600

5

€

14,455

1

€

16,500

24

€

14,160

1

€

14,300

1

€

11,800

4

€

11,000

7

€

10,620

1

€

9,900

1

€

10,030

1

€

8,800

2

€

9,735

6

€

6,600

1

€

9,190

1

€

5,500

6

€

9,145

4

€

4,400

1

€

8,850

1

€ 767,800

53

€

8,260

5

AVERAGE:

€ 14,487

€

7,965

1

€

7,670

1

€

6,490

2

€

5,900

1

*September (COVID closures August)

EXCHANGE RATES:

€ 422,485

39

AVERAGE:

€ 10,833

1 Swedish krona = € 0.0965037 1 Polish zloty = € 0.227255 1 British pound = € 1.11132

Data compiled by Lissa Oliver and Franco Raimondi

BRIAN KAVANAGH, HRI

LEFT: In Ireland, the Irish EBF provided an increased prize money allocation of €2.5 million— compared to €2.2 million in 2019.

One Cool Poet winning Irish EBF Northfields Handicap at the Curragh, 2019.

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 71

| P R I Z E M O N E Y & T H E C O V I D I M PA C T |

FRANCE VALUE TO WINNER

SWEDEN

RACES

VALUE TO WINNER

BRITAIN

POLAND

RACES

VALUE TO WINNER

RACES

VALUE TO WINNER

RACES

€

28,000

2

€

16,033

1

£ 18,675

3

€

7,953

1

€

21,000

1

€

12,025

1

£ 13,908

1

€

4,215

1

€

13,500

6

€

6,009

1

£ 11,644

1

€

3,636

1

€

11,500

2

€

4,807

1

£

11,516

1

€

3,579

7

€

11,000

27

€

4,005

5

£

10,396

1

€

40,857

10

€

10,500

2

€

42,879

9

£

9,337

1

AVERAGE:

€

10,000

2

AVERAGE:

€ 6,544

£

9,057

1

€

9,500

2

1 Swedish krona = € 0.0965037

£

7,762

1

€

8,000

1

£

7,439

1

€

7,500

8

£

6,469

1

€

7,000

7

VALUE TO WINNER

RACES

£

5,822

3

€

6,500

3

€

8,000

1

£

5,175

1

€

6,000

8

€

5,100

10

£

4,787

3

€

5,000

1

€

11

£

4,592

1

€

4,250

2

AVERAGE:

€ 5,363

£

4,528

5

€

4,000

1

£

4,140

45

€

3,750

1

£

3,946

10

€

3,000

2

£

3,881

8

€

2,800

2

£

3,816

3

€ 755,350

80

£

3,493

45

AVERAGE:

€ 9,442

£

2,781

12

£ 666,600

148

€ 740,807*

148

AVERAGE:

€ 5,005

GERMANY

59,000

€ 4,085

1 Polish zloty = € 0.227255

1 British pound = € 1.11132

“Regrettably, due to the financial circumstances of the industry, prize money cuts are inevitable and we have adopted a tiered approach, endeavouring to protect the grassroots of the industry as much as possible,” explained Brian Kavanagh, chief executive of HRI. A great deal of additional support throughout each European country has come from the self-help European Breeders Fund (EBF). In Ireland, the Irish EBF provided an increased prize money allocation of €2.5 million—compared to €2.2 million in 2019, and ensured all funds, including those not distributed during the suspension of racing—were allocated, and the remaining prize money is assigned with a focus on grassroots races throughout the remaining year.

“Prize money is the lifeblood of racing and supports owners, trainers, jockeys and stable staff; and for that reason, the Irish EBF, which is funded by stallion farms, has decided to increase its allocation to HRI for 2020 to assist HRI in trying to replace the lost opportunities for all the participants in Irish racing during the COVID-19 suspension of racing,” said John O’Connor, chairman of the Irish EBF.

Jason Morris, HRI’s director of racing, reflected, “The Irish EBF have long been staunch supporters of Irish racing; and as we work towards the resumption of racing, it is reassuring to know that they will be there when needed.”

The British EBF is also supplementing prize money for British Flat racing by £750,000 (€839,000) between September and the end of 2020, all of which will be available as enhancements above BHA minimum value. This sees the British EBF returning all contributions to pre-COVID levels. The largest monthly investment was in September when over £400,000 (€448,000) boosted prize money levels. All British races carrying EBF conditions will be between £1,000 (€1,120) and £25,000 (€28,000) above the minimum, ensuring that prize money for the races to which they support will be run at the same level as previous years.

The question of whether prize money levels can return to pre-COVID levels might be masking the more important question of how prize money can be maintained. Looking at prize money over the last 20 years reveals a trend of dips and recoveries that cannot be blamed on the 2020 phenomenon and suggests the industry has bigger issues to contend with on a permanent basis.

ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

77

| PRODUCT FOCUS |

WHY A LACK OF FIBRE CAN COMPROMISE HORSE H E A LT H A N D P E R F O R M A N C E Gastric ulcers can affect any horse or pony regardless of age, breed, sex and discipline.

In fact, it has been estimated that up to 90% of racehorses have ulcers. Clare Barfoot RNutr, Marketing and Research and Development Director at SPILLERSTM explains why…

•T he problem with stomach acid The horse has evolved to eat for up to 18 hours a day, with 65% of the gut devoted to digesting fibre. The horse’s stomach produces acid continuously, but they can only produce acid-neutralising saliva when they chew. This means horses on a restricted fibre diet such as racehorses that have limited access to forage are more susceptible to gastric ulcers. Feeding meals high in cereals can also increase the risk of gastric ulcers due to excess fermentation in the stomach. Exercise itself may increase gastric acid production and it also increases pressure in the abdomen, which can result in gastric acid ‘splashing’ onto the upper region of the stomach.

•T he benefits of forage The key to reducing the risk of ulcers is to provide as much of the diet as possible as forage (no less than 15g/kg bodyweight dry weight per day) this means 9kg of hay for the average racehorse, whilst restricting starch intake to less than 2g/kg bodyweight per day (1g/kg bodyweight per meal). Feeding plenty of forage and/or chopped fibre forms a protective mat on top of the stomach contents, thus helping to prevent ‘gastric splashing’.

It also helps to add chopped fibre to help extend eating time and increase saliva production. Alfalfa is particularly useful as the high protein and calcium content may help to buffer stomach acid.

•H ow SPILLERSTM Ulca Fibre can help SPILLERS Ulca Fibre contains short-chopped alfalfa to extend eating and chewing time, encouraging saliva production and increasing the horse’s ability to buffer damaging stomach acid.

The high oil content gives slow release energy for optimum condition and a full range of vitamins and minerals includes vitamin E for immune support and muscle health. High-quality protein includes lysine to support muscle development and performance. SPILLERS Ulca Fibre can be fed on its own or in

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 71

addition to a suitable low starch compound feed such as SPILLERS Ulca Power Cubes.

SPILLERS Ulca Fibre was used alongside SPILLERS HDF Power Cubes in a recent scientific study that was the first to prove that diet can have a beneficial effect on gastric health. Horses that were clinically treated for grade three and four ulcers were split into two groups; one group had their diet changed at the start of omeprazole treatment, while the other remained on the pre-treatment diet.

The dietary change group maintained their improved ulcer score post-treatment, whereas overall the horses in the group remaining on the pre-treatment diet regressed back to their pre-treatment ulcer scores, proving the value of dietary management in reducing the risk of ulcers.

• SPILLERSTM Ulca Power Cubes SPILLERS has also launched SPILLERS Ulca Power Cubes, a high energy, low starch cube for racing and performance horses prone to gastric ulcers. Based on SPILLERS HDF Power Cubes which are a favourite in the racing industry, SPILLERS Ulca Power Cubes are just 12% starch and have added functional ingredients to support gastric health. They are ideal to feed alongside a chopped fibre containing alfalfa to help extend eating time and buffer stomach acid.

Both products carry the BETA EGUS Approval Mark demonstrating they have been independently assessed as suitable for horses prone to gastric ulcers. * Luthersson N, Bolger C, Fores P, Barfoot C, Nelson S, Parkin TDH & Harris P (2019) Effect of changing diet on gastric ulceration in exercising horses and ponies following cessation of omeprazole treatment JEVS 83 article 102742

To find out more about our feeds and how we can help to support your racing yard, please visit our website www.spillers-feeds.com or call/email one of our dedicated Thoroughbred Specialists.

| PRODUCT FOCUS |

WHY THE FIBRE Y O U F E E D M AT T E R S It’s not only what’s in a feed that’s important, where it comes from matters too.

• A great source of calcium Alfalfa is an effective buffer to acidity in the gut due to its abundance in calcium and studies have shown it buffers acidity more effectively than grass-based forages. Just half a scoop of pure alfalfa chopped fibre in each feed will help counteract the acidity produced by feeding cereals.

A study has shown that omeprazole can negatively impact calcium absorption – this has already been shown in humans.

Whether this is contributing to an increased risk of bone fractures is yet to be confirmed but it is certainly worth providing additional calcium in the ration as a risk reduction strategy. The calcium in alfalfa is highly bioavailable and so easier for the horse to absorb.

Just 1 scoop of Dengie Alfa-A Original provides a 500kgs exercising horse with 1/5th of their daily calcium requirement*.

Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) such as omeprazole have also been shown to significantly impact the bacterial populations in the digestive tract of humans making them more prone to digestive upsets and infections. This hasn’t been explored in the horse to date but if the same effect is seen it reiterates the importance of doing everything else possible to promote good gut health.

• Consistently Clean When the difference between winning and losing is marginal, doing everything you can to maximise respiratory health and function makes sense. Precision drying is a way of conserving forages that ensures they are as clean as possible and helps to lock-in nutrients as well. Every bag of Dengie fibre is dried by us and we can trace each one back to the field it was grown in.

Many people don’t realise that some so-called performance feeds contain straw. At Dengie we believe straw is a useful ingredient but not for the performance horse! It’s simply a case of using the right fibre for the right horse. Our feeds are regularly tested for mould with levels routinely below 100 CFUs and often below 10CFUS. To put that in context, sun-dried forages such as hay and straw often contain 1000CFUS or more.

• Tempting the fussy racehorse Findings from our Senior Nutritionist’s PhD research suggests that hospitalised Thoroughbreds are more likely to go off their feed than other breeds even when gastric ulcers have been ruled out.

Interestingly, previous studies have also found that Thoroughbreds experience a higher rate of post-anaesthetic gastrointestinal complications such as colic, reduced faecal output and colitis compared to non-Thoroughbred horses. Dengie Performance Fibre has been developed to try to tempt even the fussiest horse and has proven to be particularly successful. *Based on NRC guidance for a 500kgs horse in exercise and a calcium level of 1.5% in alfalfa

For further information please visit www.dengie.com or call +44 (0)1621 841188

References Hilyer et al (1997) A cross-sectional study of colic in horses on thoroughbred training premises in the British Isles in 1997 Bulmer et al (2016) The effects of a high-starch or high-fibre diet on equine reactivity and handling behaviour, Applied Animal Behaviour Science Jansson and Lindberg (2012) A forage-only diet alters the metabolic response of horses in training Lybbert et al (2007) Proceedings of Annual Convention of the AAEP, Orlando, Florida, 2007.

Swanhall et al (2018) Mineral and Vitamin Supplementation Including Marine-Derived Calcium Increases Bone Density in Thoroughbreds.

Proceedings of the Australasian Equine Science Symposium Please contact us for more information about the sources of information quoted

ISSUE 71 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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Sally Ann Grassick

THOROUGHBRED TALES he Thoroughbred Tales family continues to grow on social media with each new guest host and, as any family would be, we were delighted to see one of our own have the biggest success of their career shortly after hosting the account. Stormy Girl provided Rebecca Menzies with a first ever Black Type success when she won a Listed raced over six furlongs at Pontefract last month.

Rebecca’s “Thoroughbred Tale” started when she joined Ferdy Murphy’s team during a gap year that ended up turning into a training career. When Murphy relocated to France, she struck out on her own with a yard of just eight horses in York. In 2016 she relocated to Howe Hill Stables in County Durham, formerly the home of John Wade, where she trains a dual purpose string of 65 horses, which keeps her and her team busy all year long.

“We started out as a jump yard, but I soon realised that we couldn’t afford to keep a full yard rented if we only had a few horses running during the summer,” explains Rebecca. “We are located close to the A1 and have five racecourses within an hour or so of the yard, so it also made sense commercially to give it a try. We were lucky that a lot of our jump owners supported us by sending a few flat horses when I took out my dual licence. I could see it being a 50/50 split between flat and jumps horses in the future. We had a couple of two-year-old winners last year and that definitely gave us the confidence to pursue that route. The Listed success of Stormy Girl was a huge moment for us all; we have been celebrating ever since! I was confident she was going to run well the time before in a Listed race at York, but she was disappointing and scoped badly afterwards. I never lost faith in her ability though as I have always known that she is the best horse I have had anything to do with to this point. It was nice to have that view confirmed last time. She works on her own at home as I currently don’t have another horse good enough to work with her, and she is ridden out by Nathan Moscrop. I hope there is more to come from her and we have a few options at Newmarket, Newbury or even over in France later in the year. Her owners, Mike and Eileen Newbould of Stonegrave Thoroughbreds, have been really supportive so it is nice to be able to repay that faith with a Black Type filly.”

T

Every young trainer knows they need big winners to catch the eye of potential new owners, and never more so than in a year as full of uncertainties as this one. “I have had some interest from people who would like to send me flat horses, and it is good to advertise the fact that with the right material at hand, we can train horses to a good level in that sphere. These are difficult times for everyone, not just in racing, so it is important to try and promote yourself and our sport to a wider audience. That was one of the reasons I was keen on supporting Thoroughbred Tales by guest hosting the account for a week. I had been following the project for a while and found it very interesting seeing how other yards and studs operate. I learnt a lot from the week I hosted and enjoyed answering followers’ questions. It has not been easy for owners this year, but the various social media platforms have helped people feel closer to the action. Many of my owners take their horses home on a rest so they are very close to them. It makes it hard when they can’t give them a pat after they’ve won a race so we try to make an extra effort to reward them for all their continued support. There are difficult times on the horizon and every trainer will need to have their owners behind them to get through it.”

Rebecca Menzies

To get involved, look for us on twitter: @ThoroughbrdTale, email: thoroughbredtales@gmail.com or call Sally Ann on: +353 87 7637125

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 71

Carrera

Carrera Secure

Liberty Carrera combines a standardized, solid neck design with a super slim shaft.

Carrera Secure has the same unique features as all Carrera nails. The nail head is wider, for less wear.

The nail is available in three different lengths. This means you do not have to use a larger nail, if you need the extra length.

•

The large nail head adds wear to your race plate.

•

There is just enough space between the nails, so you can remove them easily.

SMALL | MEDIUM | LONG

MEDIUM | LONG

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Carrera replaces

47 mm

44,5 mm

41,5 mm

SMALL MEDIUM LONG RACE 3,5, BH3, ASV 1 5/8 RACE 4,5, SWIFT 0, BH3,5 4,5 SLIM (SB), ASV 1 3/4 RACE 5, BH4, HAMMERHEAD

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CARE RANGE TRIED, TESTED, TRUSTED “Since making the change to Connolly’s RED MILLS and using Horse Care 14 Mix, my horses are looking and feeling great.

Our horses are eating and working well and recovering quickly after running. It’s great having the support of their team which means a lot.” - Charlie Hills

BATTAASH

TIMEFORM’S HIGHEST RATED HORSE OF 2020* Trainer Charlie Hills Jockey Jim Crowley Owner Hamdan Al Maktoum Breeder Ballyphilip Stud

*as of 11.09.2020

Contact our specialist thoroughbred team: UK: Adam Johnson +44 7860 771063 IRL: Lorraine Fradl +353 87 2575398 Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland Email: info@redmills.com

www.redmills.com