Racing thoroughbreds as two year olds is actually better for them?

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mrdarcy

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I guess this shoud really be in Vet or CR but it is a general question.

I was watching the Morning Line on C4 on Saturday. They had an equine vet in as a guest and amongst the topics they discussed was the latest research done which concluded that TBs raced as two year olds got less injuries than TBs kept in a field and then raced as four year olds and upwards. The vet was very definite in his opinion that this proved racing two year olds was not only absolutely fine but in fact beneficial. He didn't reference the research so I have no link to post to back this up.

But what do people think? Established, long standing opinion has always been that the long term prognosis for horses raced at that age is not great and that the rate of injuries is extremely high. Can we all have been so wrong for so long? Is this new research really correct in it's findings?
 
I have also heard this sort of thing anecdotally and suspect it is all a lot more complex than the 2 years olds racing-haters would have us believe.

But just a couple of obserations - the horses that don't race until they are four are more likely to be heavy topped NH types, not quick maturing sprint or middle distance bred types, which may have stronger, more flexible bones anyway.

And of those that dont' race at two, some of those may not do so because of leg problems anyway, thus distorting the statistics.
 
Horses who race as two year olds are generally flat racers, they race for 2 maybe three seasons and move on...

Horses who are raced as four year olds are generally NH and P2Ps and race for a good 6 to 12 seasons.. obviously varies on the horse.

There for the statics would be skewed completely as the NH horses have another 2 to 8 years to get injuries.

horses at two years of age are not mature, the bones have not finished growing, i just cant see how it can be good for them. Prove me wrong, but i just dont get it..

Lou x
 
My vet at home was telling me that working a 2yo does help reduce the risk of leg injuries compared th a horse broken at 4. He refered to a study done in Ireland (I think) of horses that has done very light work from the age of 2 against 4yo's. Would be an interesting read I think.
 
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Horses who race as two year olds are generally flat racers, they race for 2 maybe three seasons and move on...

Horses who are raced as four year olds are generally NH and P2Ps and race for a good 6 to 12 seasons.. obviously varies on the horse.

There for the statics would be skewed completely as the NH horses have another 2 to 8 years to get injuries.

horses at two years of age are not mature, the bones have not finished growing, i just cant see how it can be good for them. Prove me wrong, but i just dont get it..

Lou x

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I agree with you but the vet was quoting this research on national TV and presumably staking his reputation on it, so surely the research must be valid and take into account all these variables? You can't argue with proper scientific research can you?
 
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horses at two years of age are not mature, the bones have not finished growing, i just cant see how it can be good for them. Prove me wrong, but i just dont get it..

Lou x

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Interestingly, its thought vital for human athletes to race as juniors to build up bone, ligament, tendon and muscle strength and flexibility to enable them to succeed as seniors. There are barely any top class seniors who have not raced as juniors. Obviously, there is "wastage" in human athletes too but no-one advocates junior athletes not competing as long as they don't overdo it. In running, races generally start for Under 13s. I started as a 9 year old in such races, and this is not uncommon.
 
No I agree with working a 2 year old. they need light work to maintain suppleness and to strengthen the internal structures of the articulation system. However, racing I beleive is too much for them. Its hard and its alot of strain on under developed bones and tendons and liagaments.

Lou x
 
Who was the vet?

Yep, research looking at fractures has shown that coming into training as a 2 year old reduces the risk of catastophic injuries.
 
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Who was the vet?

Yep, research looking at fractures has shown that coming into training as a 2 year old reduces the risk of catastophic injuries.

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Vet was Bruce Bladon from Lamborn. Have you got a link to the research?
 
QR,
Yes I have found that horses broken and raced earlier have less problems. However, it is all relative. Some horses are mature enough to race at 2, for others just being broken in is enough. Some can gallop at 2, race at 3. Some can gallop at 3, race at 4.
We break in our NH types at 2, gallop at 3, race/sell at 4. The ones we have from owners just broken at 4+ always have problems(attitude as well as physical!) and don't stick much racing.
I don't agree with early 2yo racing, and definetly don't agree with 2yos having more than 3 runs by the end of the season. There are some horses who can cope well with this - the ones that have 9 runs by June are on the scrapheap by October.
 
It could be so... All I know at the moment is that my boy's dressage career is looking bleek due to injury that is suspected to be caused by an underlying problem from when he was raced as a 2 yo!
 
My old horse raced for 10 years, he was broken as a 4 year old. He had little problems while racing, Has subsiquent health issues afterwards which led to his early death, But by no means were these caused by being raced later.

Lou x
 
I watched the same programme but didnt see it all. I did hear him mention that a 2 year olds skeleton adapts better to racing than the skeleton of a horse starting racing at 4. What I believe he didnt mention was the damage done to a horses joints when it starts racing at two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm a racing fanatic but I do cringe at 2 yr olds racing.
 
I heard a talk by a researcher quite a while ago on this - at the time he was looking at event horses from a racing background and although his research wasn't complete at the time, it was pointing to those that had raced early sustaining fewer injuries during their eventing career than those who had raced later. I didn't ever come across the results of the finished work. It's probably a very difficult area to investigate thoroughly because pretty much the only horses worked at 1-2 years are flat racing TB's. I suspect that early work is very beneficial to musculoskeletal health in working horses later in life, but perhaps not quite such intense work as actually racing - it would be very difficult to test this though!
 
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