Horse racing is one of the oldest types of performance sports where horses have to be ridden by experienced jockeys (or sometimes even without human riders at all). But despite its ancient character, these races have adopted many different technological solutions to address various practical complexities. In this article, we will take a look at some of the most important bits of technology behind horse racing.
A horse race – illustrative photo. Image credit: via Unsplash, free license
Why does horse racing need tech?
The horse racing industry has been present in all major countries since long ago. Despite its antique origins, it encounters various challenges where technological solutions greatly improve many aspects of this particular sport, but not just those associated with betting (in such events as Kentucky Derby odds), or ensuring the best spectator experience.
In this regard, first and foremost, a lot of attention is being attributed to the prevention of injuries to horses and jockeys during training and racing. Whereas just a few decades ago horse racing was not quite associated with safety, today the official safety regulations are especially stringent.
Another challenge is ensuring the safety of track surfaces in order to avoid potential risks, especially in adverse weather conditions.
If we go beyond safety, we encounter problems related to drug abuse and doping. Here, it is nearly impossible to do away without employing high-tech developments in order to implement drug testing and doping control measures, all of which are required to maintain the sport’s credibility.
Promoting the welfare of racehorses is no less important, as there are a lot of concerns related to overbreeding and ensuring overall equine welfare.
Last but not least, engaging fans and attracting new audiences is important from the commercial standpoint, in order to sustain the sport itself.
Let’s take a look at these technological solutions and how they are applied to enhance the sport and industry of horse racing.
A horse race – illustrative photo. Image credit: via Unsplash, free license
The use of technology behind horse racing explained
As we already briefly mentioned, the horse racing industry faces at least several critical challenges that could be effectively mitigated through the proper application of modern technological solutions. Below, we will discuss them in detail.
Horse and jockey injury prevention
This aspect is of the utmost importance in horse racing. Obviously, the well-being of the equine athletes as well as the safety of their human riders cannot be overlooked even slightly. To ensure prevention of injuries, the following types of advanced technologies are being used:
- wearable sensors
- biomechanical analysis tools
- electronic monitoring and detection systems.
These tools often provide real-time data on factors like gait, stride length, and heart rate. Based on collected data, inspectors, trainers and veterinarians can intervene promptly at the first signs of medical distress.
Furthermore, the latest trends in this field are associated with the development of predictive modeling algorithms, often ones based on artificial technology (AI) models. These measures are capable of identifying horses at higher risk of injury based on their training regimen, biomechanical profile, and past medical history.
Ensuring track safety
It would seem that there is no need to monitor track conditions. However, such an attitude is heavily outdated. This is a critical area, where a timely use of technology can make a significant impact. It is important to maintain consistent and safe track conditions, especially in bad weather conditions, because this aspect is directly related to the possibility of minimizing the number of injuries in both horses and riders.
To resolve possible dangerous issues, the following kinds of technology are used:
- advanced track monitoring systems,
- sensors,
- cameras equipped with image recognition algorithms.
These technical measures are suitable for continuously assessing physical track surface conditions. For example, it is possible to detect uneven surfaces, slippery spots, or debris in real-time.
In fact, track monitoring systems are becoming quite sophisticated, because developers are able to integrate weather forecasting data to enable proactive measures. This, in turn, mitigates potential hazards before they pose a threat to safety.
Performing effective drug testing and doping control
Any sports branch requires credibility to survive, and drug testing combined with doping control are the two critical areas where all regulations and legal requirements must be met 100%. Older methods used in drug testing procedures have limitations in detecting certain substances (especially newer chemicals) or masking agents.
For this reason, organizers of these events continuously adopt cutting-edge chemical analysis technologies, which are mainly based on the principles of mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography. But science does not stop at that point: now, existing techniques are also coupled with artificial intelligence algorithms with aim to upgrade drug testing protocols by enhancing their accuracy and efficiency.
A horse race – illustrative photo. Image credit: via Unsplash, free license
Ensuring adherence to regulations in betting and wagering activities
Betting and wagering industry is difficult to separate from horce races. In modern days, online platforms are used to place bets on specific racers, and in certain sense this technology has highly facilitated this type of entertainment. However, digital technologies also add new complexity and create new challenges, which are mostly related to fraudulent activities.
To overcome these challenges, organizers employ advanced data analytics tools combined with machine learning algorithms. These platforms are deployed in order to analyze and process large volumes of betting data super-fast, often in real-time. By these measures, it becomes possible to detect suspicious patterns or any other anomalies that could be an early sign of illicit activities which could include, for example, match-fixing or insider betting.
Promoting the overall equine welfare
Ensuring equine welfare is the primary responsibility of the horse racing industry. Classic practices now are being integrated with technological innovations. For instance, organizing companies and participating teams now use different kinds of smart hardware and software to continuously monitor horses’ health and other parameters related to their well-being.
Electronic devices and biometric sensors enable regular scans, and are becoming the key measure of early detection of distress or illness.
Promoting and sustaining fan engagement
Fan engagement is important – spectators and sports followers are the source steady income which is needed to sustain the horse racing industry in the long-term. This is why one of the most difficult challenges is associated with finding possibilities to attract and also retain people who are interested in this type of competitive entertainment.
In this regard, technology also offers significant advantages. For example, the fan experience can be radically improved by creating immersive digital platforms based on mobile, virtual reality, and augmented reality technologies. New models of content delivery through streaming software attract new viewer audiences as well as provides convenience to existing fans who can access their favorite sport from any location, at any time.
Horses on a farmland. Image credit: Adrian Pelletier via Pixnio, CC0 Public Domain
Final word
The modern horse racing industry has changed a lot compared to what we had a few decades or even a few years ago. Now, it packs a lot of technology-based solutions that are needed to ensure physical safety of horses and jockeys, perform precise and effective drug testing and doping control, provide medical and physical track monitoring capabilities, and to increase the fan engagement.
For this reason, you should not be surprised to find out that this competitive sports segment uses the latest developments in chemical and biomedical analysis, image recognition based observation, software-based prediction platforms, and that everything is increasingly being combined with the capabilities of artificial intelligence algorithms.
