Horse racing is on the brink of being a sport to benefit massively from technology and sports science. As so often is discovered, technology is only as good as the benefit it provides to the end user. It’s no good having a telescope if you don’t know where the stars are. But how do you educate an industry on the benefits of science and technology, in an industry that is very traditional with most participants having a non-scientific education?
Andrew Stuart the inventor of E-Trakka, an Australian based system aimed specifically at Thoroughbred Horse Racing, has collected thousands of GPS, heart rate and stride length readings over the last 16 years. Andrew has now developed a concept which he believes will greatly enhance the knowledge of sports science for the racing industry, called 2020 Racehorse Training. 2020 takes its name from the meaning of 2020 vision. That is to clearly see the horse’s fitness and health, “in focus”.
Andrew and E-Trakka have collected more data from the actual training than has ever been collected before, 30 to 40 thousand readings. All the data has been from actual horses in training and compared to actual case studies and race results. The results provide overwhelming evidence as to the potential to greatly improve the training industry. The 2020 concept packages the learned knowledge into easy to understand video presentations that when combined will give the trainer a very clear understanding of heart rate and speed information viewed on a screen.
However, it is not an industry that rapidly changes, particularly as there have always been a steady stream of black magic providers knocking on trainer’s doors with miracle cures and secret knowledge. Human sports teams have the benefit of trained sports science specialists to support professional teams. Individual athletes have the ability to do their own research. Humans themselves have the ability to tell their coach they are sore or tired, but not the horse (unless of course it’s the famous Mr Ed). So the data must talk for the horse.
Many sports science people enter the industry with good intention, but mostly get a cold shoulder and it’s not too long before the trainer realizes that what they talk about does not work and then goes back to the “current” standard practices. Andrew believes the 2020 concept is the bridge between the science and traditions of racehorse training.
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Andrew has released a special page on his website www.etrakka.com.au called 2020 Racehorse Training totally dedicated to providing this valuable knowledge to the industry. The first three articles have been released and each week there will be an additional article posted. Eventually it will provide a go to location to learn the basics of sports science associated with the equine athlete, delivered from a horseman’s perspective. Andrew himself is an ex-Jockey and trainer who had the vision of E-Trakka 22 years ago.
Some great examples of how the technology has helped provide success has been with the Runhappy team who used E-Trakka every day to help fine tune his training. He actually broke the track record in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and won the USA Eclipse Award for Sprinter of the year. Another example is trainer Danny Morton in Australia who developed Scenic Blast to be the Australian horse of the year and travelled to the United Kingdom to win the King Stand stakes. But perhaps most importantly, there are also the hundreds of horses who did not go to the races because the trainer knew they were not well or fit enough to compete.
With equine welfare at the forefront of racing news and the proven evidence already available it is not a matter of “if” it happens, it’s a matter of when. Andrew believes the 2020 concept will go a long way to ensuring the correct knowledge is available, and when it is required.
So what does the future of racing look like with technology in Racehorse Training? Racing will become an industry with fitness monitoring technologies in various forms taking place every second of the equine athlete’s day. Advanced algorithms, analytics and Artificial Intelligence data analysis will provide very specific feedback and knowledge to the trainer. But most importantly and essential, the trainers and staff will become far more educated in sports science giving them the ability to use the information. It has to be a combination of science and art to produce the best outcome for racing, or any sport for that matter.