The relationship between body composition, training and race performance in a group of Thoroughbred flat racehorses.

Summary

# Editorial Summary Trainers managing Thoroughbred racehorses have limited practical tools for predicting racing success based on physical assessment, despite the established relationship between body composition and sprint performance in human athletes. Fonseca and colleagues examined whether similar principles applied to flat racehorses by measuring fat mass, fat-free mass, and body fat percentage in a cohort of Thoroughbreds during training and racing seasons, comparing these metrics against actual race performance outcomes. The research identified that horses with superior racing performance demonstrated lower overall fat mass and percentage body fat alongside greater fat-free mass—findings that parallel the physiological advantages seen in elite human sprinters and suggest these compositional traits are trainable predictors of racing ability. These findings offer farriers, veterinarians and trainers a measurable, non-invasive framework for performance assessment that extends beyond traditional visual evaluation, potentially allowing earlier identification of horses with favourable physical characteristics for racing and informing conditioning strategies throughout the training season. For practitioners, this underscores the importance of body composition monitoring as part of a holistic performance management approach, complementing lameness assessment, fitness work and nutritional planning.

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Key Findings

• •Body composition assessment provides noninvasive performance metrics for racehorses comparable to human sprint athlete evaluation
• •Lower fat mass and percentage fat with greater fat-free mass correlates with superior performance in sprinting athletes, suggesting similar patterns may exist in racehorses

Conditions Studied

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