Equine veterinarians involved in the horse racing industry now have a new digital tool to help them make performance decisions. It gives them a detailed history of the horse.

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority this week launched Horse In-sight. The platform, within the HISA online portal, combines a horse’s career and medical history to provide a holistic view of health and performance. HISA Veterinary Liaison Dr. Shari Silverman said the historical information helps to determine if something observed is serious or not.

“Regulatory vets may make a decision to scratch a horse, even though it jogs ok because there are other things combined with the history that tell them this is not a good day for this horse to run,” said Silverman.

Silverman said it’s not uncommon to spend six to eight hours prepping on race day before even looking at a horse. The vet says this can mean spending more time with the animal.

Silverman noted it’s not a black-and-white assessment. She added a horse that accumulates a lot of high-speed furlongs in a couple of months increases the risk of injury.

“But a horse that has too few furlongs is also gonna be at an increased risk of injury. So, it’s not just looking at the number of furlongs, but looking at the rest of the information and trying to understand the story of this horse,” said Silverman.

Silverman said the use of the intuitive graph that visually captures a horse’s racing career can help reduce the possibility of catastrophic injuries. The equine vet said the information can be valuable beyond race day.

Here’s an extended interview with Dr. Silverman:

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