Asia-Pacific Centre for Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
PLoS One. 2020 Oct 28;15(10):e0241273. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241273. eCollection 2020.
The reasons for Thoroughbred (TB) horses not entering training or exiting the racing industry, are of interest to regulators, welfare groups and the broader community. Speculation about the outcomes of these horses threatens the community acceptance, or social license, of the TB breeding and racing industries. A representative survey of the 2010 Victorian born TB foal crop was used to determine the outcomes and reasons for exit for horses that had not entered training, or had exited training and racing by eight years of age. Horses exported for racing or breeding (4%), or that were still actively racing (7%) at the start of the follow up period were excluded from the study. An online questionnaire was sent to breeders or trainers of 3,176 TB horses eligible for enrolment in the study. Of the 2,005 (63%) responses received, the two most frequent outcomes were that the horse had either been retired or rehomed (65%), or deceased (16%). For the 1,637 TB horses that had entered training, the majority of retirements were voluntary (59%), followed by involuntary retirements due to health disorders (28%). For TBs that did not have an industry record of entering training (n = 368), death (34%), or retirement or being rehomed (27%), were the most frequent barriers to entering training. The median age of retirement for TBs that raced was five (Q1 4; Q3 6) years regardless of sex, or whether their first race start was at two, three or four years of age. Relatively large numbers of horses voluntarily retiring at five-years of age suggests that industry-level, rather than individual horse-level factors are the predominant influences on racing career duration.
种马（TB）不进入训练或退出赛马行业的原因，引起了监管机构、福利团体和更广泛的社区的关注。对这些马匹结果的猜测，威胁着 TB 繁殖和赛马行业的社区接受度或社会许可。对 2010 年维多利亚州出生的 TB 小马驹进行的代表性调查，用于确定未进入训练或在 8 岁之前退出训练和比赛的马匹的结果和退出原因。在开始随访期间，已出口用于比赛或繁殖（4%）或仍在积极比赛（7%）的马匹被排除在研究之外。向有资格参加研究的 3176 匹 TB 马的饲养员或驯马师发送了在线问卷。在收到的 2005 份（63%）回复中，最常见的两个结果是马要么退役要么被重新安置（65%），要么死亡（16%）。对于已经进入训练的 1637 匹 TB 马，大多数退役是自愿的（59%），其次是因健康问题导致的非自愿退役（28%）。对于没有进入训练行业记录的 TB 马（n=368），死亡（34%）或退役或重新安置（27%）是进入训练的最常见障碍。无论性别如何，或者它们的第一次比赛开始是在两岁、三岁还是四岁，TB 马的退役中位数年龄都是五岁（Q14；Q36）。相当数量的马匹自愿在五岁退役，这表明是行业层面而不是个体马匹层面的因素，对赛马生涯的持续时间有主要影响。
