Right now, tens of millions of people around the world are gearing up for the Kentucky Derby.
The game of kings is one of the world’s oldest sports. In some ways, it seems almost incongruous with our fast-paced modern times.
However, what many fans don’t realize is that the 21st century has already found its way inside the game of kings. A lot of the work is just done behind the scenes. Here’s how digital technology has changed the world of horse racing analytics forever.
Venue Management and Track Optimization
Data has been heavily introduced to venue management. Modern racetracks have sensors all over the premises designed to assist with everything from design to soil composition.
From a design level, venues are now optimized with safety, convenience, and comfort in mind. Exits are optimized to manage what could easily be tens of thousands of people coming and going at once.
This is a much trickier consideration than many people realize and one that has implications that extend far beyond mere convenience. A poorly designed venue could have serious safety ramifications in the event of an emergency.
Data-taking sensors are also good for identifying problems with the track itself and addressing them quickly. Many fans don’t fully realize how big an impact soil composition has on animal health. If the turf is too soft or too hard, it can result in higher rates of injury. Through higher levels of data collection and an improved ability to perform maintenance, these safety considerations are largely addressable.
Better Breeding
Breeding has been a core element of horse racing, or even wider equestrian practices, essentially for as long as horses have been domesticated animals. That said, the extent to which breeders are now able to optimize genetics is significantly greater than it has ever been in the history of the sport.
Big data now makes it possible to isolate desirable characteristics and maximize the odds of strong breeding lines. This helps take a lot of the guesswork out of the process. It can also have implications that go beyond mere performance.
Good breeding practices ultimately pave the way for healthier animals that may race competitively in their youth and live longer, happier lives in retirement. From the ownership side of things, there’s also a greater potential to make money.
Breeding is very lucrative, but even with all of the care that has historically gone into the process, there’s an element of risk and guesswork. Both are still factors, but they are reduced in the face of better analytics.
Cautious Race Selection
Horse management teams now use data to take a more cautious approach to how they select events to participate in. Many fans don’t fully appreciate the risk involved in every race. The events themselves always contain an element of that.
There is a chance, for example, that the horse can get injured on the track. There’s also just a significant amount of physical and emotional stress that goes into transporting a horse over what will typically wind up being a pretty significant distance.
These horses definitely need to get their reps in, but the opportunities for them to do so are generally carefully selected. Analytics makes it easier to determine where the good fit opportunities are. Teams can understand track composition, competition, and the amount of stress a route might take on the animal, and make a more informed choice about where to show up.
Safer Training Through Data
Through better data, there has come an environment where it’s possible to train with a much lower degree of risk. Horses now often wear IoT-powered devices that track their heart rate, posture, gait, and other important considerations that are generally difficult to manually monitor.
These factors are valuable in that they often provide the earliest indications of a potential injury by flagging them. The moment something unusual develops, horse management teams can address issues in real time and avoid potential injuries.
It’s important for keeping the animal race-ready, but it’s also very impactful from an ethical perspective. In the past, racehorses have often gone on to difficult retirement lives, with injuries from their sporting days haunting them. IoT-backed technology does not completely fix this problem, but it does reduce it considerably.
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Data Is Iterative
It’s important to keep in mind that even though big data, as it’s currently defined, has existed for more than two decades, it’s still really only coming into its full potential.
With the advent of analytical software, businesses of every kind, including horse management organizations, invested very heavily in data tools. However, they’ve historically been unable to act on the majority of information they receive. This is largely due to the fact that it’s simply too much information for any person or even group to fully process and act on.
However, as tools have improved, so have outcomes. Artificial intelligence is the latest and probably most impactful development in the world of big data.
Through AI-driven insights, horse management teams can now respond more quickly to larger sets of information. What does the future of analytics in racing hold in store for us? That remains to be seen. Regardless, it is fair to say that the potential is massive.
