Right here at six,
you can only see it here.
Following the recent and alarming number
of breakdowns at Churchill Down,
horse and rider safety have
become even more paramount.
Focus investigator John Charlton
details an ongoing study which d
literally make great strides and
preventing more tragedies at the track.
Not it we go to your game.
Who that just by the way they rn
can tell you a lot about a hors,
can help tell them apart.
Speed is the most obvious difference,
but the more subtle
signature is in its strides.
Each individual horse has his on
style of running. It's as unique
to him as our our fingerprint, t
it's not hoof impressions left on the track.
Lifting the print is sensor based technology.
Going along for the ride, we'll
sign them a course.
It's training at Churchill Down.
Dr. Denise Mac Sweeney out of
Washington State University.
It takes a couple minutes for
them to sync with Our satellite
is helping to develop stride, s,
take us out of clothes. Open it up here.
I'll pop the sensor in here oftn
working in the barns. Ready Wil.
And closely with the race horses here.
She points out that the sensor
positioned by the saddle is tha.
Is out of the way,
and the horse doesn't even know it's there.
The sensor takes it all in stri,
literally, during training,
even during an actual race,
thousands of data points stored from each
and every stride taken on the track to
be transferred over back in the barn.
60 and pop it in here to downlod
the data. The information
2400 data points every second,
is streamlined into separate
lines on a graph representing
movements side to side, up and
down and front to back. Data
from one horse, for example,
from a particular date,
That's his first stride, second stride,
third stride for stride, and so on. Look
normal. But six weeks later, cog
out of the gate, something was wrong.
And straight away,
the moment he comes out to the ,
you can see he's in trouble.
This data and that day data
are dramatically different.
The horse was struggling,
wasn't moving right.
That went on for 70 seconds
without the jockey even knowing.
Until, unfortunately,
this this animal's leg did brea.
And had to be euthanized and
the jockey went flying. Dr.
David Lambert stride safe owner and CEO,
says data sets help tell the st.
The front legs are all over the place,
the horse telling the story,
analytically speaking.
So this is the closest you'll ever get,
or at least for now,
from a horse communicating to yu
that there's a problem. Yeah, that's right.
That horse is talking to you right there.
Equine experts, including Dr.
Lambert, agree the vast majority
of horse breakdowns are weeks
and months in. Making what
are you trying to accomplish?
An early warning system Basicaly
stride safe data would raise a red flag.
The horse could then get checked
out before running again.
A PET scan can find a leg probl.
Some of these things are
at a cellular level before
it gets worse, with the worst bg
a catastrophic leg injury tragiy
ending the horses run. In life,e
two technologies just work hand in glove.
They complement one another perfectly.
It works, Lambert says.
Because it worked most recently
for trainer Dale Romans.
We have one in the barn right nw
that we discovered a very minor thing
that would have been very serios
if would have kept pushing on.
Although his barn is on board,
I do think it's a way for the future.
The challenge has been convincing more
trainers to get in the saddle as well.
There should be one of these on
every horse every time it goes ,
according to Lambert.
With the right backing,
stride safe can set the
pace to actually transmit.
Data in real time.
This one's heading towards
something bad. Pull them up.
I'd love to see it get to that point.
And if the dad is wrong, let's be wrong.
With a healthy horse in the barn
and not one laying on a racetra.
John Charlton, WHS 11 on Your Se
and each stride, stride safe test is $35.
Dr. Lambert says the Kentucky He
Racing Commission provided a grt
to help fund the current study h
cooperation by Churchill Downs.