The surprise findings, made by racing enthusiast and PhD researcher Patrick Sharman, show that in the last 15 years alone, horses are more than a second quicker over six-furlongs, meaning a 2015 winner would beat their 1990's predecessor by seven-lengths. Mr Sharman analysed the results of every elite race featuring the fastest horses between 1850 and 2012 - including every race meeting since 1997. Previous studies had ignored sprints and shorter distances (5-7 furlongs), looking only at middle and long distance races (8-12 furlongs and 14-20 furlongs respectively). His study, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, found a small increase in speed between 1910 and 1975, and a steadier improvement since then in sprint races. It concurred there was little or no improvement in speed in middle and longer distance races, but, said Mr Sharman, this could be down to breeders focusing more on speed than endurance and if so, a change in methods could improve thoroughbred speeds over the longer distances.
Genetic Hunch
"My hunch is that we are seeing a genetic change, with breeders focusing on speed rather than endurance," said Mr Sharman. "I don't believe that over the longer distances horses have reached their limit." New training and riding methods - such as the shortened stirrups made popular by British jockey Lester Piggot in the 1970s - have been suggested as reasons for the speed increase, but the question arises as to why this has not been reflected in longer races. Commercial pressure to breed for speed is the answer given by managing director of the UK National Stud in Newmarket Brian O'Rourke. "Back in the 1970s most horses that would win the Derby would go for the Gold Cup which is two and a half miles as opposed to a mile and a half," he said. "But since the late 70s and early 80s the thoroughbred industry has become commercialised. "Everybody is breeding for speed now because they want precocious horses that run at two (years old) not four. "They want instant success like flicking a switch, but that does not always happen." Mr Sharman's report states that it used "a much larger dataset covering the full range of race distances and accounting for variation in factors such as ground softness we show that improvement is, in fact, ongoing for the population as a whole, but driven largely by increasing speed in sprint races. "In contrast, speed over middle and long distances, at least at the elite level, appears to be reaching an asymptote. Whether this reflects a selection limit to speed over middle and long distances or a shift in breeding practices to target sprint performances remains to be determined."
BY: Joe Cahal
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