3 Sept 2025
Researchers have found turnout and weaning practices in the first few months of thoroughbred foals’ lives can shape their careers on the track.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
Image: Valeri Vatel / Adobe Stock
A study has outlined how turnout and weaning practices in the first few months of life can influence Thoroughbreds’ later performance on the racecourse.
Ahead of next week’s BEVA Congress, a vet and researcher has urged the industry to be more “mindful” of the issues to help more horses maximise their potential.
The RVC-led study, published in the Equine Veterinary Journal, examined the fortunes of 129 flat race-bred Thoroughbred foals born on six UK stud farms during 2019 and 2020.
It found that foals which spent more time turned out at pasture, and were older when weaned, were more likely to race at least once by the end of their fourth year of life.
Foals that were older when weaned were also found to race more frequently, while those turned out into larger paddocks earned more in prize money on the track.
Limitations around health and management data, international races and the sample size were acknowledged in the paper, which was funded by the Horserace Betting Levy Board, the Racing Foundation and the RVC’s Mellon Fund for Equine Research.
But it also argued that its findings showed the first six months of life were “a critical period of development plasticity”.
Corresponding author Rebecca Mounsey, a vet and RVC post-doctoral research fellow, said the analysis provided “important novel findings” which could be applied at studs to improve performance.
She added: “We must be mindful to ensure that our management practices provide sufficient opportunity for positive tissue adaptation and optimise development.”
Several sessions dedicated to sport-related topics are part of the agenda for the BEVA Congress which opens in Birmingham next Thursday, 11 September.
