Estimation of Genetic Parameters and Annual Trends for Racing Times of Thoroughbred Racehorses

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters and annual trends on the racing performance of Thoroughbred horses by a statistical analysis of the resulting records. We used the racing results of 245,979 observations for 13,458 horses recorded in 19 years of race held at Seoul and Busan racing tracks, provided by Korea Racing Authority. After a careful adjustment of some variables such as racing times, jockey and trainer numbers and the average prize a horse won, we selected significant factors that explain the result of racing records of a horse by stepwise AIC and BIC methods. The estimated heritability and repeatability were 0.322 and 0.332, respectively. The average of annual phenotypic and genetic improvement was -0.166 seconds and -0.161 seconds, respectively. Based on the statistical approach, we established reasonable animal model of well-set variables, which is important in the study on estimating performance of racing horses.