National genomic evaluation of Korean thoroughbreds through indirect racing phenotype.

Jinwoo Lee,Heebal Kim,Donghyun Shin

doi:10.5713/ab.21.0409

Abstract

ObjectiveThoroughbred horses have been bred exclusively for racing in England for a long time. Additionally, because horse racing is a global sport, a healthy leisure activity for ordinary citizens, and a high-value business, systematic racehorse breeding at the population level is a requirement for continuous industrial development. Therefore, we established genomic evaluation system (using prize money as horse racing traits) to produce spirited, agile, and strong racing horse populationMethodsWe used phenotypic data from 25,061 Thoroughbred horses (all registered individuals in Korea) that competed in races between 1994 and 2019 at the Korea Racing Authority and constructed pedigree structures. We quantified the improvement in racehorse breeding output by year in Korea, and this aided in the establishment of a high-level horse-fill industry.ResultsWe found that pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction method improved the racing performance of the Thoroughbred population with high accuracy, making it possible to construct an excellent Thoroughbred racehorse population in Korea.ConclusionThis study could be used to develop an efficient breeding program at the population level for Korean Thoroughbred racehorse populations as well as others.

Highlights

Thoroughbred horses had been bred exclusively for racing in17th and 18thcentury England, when native mares were crossbred with imported Oriental stallions of Arabian, Barb, and Turkoman breeding[1]
In Korea, the domestic horse racing industry was gradually popularized under the leadership of the Korea Racing Authority (KRA) and grew into a large industry scaling billions of dollars with total prize money of approximately 188 million dollars, and average prize money per race was close to 100,000 dollars in 2018, according to the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) report
Before the genomic evaluation of Thoroughbred racehorses, we estimated the genetic parameters for the racing prize money index of Thoroughbred, the jockey effect, the permanent environmental effect, and the genetic effect, and the errors found were 0.02, 0.17, 0.14, and 0.67.0.238, 0.1693, 0.1425, and 0.6644

Summary

Introduction

Thoroughbred horses had been bred exclusively for racing in17th and 18thcentury England, when native mares were crossbred with imported Oriental stallions of Arabian, Barb, and Turkoman breeding[1]. In Korea, the domestic horse racing industry was gradually popularized under the leadership of the Korea Racing Authority (KRA) and grew into a large industry scaling billions of dollars with total prize money of approximately 188 million dollars, and average prize money per race was close to 100,000 dollars in 2018, according to the IFHA report.

Methods

Results

Conclusion