Thoroughbred horse racing is associated with significant injury rates including catastrophic fractures, with welfare science increasingly informing track surface management, training practices, and pre-race screening to reduce preventable deaths.
Racehorse welfare involves a complex ethical question about whether the inherent risks of competitive racing can be made acceptable through welfare science and injury prevention. Horses cannot consent to race and cannot understand the risk they face. Catastrophic fractures cause severe acute suffering and almost universally require euthanasia on the track. While industry investment in welfare research has reduced injury rates, the question of whether any rate of preventable deaths is acceptable in entertainment contexts remains contested. Welfare science should continue to drive industry change regardless of this ethical debate.