Pre-purchase Evaluation in Thoroughbreds for Racing

Pre-purchase evaluation and equine radiography has escalated over the past twelve years because of industry demands and initiation of the radiographic repository and further facilitated by the introduction of digital radiography into field use. Performing sales radiographs is a simple but laborious process that is unforgiving of mistakes and inattentiveness. So long as the process is standardized and the equipment is properly maintained and personnel are coordinated and paying attention the process generally goes smoothly. The impact of our advice to a buyer and seller cannot be over-emphasized as our advice may influence the purchase price of an animal by thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is fact that radiographs have little to no predicative value for a horse to be a good race horse and we have very limited accurate long term follow-up on the actual clinical outcome of horses with particular lesions. The retrospective data thus far reported has the inherent flaws of small numbers of horses in a given group and no information as to the actual reason the animal did not start a race. Although some data is available regarding the long term performance of horses with some lesions such as sesamoiditis, or some stifle cysts, for example, we are lacking specific data on most lesions present as yearlings and their effects on the juvenile athlete. Also, if one observes the reasons young horses have to cease training relatively few are a result of the lesions present as yearlings. Some of the more common reasons juvenile athletes are unable to train and race include bone remodeling ranging from sore shins (dorsal cortical disease), third carpal disease, chip fractures or degenerative joint disease incurred during training, and long bone stress fractures, none of which may be present in the yearling sale horse. […]