The Equine Sports Science Initiative is a collaborative and research-based initiative is designed to advance the health and well-being of equine athletes. | Photo Credit: University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture

Named the Equine Sports Science Initiative (ESSI), the program will center on racing and other elite athletic disciplines.

“I think of ESSI as a multidisciplinary collaboration within UK Ag Equine Programs that includes scientists, clinicians, pathologists, regulatory veterinarians, and others focused on making progress for equine athletes on important health challenges by generating new knowledge,” MacLeod said. “Discussions and debate about the many issues that impact the health and welfare of equine athletes are valuable, but to really move forward, we need to generate new knowledge and new understanding through science.”

Current research projects include establishing a national database of equine athlete pathology, which has attracted involvement from the Jockey Club; bone density studies; articular cartilage repair research; and research into a slew of “omics:” genomics, transcriptomics (the study of the complete set of RNA transcripts that are produced by the genome), proteomics (large-scale study of proteins, particularly their structures and functions), and the emerging field of metabolomics (systematic study of the unique chemical molecules that specific cellular processes generate)