BHA director of welfare James Given: how racing is harnessing data to reduce the inherent risk in the sport

Risk exists in all sports but at the start of every year it should be a key resolution for racing to reduce avoidable risk as far as possible. 

As the BHA’s director of equine regulation, safety and welfare, it is my job to make sure this happens, and that’s why I have been so encouraged by the excellent work being carried out to develop and harness the sport’s Race Risk Model (RRM).

In partnership with the Royal Veterinary College and led jointly by the BHA and Horse Welfare Board, experts have been using data spanning 14 years to identify patterns and spotlight risk areas that require deeper investigation. Using multi-variable analysis – basically, you take one variable and see the effect of that one variable discounting all the others – what you end up with, after this highly scientific and rigorous process has been completed, are the facts.