Melbourne Cup

The Melbourne Cup

 

 

 

Today the 153^rd Melbourne Cup will be run at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria.  Known as ‘the race that stops the nation’ most Australians will watch as 24 horses run 3200m at 3:00pm AEDST time. 

 

The present record holder is Kingston Rule who won with a time of 3min 16.3sec in 1990.  In contrast, the world record for the two miles (approx. 3200m) for men is 7:58.61 set by Daniel Komen and the women's record is 8:58.58, set by Meseret Defar.

 

Interesting fact: Each of the major race days at Flemington has an official flower.

Melbourne Cup Day - Yellow Rose

Victoria Derby Day - Corn Flower (blue)
Oaks Day - Pink Rose
Stakes Day - Red Rose

 

Today’s horses are listed below; the favourite is Fiorente trained by Gai Waterhouse and ridden by Damian Oliver.

1. Dunaden
2. Green Moon
3. Red Cadeaux
4. Sea Moon
5. Brown Panther
6. Fiorente
7. Foreteller
8. Dandino
9. Ethiopia
10. Fawkner
11. Mourayan
12. Seville
13. Super Cool
14. Masked Marvel
15. Mount Athos
16. Royal Empire
17. Voleuse De Couers
18. Hawkspur
19. Simenon
20. Ibicenco

21. Verema
22. Dear Demi
23. Tres Blue
24. Ruscello

 

For more stats and background info on The Cup check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Cup

 

Injuries

I don’t follow horse racing and in fact I’ve only ever treated 1 jockey for physiotherapy in private practice, so my knowledge of injuries in jockeys and horses is limited to say the least.  Below is an outline of horse anatomy - interestingly quite similar to human anatomy. 

 

Picture from: http://www.animal-mrt.com/equine-muscle-release-therapy-emrt/

 

Jockeys

From the literature, it appears that jockeys have a high injury rate.  Waller et al.(1) , found most injuries occurred to the jockey’s head or neck (18.8%).  Most head injuries occurred from being thrown from the horse (41.8%).  This was also the cause of many back (55.1%) and chest (49.6%) injuries.  Other frequent body areas injured were leg (15.5%), foot/ankle (10.7%), back (10.7%) arm/hand (11%) and shoulder (9.6%). 

 

Jockeys do not ‘sit’ on the horse when racing, instead they grip the horse with their knees, ankles, and thighs and lean forward over the horse’s wither (spinous processes of T3-11). The jockey’s back is parallel to that of the horse. Because of this seating position, if the horse stops suddenly the jockey is usually propelled forward over its neck into the rail or on to the track and into the path of other horses(2).

 

Horses

Most thoroughbred racehorses weigh 450–550 kg. They are capable of reaching speeds of over 64.4 kph(2). Horses involved in racing should be seen as elite athletes.  They develop back and neck pain and other musculoskeletal injuries due to the nature of their work, as well as fractures and stress fractures, nerve injuries, and soft tissue injuries from falls, accidents and over-training(3).

 

Did you know there are specialist equine physiotherapists? 

If you are interested in becoming an animal physiotherapist check out the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA): http://www.physiotherapy.asn.au/APAWCM/The_APA/National_Groups/Animal.aspx

 

References

1.Waller AE, Daniels JL, Weaver NL, Robinson P. JOckey injuries in the united states. JAMA. 2000;283(10):1326-8.

2. Turner M, McCrory P, Halley W. Injuries in professional horse racing in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland during 1992–2000. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2002;36:403-9.

3. Goff L. Equine Physiotherapy [cited 2013 5/11/2013]. Available from: http://animalphysio.com.au/physiotherapy/2/equine-physiotherapy.