Genetic trends in the Hungarian racehorse populations (preliminary results).

The study aimed to estimate of variance components of racing ability traits and genetic trends in Thoroughbreds and standard-bred trotters in Hungary. For Thoroughbreds only flat races were considered. Data on placing at finish and money prizes from 1996-2004 comprised 30,807 runs for 1,890 horses competing in 3,316 races. 30,614 race results were used. The pedigree information covered at least 6 generations and the total number of animals in the pedigree was 14,257. During the examined years (1998-2006) 78,798 individual race records of 1610 standard-bred trotters in 7,135 races were considered. The 738 females, 884 males and 208 geldings were trained by 92 trainers and driven by 770 drivers. 67,730 from the 78,798 runs were used during the analysis because the numerous disqualification). Heritability coefficients for earnings were 0.09 and 0.05 (repeatability 0.03 and 0.03), heritability for placing at finish for Thoroughbreds were 0.05 (repeatability 0.01). Estimated heritability on the racing time was 0.01 (repeatability 0.00) for the standard-bred trotters. Genetic changes in the two populations were considered low. Estimated breeding values based on the log of earnings showed slow, but negative genetic trend in the Thoroughbred population. Estimated breeding values for standard-bred trotters based on the racing time showed a small genetic gain. In the future selection decisions should be based on the animals breeding values for the different traits and not on subjective information.