Artificial Intelligence Hot Topic in Racing Circles
Artificial Intelligence Hot Topic in Racing Circles
Publish Date: 2026-03-19 06:42:00
Source Domain: www.bloodhorse.com
Considering the players in the racing and breeding industry who best understand information have always been poised for success in this industry, it’s safe to say artificial intelligence figures to impact this sport in big ways.
From the breeders choosing stallions for mares, to bloodstock agents understanding every detail in a sales catalog, to horsemen organizing their workforce, to racing secretaries writing race cards, to bettors finding overlay selections, AI already is shaping the racing industry and that trend figures to rapidly increase.
That reality, as well as the question of how quickly racing will be able to effectively embrace AI, has made artificial intelligence a hot topic for the industry. This column brings many of those thoughts together, from both events I listened to as well as press releases issued from the events.
At the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association conference earlier this month, John Julia brought expertise from both sides of the equation. On the equine side, Julia is an owner/breeder who previously served as a board member for the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. On the technology side, he’s also a senior vice president at Pinnacle AI.
Julia outlined the strengths of artificial intelligence, which very much sound capable of solving some of the mysteries of Thoroughbred breeding.
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“Machines are very good at analyzing data at massive scale, finding patterns and correlations between different data points to yield an output. Sometimes that output is predicted in nature,” Julia said. “But what machines are not good at is developing strategy; understanding how to take those business insights that we’re getting from the machine and apply them to everyday life.”
Last fall at the Asian Racing Conference in Saudi Arabia, Kitman Labs founder Stephen Smith outlined the phenomenal changes in human athletic performance in the past 30 years as well as the lack of a…
