Closing date: 14 Sept 2018

The Australian thoroughbred racing industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy. The welfare of horses participating in racing is paramount to maintaining the industry’s ‘social license’. It is acknowledged that injury and poor performance both play a significant role contributing to the early retirement of horses but little is understood about what constitutes a typical career for a racing thoroughbred and factors influencing career longevity.

The aim of this PhD study is to document the structure of the population of thoroughbred racehorses in Australia, document post-racing outcomes and to identify factors contributing to career longevity. The project creates the opportunity to use population-level industry ‘big data’ to better understand patterns of loss and patterns of success to assist in identifying horses at-risk of an early exit from racing. The project will suit candidates with undergraduate degrees in veterinary science, animal science or epidemiology with an interest in the analysis of big data. The project academic supervisors are Professor Mark Stevenson (APCAH), Professor James Gilkerson, and Dr. Peta Hitchens (Equine Orthopaedic Research Group).

HOW TO APPLY:
Please forward your CV, academic transcript and academic references as a single pdf document to Dr Peta Hitchens peta.hitchens@unimelb.edu.au.
For further inquiries please contact Dr. Hitchens on the above email or phone +61 3 8001 2448 or Professor James Gilkerson on +61 3 8344 9969.