THE Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board is conducting “a comprehensive project” to examine the data which shows there were 1,060 horse fatalities on racecourses between 2012 and 2022.

According to the figures, revealed by RTÉ Radio’s This Week programme, the average percentage of fatalities to runners in Ireland from 2017 to 2021 was 0.3%, compared with 0.2% for the same period in Britain.

The IHRB said: “Ensuring the highest standards of care, safety and welfare for all participants - human and horses - within Irish horseracing is a priority for the IHRB.”

The regulator said a “comprehensive project” is currently under way to understand the data “and identify any risk factors.”

It added: “The project will make recommendations which will assist us further in mitigating risks.”

A spokesperson for Horse Racing Ireland said: “Every horse injury or fatality is regrettable but some element of risk is unavoidable. For us, the task is to identify the contributory factors and to make decisions which, on balance, are to the benefit of the horses”.

Asked about the risk factors contributing to the deaths of race horses, HRI said: “There are many factors involved, some are horse specific such as age, rating gender, history.

“Also there are risk factors which are race specific such as ground conditions, distance, race type, pace of race and others which influence different results. All factors are examined and mitigation implemented,” it said.

When asked why the level of racehorse fatalities in Ireland was higher than in the UK, when measured as a percentage of fatalities to runners, Horse Racing Ireland said: “Variations in outcome cannot be attributed to any one factor.

“The blend of race types, the average number of runners per race, the racecourse configurations, the age profile of the runners - a large number of factors, each of minor impact, are involved in arriving at different outcomes.”