Maverick reveals secrets behind picking a winner

A maverick American horseracing expert has given a fascinating insight into picking a champion of the track.

Jeffrey Seder, the president of racing company Equine Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology (EQB), goes against the accepted wisdom in the racing industry and gives little credence to a horse’s breeding.

In a video titled How You Pick a Great Racehorse, Seder analyses the biomechanics of a runner using slow-motion cameras, highlighting two aspects of a horse’s gait including the horse’s wind-up and the snap of its elbow and ankle in the foreleg.

"That’s like having a five pound weight at the end of a rope snapping every time – and those are on fragile bones, ligaments and tendons," Seder explains.

Seder concludes his analysis of the horse by saying, "all that, it’s not awful but it ain’t elite".

Seder and EQB have been involved with numerous champions in America including American Pharaoh, a colt that became the first horse to win American racing’s Grand Slam in 2015.