Company that makes sensors to prevent horse injury moving production to Lexington
Sensors made to prevent horse injury and death during races and training will soon be manufactured in Lexington.
StrideSAFE, which is based in Midway, is finalizing an acquisition of StrideMaster, an Australian company. The move shifts the production of all medical-grade sensors to Lexington and fast-tracks the creation of a stand-alone system.
The sensors measure and record a horse’s movement in three directions when it’s racing. The wearable sensor technology has been tested and utilized at almost a dozen tracks in the United State and is in use at all of Kentucky’s racetracks.
During races, the high speeds reached by horses can trigger discomfort and lead to changes in their gait or stride. But studies show that in the majority of post-race injuries there had already been slow deterioration of bone health, said StrideSAFE CEO David Lambert.
The sensors pick up and measure changes in horses as they race, adding to a database veterinarians and engineers use to create predictive models for injury risk.
Combining the intellectual property from StrideMaster with StrideSAFE, along with the production move to Lexington, means the company can start work on a stand-alone sensor as early as this summer. The sensor would collect data while a horse is breezing, which is a controlled and fast-paced workout that is a step above a gallop, but a step below race pace.
“We started to gather all this racing data and did indeed see that there were signals that were important,” Lambert said. “It was a natural question then for the horseman to ask, ‘What if we got this data on them when they were breezing? Would that help better understand the problem? Would it help us be able to protect those horses which will break something before they ever race so you never get a chance to see them?’ And to which, of course, the answer is yes.”
Using sensors to collect data on horses
Lambert connected with StrideMaster in 2018 at a conference. He said it had already put into practice his idea to put sensors on horses. The Australian company’s system had been collecting data at a rate of 800 times per second for almost a decade.
“So, that was a little gold mine, a treasure trove of data concerning potential injuries and signal changes for injuries,” Lambert said. “We decided to see if we could study this data and see if there were indeed any patents. So, we discovered that and we formed a little partnership together. Eventually, that resulted in us forming the company which is called StrideSAFE here in America.”
Through a decade of business, the company has been able to develop more accurate algorithms that can predict when a horse is in danger of suffering a fracture or even a heart attack. The engineering, computer science and software components are ready for automation and artificial intelligence to be added to improve predictability models.
“As time has gone by and this system is becoming more and more accepted, it’s apparent that we’re going to have to address this need,” Lambert said. “And that was another reason for bringing this IP up here because now we can build, and we have already built 20 prototypes that we can use for trainers because their demands are different.”
Horse fatalities in racing incidents
Lambert said one of the only limitations of the business is the traditional values and resistance to change among leaders in the horse industry. But there is momentum for StrideSAFE, with endorsements from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority as well as positive reviews from safety committees at Keeneland and Churchill Downs.
“There’s no restrictions in how this can be done once you’ve got it under your own roof. It’s rather more making the business decision to invest that kind of money in that kind of equipment and believing that it’s going to be accepted and used by everybody,” he said. “So, that’s the big thing: trying to judge the market. Will people actually want it? It’s a sensible idea and it all makes rational sense.”
Every horse running in the Kentucky Derby, set for May 2 at Chruchill Downs in Louisville, will wear a StrideSAFE sensor, a new rule the track implemented in June 2023 following a comprehensive evaluation of existing safety protocols and an assessment of industry best practices.
Three horses have died at Keeneland this year, so far, following racing incidents during the track’s Spring Meet. In 2025, at least five horses died at Keeneland as the result of racing incidents across the Spring and Fall Meets.
According to the Equine Injury Database, the rate of racing-related fatalities per thousand starts for Thoroughbreds has decreased by almost 50% since 2009, from exactly 2 to 1.07.
.JPG)