From a physiological standpoint, the average like of a race horse is approximately 20 years, and in certain rare cases horses can live to beyond 30 years. Making a comparison to humans, a foal of two years is the equivalent of a 16-18-year-old youth, while a thoroughbred of over 25 years of age is comparable to a 100-year-old man.

Foals spend the first few months of their life with their mothers before starting to wean around five-seven months and being transferred to an area dedicated to them, usually called the foal area, where they complete their development up to about one year of age.

At this point, they begin breaking and training, which differs depending upon the horse is a gallop horse or a trot horse. The race activities start at around one year and a half, adn already at two years of age, they may participate in races reserved to horses of this age. At three years, thoroughbreds and trot horses are at the peak age for racing activities, which may last, on average, up to 5 years for gallop horses and up to 7 eyars for trot horses. In gallop racing, there do not exist maximum age limits for participation in races, while in trot racing, the age limit is ten years of age.

The best stallions, which are destined to reproduction, end their racing career very early: usually, four years for gallop horses and five-six for trot horses; the best mares may start to reproduce already at three years of age.

The gallop horses are defined as “thoroughbreds” because their genealogy is caraefullyy controlled: all thoroughbreds descend along the male line from the crossbreeding among 50 mares belonging to the British royal family (the Royal Mares) and three Arab Oriental stallions: Byerly Turk, Darley Arabian and Godolphin Barb. The first foals, considered legendary names in the sector, were Eclipse, Herod and Matchem.

The creation of the English “Stud book” dates back to 1793: since then, a gallop horse, in order to take part in official races, must have been born from a stallio and a mare registered in the stud book of the various Countries.

In Italy, the first genealogical Book was established in 1875, with a report submitted by the then minister of agriculture Finali to King Vittorio Emanuele II, who issued the consequent decree. The first regulation was issued the following year, and the first official registration of the of Italian horse racing: 105 English mares imported sine 1833 and 54 botn in Italy since 1834; 153 English stallions imported since 1830 and 44 born in Italy since 1841.

At the worldwide level, the genealogy is handled by the Isbc (International Stud Book Committee), and despite the fact that no breed standards exist (height, biometric data, etc.), in order to be registered in the stud book, there area mandatory limits: in addition to having father and mother registered in the stud book, the foal must not be born as the result of artificial insemination, transfer of embryos or genetic manipulation.

The diligence and constant selection needed to achieve foals who are of increasingly better quality, following the guidelines outlined during the last century thanks to the maniacal attention of Federico Tesio (the best breefer in the history of international horse racing), mean that Italian breeding constitutes the fundamental cornerstone of the entire horseracing sector.