A blood-based biomarker associated with bone formation may eventually help veterinarians assess short-term lameness risk in Thoroughbred racehorses, according to a study published in the journal, Animals. Researchers measured two markers of bone turnover, osteocalcin and CTX-I, in 1,359 Thoroughbreds.
Source: Paulick Report, September 6, 2026. Link. Osteocalcin levels were higher in horses considered lame when their blood was collected but horses with osteocalcin levels below an experimental cutoff were unlikely to remain lame over the following 28 days.
Osteocalcin may be better at identifying horses at relatively low short-term risk than predicting which individual horses will become lame . . . but it is not ready to be used as a clinical test.”
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