How CGI partnered with Racing Victoria to design and construct Australia’s first off the track equine welfare platform to track horses from birth to beyond retirement.

Summary:

  • Centralised data warehouse and horse registry to enable whole of life horse monitoring
  • Automated data integration with multiple existing systems and national database
  • Custom CRM for owner or horse registration
  • Process flow automation
  • Custom community portal to host OTT program
  • Database holds records of over 351,000 horses

The challenge

A thoroughbred horse can live up to 30 years which includes roughly 5 years of racing from the age of 2 years. During their racing career animal welfare is a priority for racing regulators, however, off the track (which can sometimes be 20 years plus) is outside of the jurisdiction, resulting in increased horse welfare incidents.

Racing Victoria recognised that modern technology presented an opportunity to shift the emphasis on welfare to encompass the whole lifespan of its horses. CGI was engaged to help ascertain how technology could help with whole life monitoring for horses and integrate this capability into a single platform that could adapt to the expectations of the industry and public.

The solution

Racing Victoria is now the industry leader in off-the-track monitoring through the digitisation of historical and current horse records.

Our solution was separated into five key areas with the overarching objective of increasing the visibility of whole of life welfare and supporting horse traceability post racing career:

  • A centralised data warehouse that records the history of a horse allowing for whole of life monitoring. Information recorded includes registration, birth, health data, location, and program eligibility & training eligibility.
  • Automated data integration – platform allows data to be sourced from multiple systems (internal & external) and then feed directly into Racing Australia’s national horse database (SNS).
  • Custom stakeholder CRM, registry, and historical record keeping. Enables owners, potential buyers and re-trainers to voluntarily add themselves to the registry or claim horses as their own.
  • Process flow automation – Automation of over nine processes including applications and registrations through the integration of e-forms.
  • Community portal – web accessible community portal providing educational information, industry awareness, and a hub for community engagement.

Racing Victoria’s OTT project was a resounding success with the platform boasting over 1140 registered users, 209 previous owners and 341 claimed horse in the first month alone.

As of 2021 the OTT program has 351,000 horses registered in its database enabling unprecedented visibility of retired horses’ welfare.

The project referenced in this case study was delivered by Unico, which CGI acquired in March 2022.