Over 1,000 racehorses died as a result of injuries sustained at racetracks in Ireland over the past ten years.
Figures provided to RTÉ's This Week by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board indicate that racehorse fatalities in Ireland are significantly higher than in the UK.
The figures show that in 2022, there were 107 horse fatalities at Irish racecourses, and in 2021 there were 113 fatalities.
In the ten years between 2012 and 2022 the total number of horse fatalities at racetracks was 1,060.
In the five years between 2017- 2021, the average percentage of fatalities to runners was 0.3%. In the same period in the UK the average percentage of fatalities to runners was 0.2%.
This indicates that racehorse fatalities in Ireland were 40% higher in Ireland than in the UK when measured as a percentage of fatalities to runners.
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The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board said: "Ensuring the highest standards of care, safety and welfare for all participants - human and horses - within Irish horseracing is a priority for the IHRB."
The regulator said a "comprehensive project" is currently under way to understand the data "and identify any risk factors".
"The project will make recommendations which will assist us further in mitigating risks," it added.
Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), the governing body for the sport, said: "Every horse injury or fatality is regrettable but some element of risk is unavoidable. For us, the task is to identify the contributory factors and to make decisions which, on balance, are to the benefit of the horses".
Asked about the risk factors contributing to the deaths of race horses, HRI said: "There are many factors involved, some are horse specific such as age, rating gender, history.
"Also there are risk factors which are race specific such as ground conditions, distance, race type, pace of race and others which influence different results."
"All factors are examined and mitigation implemented," it said.
When asked why the level of racehorse fatalities in Ireland was higher than in the UK, when measured as a percentage of fatalities to runners, Horse Racing Ireland said: "Variations in outcome cannot be attributed to any one factor."
HRI added: "The blend of race types, the average number of runners per race, the racecourse configurations, the age profile of the runners - a large number of factors, each of minor impact, are involved in arriving at different outcomes."
